Posted by: BHL (Knight2185@aol.com) on Sat Jul 24 07:17:12 2004

in our last dialog concerning pulling outside pitches, you agreed that the further the ball was away from the hitter the harder it was to hit the ball with authority..your solution was to crowd the plate.......but would you agree or disagree that in major league hardball this is not a practical solution?....mlb pitchers will not even tolerate a hitter getting within a foot of the plate, let alone 3 or 4 inches....brushback or knowdown pitches may not sound fair but that is the reality....your thoughts?

Hi grc,

It seems that when Jeff Bagwell, Mo Vaughn, and others were in their prime, they wore padding so that being hit would not hurt that much. From my recollections, Craig Biggio also exemplified this attitude, and used "armor" to cushion any pitch that hit him. It seems that one of the prerequisites for pulling every pitch is having Barry Bond's fearlessness of being "plunked," which is a positive attribute.

Sincerely,
BHL
Knight1285@aol.com

P.S. Note: Today's hitters are so bulked up that pitches that hit them problably do not hurt that much anyway; hence, even if pitchers threw at them, they would not care. Of course, if they were hit in the head, they "take care of the pitcher" physically, and go on slugging.