Weekly BA Prospect Hot Sheet

[CaliforniaRaisin]

No Cubs made the top 13 for the second straight week but Kris Bryant made the team photo:

 

BA Prospect Hot Sheet, 4/18[/url]"]Kris Bryant, 3b, Cubs: It didn’t take long for Southern League pitchers to decide that they didn’t really want to challenge Bryant. The Double-A Tennessee third baseman produced three doubles and a home run this week along with two steals, but mainly pitchers pitched around him. He drew six walks, which explains his .316/.519/.632 line. After walking 11 times in 36 games last year, Bryant has walked 10 times this season.

[Guest]

This kind of illustrates the idea that the value of patience is a bit overstated.

[jersey cubs fan]

This kind of illustrates the idea that the value of patience is a bit overstated.

 

How so?

 

Pitchers will pitch around the elite of the elite power hitters, but not most guys. And you still have to be willing to not swing at those pitches.

[Guest]

This kind of illustrates the idea that the value of patience is a bit overstated.

 

How so?

 

Pitchers will pitch around the elite of the elite power hitters, but not most guys. And you still have to be willing to not swing at those pitches.

Sure you do. But you can't just make somebody take walks, pitchers have to be afraid of them first.

[jersey cubs fan]

This kind of illustrates the idea that the value of patience is a bit overstated.

 

How so?

 

Pitchers will pitch around the elite of the elite power hitters, but not most guys. And you still have to be willing to not swing at those pitches.

Sure you do. But you can't just make somebody take walks, pitchers have to be afraid of them first.

 

No.

 

Walks aren't only about pitchers being afraid of a hitter. Major league pitchers generally don't want to throw hittable pitches to any major league hitters.

 

The guys who are feared the most, and patient, will have the huge walk numbers. But there are fearful hitters that don't walk and there are non-terrifying hitters who take lots of walks.

 

Patience is very important.

[Guest]

This kind of illustrates the idea that the value of patience is a bit overstated.

 

How so?

 

Pitchers will pitch around the elite of the elite power hitters, but not most guys. And you still have to be willing to not swing at those pitches.

Sure you do. But you can't just make somebody take walks, pitchers have to be afraid of them first.

 

No.

 

Walks aren't only about pitchers being afraid of a hitter. Major league pitchers generally don't want to throw hittable pitches to any major league hitters.

 

The guys who are feared the most, and patient, will have the huge walk numbers. But there are fearful hitters that don't walk and there are non-terrifying hitters who take lots of walks.

 

Patience is very important.

I wouldn't say it's very important, you always tend to run with the absolute, and in the process turn the other argument into its polar opposite. I would say it's important, but overvalued in the teaching and learning process.

[jersey cubs fan]

I wouldn't say it's very important, you always tend to run with the absolute, and in the process turn the other argument into its polar opposite. I would say it's important, but overvalued in the teaching and learning process.

 

What you accuse me of doing is exactly what you are doing here.

 

You claim the only way guys can take walks is if pitchers fear them.

 

Claiming the value of patience is overstated is a loaded term that to me makes no sense because by and large a huge portion of the baseball world doesn't give a crap about it. And too many talented players fail due at least in part to a lack of patience.

 

It is very valuable and should be taught.

 

Pitchers walking Kris Bryant does not illustrate anything about it being overstated.

[jersey cubs fan]

patience isn't only about drawing walks either, it is about increasing the odds that you will see a more hittable pitch during your plate appearance, forcing the pitcher to give you something better to hit than what he wants. Impatience is swinging at anything resembling a strike, and that is dumb hitting.

[rawaction]

I remember having this conversation about Sammy Sosa and then Corey Patterson. I think there are 2 ways a hitter becomes patient. Either A) he's naturally patient and has a good grasp of the strike zone. Or B) he's a really good hitter.

 

A is a player like Valbuena, maybe IDK. But not a great hitter, but he has a good idea of the zone and doesn't swing at a ton of bad pitches especially early in the count to get himself in a hole.

 

B is a player like Sosa, who became a dominant hitter and became patient based on the fact he didn't get a ton to hit. Even Miguel Cabrera wasn't a naturally patient guy to start with. But when a player starts hitting a ton, they naturally get less to hit. The ones that lay off the ones they can't hit are the superstars. The ones that don't are Alfonzo Soriano.

[jersey cubs fan]

I remember having this conversation about Sammy Sosa and then Corey Patterson. I think there are 2 ways a hitter becomes patient. Either A) he's naturally patient and has a good grasp of the strike zone. Or B) he's a really good hitter.

 

A is a player like Valbuena, maybe IDK. But not a great hitter, but he has a good idea of the zone and doesn't swing at a ton of bad pitches especially early in the count to get himself in a hole.

 

B is a player like Sosa, who became a dominant hitter and became patient based on the fact he didn't get a ton to hit. Even Miguel Cabrera wasn't a naturally patient guy to start with. But when a player starts hitting a ton, they naturally get less to hit. The ones that lay off the ones they can't hit are the superstars. The ones that don't are Alfonzo Soriano.

