Small Ball is dead

[snote]

When a team gives up 39 runs in a weekend, small ball needs to stay "dead".

spoken like a man that just had his heart torn apart.. (pun intended)

great to breathe - ey buddy !! . uno weekend .. got plans yet to be at those games?

[Just1More]

Wow!... Homer here... this and another thread sure have some infighting over baseball... totally understandable... criticism is warranted... including Coach Robe. But, I cannot, based on my body of work in baseball, compared to Robe's body of work, necessarily call him out on what is happening. The "small ball" argument is kind of lame. It is not about abandoning one for the other. Robe would swing for the fences if he thought the team was seeing the ball well and jumping on pitches. He has been using small ball as a fire starter. Nothing is working. He can't seem to count on anything right now.

It doesn't seem to make sense to stick with small ball when your pitching staff is getting clobbered, but it also makes no sense to have guys swinging away when they haven't proved they can. Small ball gets in the head of the other team, adds errors and other factors into the equation, and once you get that going, your options broaden. I am not saying that it has worked, should work, will work... but Robe is not an idiot and is using everything he can think of to turn this deal around. Sometimes you are hitting on all cylinders, sometimes you are only having to work on a single fouled plug... and sometimes, even for Robe, your engine has froze up. If anyone can get these guys turned around, it will be Coach Robe. Homer out... literally.

[CajunKahouna]

_ spoken like a man that just had his heart torn apart.. (pun intended)

great to breathe - ey buddy !! . uno weekend .. got plans yet to be at those games? _

Tkx. Hope to be back for Troy and hope our bullpen comes back sooner!

[VObserver]

_ Wow!... Homer here... this and another thread sure have some infighting over baseball... totally understandable... criticism is warranted... including Coach Robe. But, I cannot, based on my body of work in baseball, compared to Robe's body of work, necessarily call him out on what is happening. The "small ball" argument is kind of lame. It is not about abandoning one for the other. Robe would swing for the fences if he thought the team was seeing the ball well and jumping on pitches. He has been using small ball as a fire starter. Nothing is working. He can't seem to count on anything right now.

It doesn't seem to make sense to stick with small ball when your pitching staff is getting clobbered, but it also makes no sense to have guys swinging away when they haven't proved they can. Small ball gets in the head of the other team, adds errors and other factors into the equation, and once you get that going, your options broaden. I am not saying that it has worked, should work, will work... but Robe is not an idiot and is using everything he can think of to turn this deal around. Sometimes you are hitting on all cylinders, sometimes you are only having to work on a single fouled plug... and sometimes, even for Robe, your engine has froze up. If anyone can get these guys turned around, it will be Coach Robe. Homer out... literally. _

I hate to disagree, but you are wrong. Robe is a coach who has consistantly taken the bat out of the hands of his hitters. His philosophy is to get to the bullpen by forcing pitch counts high through the medium of taking pitches. Opposing pitchers and their coaches know that we will take until a strike is thrown, so they have no qualms about throwing down the heart of the plate with nothing on the ball both early in the count and on 'hitters counts', because they KNOW we are taking.

It is bad coaching on Robe's part. The only way to develop aggressive, yet disciplined, hitters is to coach them to hit 'mistake' pitches regardless of the count on the hitter, and regardless of pitch count. In the era of metal bats, the 'take' sign should be non-existant.

[CajunProud]

_ I hate to disagree, but you are wrong. Robe is a coach who has consistantly taken the bat out of the hands of his hitters. His philosophy is to get to the bullpen by forcing pitch counts high through the medium of taking pitches. Opposing pitchers and their coaches know that we will take until a strike is thrown, so they have no qualms about throwing down the heart of the plate with nothing on the ball both early in the count and on 'hitters counts', because they KNOW we are taking.

It is bad coaching on Robe's part. The only way to develop aggressive, yet disciplined, hitters is to coach them to hit 'mistake' pitches regardless of the count on the hitter, and regardless of pitch count. In the era of metal bats, the 'take' sign should be non-existant. _

Ding, Ding, Ding. We have a winner. At least someone esle gets it.

[Cajun90]

I hate to disagree, but you are wrong. Robe is a coach who has consistantly taken the bat out of the hands of his hitters. His philosophy is to get to the bullpen by forcing pitch counts high through the medium of taking pitches. Opposing pitchers and their coaches know that we will take until a strike is thrown, so they have no qualms about throwing down the heart of the plate with nothing on the ball both early in the count and on 'hitters counts', because they KNOW we are taking.

It is bad coaching on Robe's part. The only way to develop aggressive, yet disciplined, hitters is to coach them to hit 'mistake' pitches regardless of the count on the hitter, and regardless of pitch count. In the era of metal bats, the 'take' sign should be non-existant.

V I think this is like an urban legend run amuck. Obviously our team has always been built around pitching but I think this idea that we are ONLY a "small ball" type club and that we don't let hitters hit has taken on a larger than life role.

When you see the stats below keep in mind that there are currently 296 teams playing Div 1 baseball.

Last year as a team we were ranked 44th in batting average and 16th in home runs per game. In 2005 we ranked 8th in batting average and 44th in home runs and in 2004 we ranked 10th in the country in home runs per game.

Sure there is some inconsistency from year to year but lets stop painting with such a broad brush.

I have no doubt that Tony plays his players and team to their strengths and to exploit the weaknesses of the opponent. Sometimes that is swinging for the fences and other times it is trying to manufacture just a couple of runs. Lafleur is going to try to bunt for a base hit because right now he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. By the way in his very limited action last year he batted .500. On the other hand no one expects Hawkins to be laying down the bunt for a base hit. My point is that I don't think we can pigeon hole this thing as nice and neatly as people would like to. It's a complicated problem belonging to a fairly simple game.

[VObserver]

_ V I think this is like an urban legend run amuck. Obviously our team has always been built around pitching but I think this idea that we are ONLY a "small ball" type club and that we don't let hitters hit has taken on a larger than life role.

When you see the stats below keep in mind that there are currently 296 teams playing Div 1 baseball.

Last year as a team we were ranked 44th in batting average and 16th in home runs per game. In 2005 we ranked 8th in batting average and 44th in home runs and in 2004 we ranked 10th in the country in home runs per game.

Sure there is some inconsistency from year to year but lets stop painting with such a broad brush.

I have no doubt that Tony plays his players and team to their strengths and to exploit the weaknesses of the opponent. Sometimes that is swinging for the fences and other times it is trying to manufacture just a couple of runs. Lafleur is going to try to bunt for a base hit because right now he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. By the way in his very limited action last year he batted .500. On the other hand no one expects Hawkins to be laying down the bunt for a base hit. My point is that I don't think we can pigeon hole this thing as nice and neatly as people would like to. It's a complicated problem belonging to a fairly simple game. _

I KNOW what Robes' philosophy is. He preaches it to any youth or HS coach who will listen to him. In the seasons we have hit well, we have done so in spite of the fact that we take too many 'hitters pitches'.

By the way, this is not a 'small ball' vs 'big ball' argument. It is an argument about which pitches we are allowed to hit, and how limiting hitters' ability to take advantage of 'mistake' pitches by always taking on certain counts and/or under certain conditions hurts their effectiveness as hitters. Whether you are trying to hit it out of the park, in the gap, on the ground behind the runner, or lay down a squeeze or sacrifice bunt the same hitting principles apply: it is easier to hit 'your pitch' than it is to hit the 'pitcher's pitch'; and anything that limits your ability to do so limits your effectiveness as a hitter.