Posted by: andy (ameehan15@yahoo.com) on Sat Jun 9 06:57:47 2007

I'm not saying you shouldn't swing at all, I'm saying you shouldn't swing at every ball that happens to be in the strike zone. If you can't hit a certain ball well and its a strike, you can take it. It isn't: one strike and you're out. Even with two strikes on you, the ball doesn't instantly get 20 mph faster. Any difficulties with more than one stike on you is a psycological disadvantage. The only difference between hitting with two strikes and not two strikes is that you think to yourself,"If I miss I'm out." A batter shouldn't believe he has to swing because he doesn't want to have two strikes on him. If he does that, you're making it so you absolutely have to swing at pitches you may or may not like twice, as opposed to only once if the only situation you force yourself to swing is with two strikes. Obviously, you shouldn't wait for a perfect every time. You just shouldn't swing at pitches you can't rip decently if still have a few more pitches left in your AB.
Ted Williams say you should swing at run producing pitches? How does taking a pitch not produce runs? It doesn't. You still have the next pitch, which can still be better than the first. Falling down 0-1 doesn't automaticilaay an AB obsolete. An AB's success is't based on outcomes, its based on process. (Ex: Hacking at an outside pitch and dribbling it up the middle isn't something to be proud of is it? If you did that in every AB what do you think would happen?)

-Andy