 

I do not think the A hitter is "naturally" patient. He has to learn to be patient somewhere along the way. I don't think you can necessarily teach a 22 year impatient hitter to become patient, but you can make progress at the margin. And you can affect how a teenager approaches the plate.

 

But teaching it is a separate discussion from whether its value is overstated.

[Guest]

Look, Goony, patient hitters are good hitters. They see the ball better than anyone else and they recognize pitches. That's not being patient, that's just being a gifted hitter that is probably higher on the evolutionary pecking order than a bad hitter with worse eyesight.

[chopsx9]

Look, Goony, patient hitters are good hitters. They see the ball better than anyone else and they recognize pitches. That's not being patient, that's just being a gifted hitter that is probably higher on the evolutionary pecking order than a bad hitter with worse eyesight.

 

Just because you are patient doen't mean you are a good hitter. It gives you a better chance a being a good hitter. Mark Bellhorn was patient but couldn't hit. Vlad Guerrero wasn't patient but was a good hitter.

[Guest]

Look, Goony, patient hitters are good hitters. They see the ball better than anyone else and they recognize pitches. That's not being patient, that's just being a gifted hitter that is probably higher on the evolutionary pecking order than a bad hitter with worse eyesight.

 

Just because you are patient doen't mean you are a good hitter. It gives you a better chance a being a good hitter. Mark Bellhorn was patient but couldn't hit. Vlad Guerrero wasn't patient but was a good hitter.

 

Bellhorn and Dunn kind of prove my point. they are/were both wildly inconsistent because of their approach. however, their approach was necessary to make them even passable hitters. they had to pick a much larger portion of the strike zone to foresake because they suck at pitch recognition. Basically, they're guess hitters that look for something somewhere and don't swing if they don't get it. That's a fine approach for hitters that suck but have some power. Now, for actual good hitters, they have the reaction time and pitch recognition ability to be able to hit pitcher's pitches. Guerrero and Aramis Ramirez were just good bad ball hitters. They walked occasionally because pitchers were terrified of them most of the time, and they were good at hitting anything anywhere, within reason.

 

The point is that Dunn and Bellhorn are guys that developed an approach to make them passable, because they had some power. I don't think their approach works if they don't hit anything with authority. You can't just develop patience if pitchers don't respect you at all. Castro just isn't a good enough hitter, he doesn't have the ability to recognize pitches, nor is there really a strategy there that would work for him. he has fast hands and reacts well, so he just sees it and hits it, which is fine, but he'll never be a great hitter if he can't pick up something offspeed well enough to sit back and drive it somewhere with consistency. i don't think that's a skill that just develops at this point in his career.

 

that was quite a tangent, but it illustrated my point. sorry

[bukie]

Controlling the strike zone as a hitter is the most important skill you can really have. And it's not all about walks, either. It's about swinging at the good pitches you can hit, and not swinging at the bad pitches you can't. Some hitters have better plate coverage than others, and some hitters can make good contact outside the strike zone, but most crucial is not making the pitcher's job any easier than it has to be considering even the best hitters reach base about 40% of the time.

[Guest]

The only thing Belhorn and Dunn share is a good knowledge of the zone . Aside from that they are nothing alike.

[Guest]

Dunn (before he got old and not that good) was wildly inconsistent?

[Guest]

Dunn (before he got old and not that good) was wildly inconsistent?

Yes, unless you consider 31 old.

[Guest]

The only thing Belhorn and Dunn share is a good knowledge of the zone . Aside from that they are nothing alike.

No and also no.

[Guest]

Dunn (before he got old and not that good) was wildly inconsistent?

Yes, unless you consider 31 old.

 

Whatever you call it, he was the pretty much the opposite of wildly inconsistent at the plate for the ten seasons prior to that.

[Guest]

Not average wise. I guess you could say he was consistently bad at hitting for average.

[XZero771679666304]

Dunn (before he got old and not that good) was wildly inconsistent?

Yes, unless you consider 31 old.

 

Whatever you call it, he was the pretty much the opposite of wildly inconsistent at the plate for the ten seasons prior to that.

 

Prior to 2010, when his BB rate dropped and his K rate came up a tick, he was pretty much a model of consistency. The following years have been the most inconsistent of his career, by far.

[Guest]

Not average wise. I guess you could say he was consistently bad at hitting for average.

 

lol you are bad at this

[Guest]

Not average wise. I guess you could say he was consistently bad at hitting for average.

 

lol you are bad at this

At what? I mean I'm terrible at things usually but I dont know what you're talking about

[Guest]

Not average wise. I guess you could say he was consistently bad at hitting for average.

 

lol you are bad at this

At what? I mean I'm terrible at things usually but I dont know what you're talking about

 

baseball

[Guest]

I mean, the fact that he milked every last ounce of talent out of his ability by just not swinging at some pitches in some areas, period, tells me he was not good at recognizing and reacting.

 

Speaking of being bad at reacting, [expletive] off Castro.