Murton on the block?!

[Bull]

They were planning on using him in rightfield all along until the CF experiment. I don't see why they couldn't move him there today and stick him there.

 

There's no logical reason unless you believe a player's defensive position affects his offense. I think it could in some cases but I have a tough time believing that moving from one corner OF spot to the other would do it.

 

or if you think he'd be better defensively in RF

[seanimal]

dave, this discussion rooted because I brought up these exact slice and sun issues. I'm not disagreeing with anything you say. My point was that the opposite field slice you get off a right-handed bat to rightfield or a left-handed bat to leftfield those balls that are tailing Soriano has the most trouble with. He's said this himself though I'm sure me stating that is going to result in me having to find the quote... Being that there are many more right-handed batters than left-handed batters, this is an issue more often in rightfield.

But here's the issue:

 

Is the slice you get off a right-handed bat to rightfield inherently different than the hook you get off a left-handed bat to rightfield?

 

Seems to me that in each instance the bat will impart clockwise sidespin on the ball, causing it to tail toward the foulline.

 

 

 

By the same token, both LH and RH hitters impart counterclockwise sidespin on balls they hit to LF.

 

If I'm right about all of this, then there's no differentiating LF from RF on the basis of ball trajectory issues.

 

Conversely, if hooking (pulled) balls behave differently (less tailing action, to be specific) than slicing (opposite field) balls, then your theory's got legs.

 

Just a general observation, but I think everytime a LH batter hits a ball the spin will be counter clockwise, and RH batters will always generate a clockwise spin. A pulled, hard hit would generate less spin, but not a reverse spin. I could be wrong, but I can't picture a situation where a RH batter hits a ball that generates counterclockwise spin.

 

Theoretically, a circle-change or a screwball which have clockwise spins approaching home plate would conceivably cause this. A 10-4 curveball delivered by a left-hander would do this as well, to a lesser extent.

[frostwyrm]

They were planning on using him in rightfield all along until the CF experiment. I don't see why they couldn't move him there today and stick him there.

 

There's no logical reason unless you believe a player's defensive position affects his offense. I think it could in some cases but I have a tough time believing that moving from one corner OF spot to the other would do it.

 

or if you think he'd be better defensively in RF

 

Maybe Lou thinks the hammy will be less stressed in LF, but I doubt it. Lou is probably thinking Soriano had a career year in LF so leave him there. Just seems like something an old fart like Lou would do. Of course we all know RF is where Soriano really ought to be tried. Any player with good athleticism would have to be horribly psychologically fragile to let a move from LF to RF screw with his hitting. Maybe some unathletic types might get frustrated in RF, but Soriano is not unathletic.

[Exile on Waveland]

Soriano in right, Jones in center and Murton/Floyd in left is just so completely obvious that I thought even the Cubs would figure it out. Oh well. Here's hoping they do at some point in the future, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

I do believe defense/position/etc can have at least a minimal affect on a player's hitting. Player's aren't robots. However, a move from left to right is so inconsequential I am quite dubious it would affect much.

 

I don't understand why the Cubs are consistently such a poor baserunning team. The players change, the gaffes don't.

 

I believe it centers around the organization "be aggressive" philosophy. The Cubs stress agressiveness over intelligence. The intelligent thing to do is accept a walk when the pitcher isn't giving you hittable strikes. The Cubs tell their guys that "it's called hitting". That wasn't just a Dusty thing, Hendry has stressed it since he was the minor league coordinator. The Cubs want to "be aggressive", "make things happen" and "put pressure on the defense." To me that pretty much equates to making pitchers' jobs easier and running into outs.

 

Yeah, you're probably right there. The Cubs philosophy of aggressiveness over intelligence bleeds over from hitting to baserunning. Sad, really.