Posted by: skip (piks5@sbcgloball.net) on Sun Jun 10 04:25:07 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

If you are suggesting that Ted Williams' emphasis on being selective at the plate is applicable to youth baseball (9-12's), you have to be careful. That's a great goal for the more elite hitters, and is a necessary trait for successful high school hitters, but you have to be able to walk before you can run. With kids, there's more of a downsided to being underselective than being over-selective.

1. Kids on the small diamond are prone to being late, mostly b/c of fear of the ball, and of failure, and b/c of paralysis by analysis. If you're not careful talking about selectivity, you have even more late-swingers and statues.

2. Kids have to deal with a much bigger strike zone than MLB --typically 20+ inches wide, and from bottom of knee cap to top of letters. If the non-elite players don't learn to some degree to become bad ball hitters -- lots of strikes in this kid zone are bad pitches to hit-- they may go a long time in between putting balls in play.

3. The Ted approach -- get a ball to hit -- is of course the correct upper level approach, but it presumes that you are talented/practiced enough that when you get that pitch (once per at bat?) you'll recognize it and smoke it somewhere most of the time, which is a tall order for most kids.

4. Youth lineups often contain a limited no. of RBI guys as compared to MLB. In the latter, the worst hitters gets a hit 28% of the time, while the best hitter gets a hit 32% of the time. If Abel (.320) is selective and walks to load the bases, then up comes Baker (.280), with virtually the same odds of getting the runners in. Not so with kids, where your clean-up might be batting at 65%, while your 5 batter is at 30%.(And there's a wide range of temperaments as well; LOTS of kids choke.) This year my 12 y o clean-up is very pro and selective; on several occasions with bases juiced I've asked him to hit a bad ball if he has to, but try to get it done so we don't have to depend on #5 or #6.

5. At the more elite levels -- kid's travel, HS, Legion -- against an unthreatening journeyman pitcher, I emphasize selectivity. Against the best pitchers, who have stuff AND command, I'd tell my guys, Be ready to jump on a first pitch get-it-over-fastball (b/c it might be the best pitch they'll see).

6. "Always take the first pitch" is terrible advice.

skip

1.

1.