The New York Yankees had one of the worst team batting
averages in 2015 with many players hitting well below the magic .300 mark. The
team’s leading hitter was Carlos Beltran with a .276 batting average while two members of the team hit below the .250 mark leaving the team
hitting just .251 as a whole. The moneyball craze began with an emphasis of
getting on base in a world where a strikeout counted the same as a line out to
the shortstop but is the new craze moving towards putting the ball in play
regardless of an out or not? Maybe.
If the new craze is not putting the ball in play, putting
the pressure on the opposing team’s defense and running out every single play
then it may be before we all know it. If it’s not this is an advantage that the
Yankees need to explore and begin to build their team around and if it already
is and we just don’t realize it yet it may be time to jump on board. The
emphasis of taking pitching and merely getting on base or striking out is
working about as well as #TooManyDamnHrs. If this team wants to be better in
2016 and relatively unchanged, which seems very likely, then a change at the
plate may be in order.
New York fell into a very predictable pattern in 2015. If it
was obvious enough for me to catch onto it with two kids climbing all over my
wanting my attention then you know the opposing teams scouts and such caught on
to it as well. The team would play patient with a lead or a tie game and the
second they fell behind they would swing at anything and everything. The
offense could be running on all cylinders but the second the team would fall
behind they would get overly aggressive and lull themselves to sleep. With the
lead the Yankees were making the opposing pitchers throw 15-25 pitches an
inning and without the lead you saw the 7-10 pitch innings that frustrated the
fans for much of the second half. So how do you fix it?
Swing at strikes. Sounds simple but it works. Who cares if
the count is 3-0 or 0-2, if it’s a strike swing then you swing at it, simple.
There are obvious exceptions to the rule, if the opposing pitcher hasn’t thrown
a strike for the last two or three batters then you make him throw at least two
strikes before you swing, but the general premise is the same. In Major League
Baseball you may only get one good pitch to hit per at bat and too many times
in 2015 the Yankees watched that best pitch go right down the middle because it
was a 3-0 count or the first pitch of the at bat. SWING!
That’s what the players can do, what the GM Brian Cashman can
do is bring the team hitters that can hit for average. Too Many Damn Home Runs
is nice to watch but the Kansas City Royals are hitting too many damn home
runs, they are spraying singles and doubles all over the park and scoring 10
runs a game (slight exaggeration) against a team that owned the Yankees all
season long. Put the ball in play, swing at strikes, run out every play and put
the pressure on the other team instead of yourselves. It sounds simple on paper
but if the team and coaching staff can buy into the philosophy then I truly
think it can help the team win in 2016.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)