I saw a very powerful tweet yesterday by Buster Olney that I wanted to share and have be the conversation piece of this blog. Here it is:
We all know that the game changes constantly, and that if we aren't willing to keep up, we will be left behind. There are a lot of brilliant people out there that are coming up with great new things. The game of baseball, and hitting specifically has evolved recently, but I think it is important to remember how we got here as well.
I will admit, I like learning the new stuff as much as the next guy, but I also believe in the mindset "you don't have to reinvent the wheel" to be successful. For me, I want to listen to the best coaching baseball minds, both old and new, and from there come up with my own philosophy. Additionally, I want to watch and study the players that were the best at their craft: Cabrera, Posey, Bonds (steroids aside the dude was amazing)......and yes, Tony Gwynn.
Obviously there are many more that could be studied, but I wanted to focus on Gwynn because what he did through the span of his career was insane. The success he had off some of the greatest pitchers of all time speaks volumes to the formula of his success. To provide context, the Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz rotation of the 90's Braves could go down as one of the greatest rotations of all time. Here is how Gwynn fared against each of these Hall of Fame pitchers:
Maddux: 107 plate appearances, 0 strikeouts, .415 average, .997 OPS, second in most hits against Maddux all time.
Glavine: (lefty on lefty so maybe a slight advantage for Glavine) 105 plate appearances, 2 strikeouts, .303 average, .741 OPS,
Smoltz: (THIS IS NUTS) Smoltz ranks 16th all time in strikeouts...he got Gwynn only once, .444 average, Gwynn's 32 hits off Smoltz was the most he has given up to anybody.
In a game today that has become obsessed in the long ball, launch angle, "hit the ball in the air," I wonder how Gwynn would fit into today's standards? My guess is it would be hard to critique an 8 time NL batting title winner. For real, do yourself a favor and look up Gwynn's stats year by year, and you will see something amazing. This dude was the toughest out baseball has ever seen (look up his strikeout numbers each year). His OBS numbers were still impressive. Many argue he is the greatest overall hitter of all time....I have a hard time arguing against that.
I have researched Gwynn a lot, and he preached one particular thing that would make most "hitting guru's" cringe today..."swing the knob, the barrel will follow." Click HERE to watch Tony Gwynn explain his essentials to hitting.
I dig that video because it's simple, yet very effective. Many people would argue that "swing the knob" would not allow you to stay in the zone a long time, but Gwynn in the video explains how the swing the knob concept does create a "get on plane early and long" approach...for real, a guy with a 4.2% career K rate must have given himself a lot to room for error within the swing...
Baseball has gotten to a point where the "long ball" has become the ultimate thought process. It is important not to morph all hitters into the same person, we need to respect their skill sets and coach to that. For me, the long ball is awesome, but not everything, I want dude's that can flat out hit, and make the pitcher's life a struggle. The Neil Walker's, the Eric Sogard's, the Jon Jay's...you put a lineup together with a bunch of those guys, it would be interesting to see how it would play out even at the highest levels. I know from my experience at the college level, to win a regional or World Series, when you are facing the best arms, the toughest outs create the best opportunity to win. You also see at the MLB level hitters changing approaches to become "tough outs."
Let's keep up with the changing ways of the game, but let's not lose track of what has made hitter's incredibly successful in the past either. MLB clubs are seeing record home run numbers, record strikeout numbers, and record low batting averages. Being a baseball guy, I personally don't like those trends. But that's just me.
Feel free to retweet and share your thoughts.
Yours in Baseball,
Burm
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