Bottom line, in my mind, is that analytics has ruined hitting in baseball.
Similar to any kind of business/company who outsource. By bringing in consultants who are somehow supposed to know the inner workings of a company/employees better than the owners or management.
It usually doesn't end well.
There's a lot of analytics that go under the radar here.
I remember watching a video that Ichuro Suzuki who was known for contact, actually hit more for power in Japan. The trade off is more extra base hits, but more strike outs. He was better as a contact hitter by the numbers.
Might seem obvious to some. If no one gets on base, what's the point of all of this?
Pitchers using substances most likely has some play. There might be an overhaul in the analytics, when no one can get on base. Some botched teams out there that need to be fixed.
Also, with runners on base the pitcher pitches out of the stretch as opposed to the wind up. Some guys will lose velocity here, and having the right release point is tricky with the timing of a quicker motion.
^^^^^ Spot on.
Guy I worked for wanted the employees (about 200) to give our opinion on how to increase overall company production. So he put up an anonymous suggestion box. Most of us suggested that we had a serious morale problem. We hadn't had a raise in pay for a couple years and employee attitude was horrible.
Spent $3m on a consultation company, service/bean counters, to come in and do a 4 month study. The conclusion was that there was a serious morale problem with the employees. The answer was to promote a company award program. Pay raises and awards for those employees who deserved proper recognition.
If he had just listened to the employees and gave raises in the beginning then everybody, including him, would have been happy and he would have saved the company $1m.
Corporate Fukks™
So now we get to watch the umpires check the pitchers for sticky stuff. I got news for them, they don't need to because the pitchers don't need it. The hitters are not only incompetent, they are stupid. I was watching my money go down the toilet last night and Aguiar caught my attention. Every single at bat, NO SWING ON THE FIRST PITCH. Pitcher's solution? Throw every first pitch right down the middle and get ahead in the count 0-1. Then, since he is down 0-1, he is a complete sucker on pitch #2. Down and away, futile swing, 0-2 count. When Marte was on the run in the bottom of the eighth, he stared at a first pitch right down the middle and Marte was nailed at second. Good show, old chap. This B.S. of "never swing at the first pitch" has got a hundred of these guys in trouble, and managers and hitting coaches should be fired over it. It is a stupid, foolish concept that gets hitters in trouble by always starting out 0-1.
A few years ago Ned Yost got sick of it and literally ordered the Royals to swing at the first pitch the first time through the order. Don't look, don't guess, just react to whatever it is and hit it. The Royals batted through the lineup and scored 5 runs because the pitcher couldn't believe it and kept throwing strikes ON THE FIRST PITCH. This whole obp-analytics sh/t has gotten way out of hand. The best way to get the starter out of the game is not to "grind him down" it is to knock him out of the game.
When you do see offense it is usually because the pitcher is also a little stupid. He gets a freebie strike on the first pitch and decides to get cute. Throws three outside the zone hoping the guy swings at a bad one, then in a 3-1 or 3-2 hole he HAS to throw a strike (if he can) and watch the guy blast it or take a walk. Wasted pitches are exactly that, WASTED, and accomplish nothing but the "grind him down" the batter had in mind. They never watch the great ones throw strike one, strike two, strike three, sayonara baby. A lot of good things happen to pitchers that are up 0-2 in the count but theses idiots have to farking around at 0-1.
jmho (speaking from experience) 
@KeyElement
Never saw Bob Feller waste a pitch, everytime that ball left his hand it had a purpose, from getting him off the plate or intending to get ahead in count 0-2, this BS of getting ahead in the count and then you waste 2 pitches hoping he swings at something out of the strike zone is just a bad pitcher hoping the hitter is stupid or also not good. I used Feller but Gibson Sandy Juan and countless others thru the years that were throwing 360 innings in 38 starts or more were happy with 3 pitches and the hitter walking back to the dugout,
and CHEATING in baseball has always been a part of the game and always will be.
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