6/16 Suckiest Sucks (Butler) @ Pirates (Williams) 6:05 WGN

[Transmogrified Tiger]

b-hacks and great Bryant baserunning, this is a very 2016 inning

 

Some really good stuff. A lot of the areas we've struggled in, that We Got the Whole 9 has mentioned... we did those things well. They were legit hits. Crisp line drives. The 6 hits were all between 0-20° launch angle. Four of them went the other way. Really good to see.

 

I still contend that the biggest issues contributing to the offensive woes is our undying love for pulling the ball and making it probably as easy as we can for defenses to position themselves properly and take away several would-be hits every game. It's obviously not an exact science but when you know the team is going to mostly pull or stay up the middle you take a lot of the guesswork out. Obviously you lose a lot of hits to pull-side, but also many up the middle as well. This, combined with our decreasing authoritative contact has really brought our BABIP down. I know that you mentioned last year our EV was nothing to write home about; nobody in the top 100. But I think this year it hit such a low that we have to acknowledge it as a problem.

 

Just not enough truly hard contact. A ton of the mushy-middle. Not enough line drives.

 

I feel like the guys are about to go on a tear. June has been very solid.

 

These two things are generally mutually exclusive. There were 4 opposite field hits in the 9th, and only La Stella's was over 85 mph exit velocity.

[We Got The Whole 9]

 

Some really good stuff. A lot of the areas we've struggled in, that We Got the Whole 9 has mentioned... we did those things well. They were legit hits. Crisp line drives. The 6 hits were all between 0-20° launch angle. Four of them went the other way. Really good to see.

 

I still contend that the biggest issues contributing to the offensive woes is our undying love for pulling the ball and making it probably as easy as we can for defenses to position themselves properly and take away several would-be hits every game. It's obviously not an exact science but when you know the team is going to mostly pull or stay up the middle you take a lot of the guesswork out. Obviously you lose a lot of hits to pull-side, but also many up the middle as well. This, combined with our decreasing authoritative contact has really brought our BABIP down. I know that you mentioned last year our EV was nothing to write home about; nobody in the top 100. But I think this year it hit such a low that we have to acknowledge it as a problem.

 

Just not enough truly hard contact. A ton of the mushy-middle. Not enough line drives.

 

I feel like the guys are about to go on a tear. June has been very solid.

 

These two things are generally mutually exclusive. There were 4 opposite field hits in the 9th, and only La Stella's was over 85 mph exit velocity.

That's true. Only a select number of hitters can merge the 2. But our hitters certainly need to work with what the pitchers give more, and that 9th inning was exactly what I'd like to see a lot more of.

[weis21]

no game thread and 4 hours to go - should i start one?