Wait til they get him back to Yankee Stadium. They do not have the equipment to indoctrinate...err brainwash him yet. I can see Ichiro now...In Kevin Long's "special" batting cage where there is a metal plate under the batter's box and players are forced to wear metal spikes. Every pitch that comes in, if Ichiro does not swing as hard as he can...zap 1000 volts. In the background is Kevin Long saying: Ignorance is strength...2+2=5. Pull everything...HRs are good...singles are bad.
Wait til they get him back to Yankee Stadium. They do not have the equipment to indoctrinate...err brainwash him yet. I can see Ichiro now...In Kevin Long's "special" batting cage where there is a metal plate under the batter's box and players are forced to wear metal spikes. Every pitch that comes in, if Ichiro does not swing as hard as he can...zap 1000 volts. In the background is Kevin Long saying: Ignorance is strength...2+2=5. Pull everything...HRs are good...singles are bad.
When someone named SecretAgentMan with a Yankee logo posts something like this I worry, just a little.
Team Izzy C Mauer 1 E5 2 Cano 3 ARam S Rollins CI LaRoche MI Altuve O Melky, Pagan, Morse, Hunter, Ruggiano SP Lee, Fister, Estrada, McCarthy, Lohse RP Chapman, Jansen, Frieri, Fujikawa Bench 1 Hart S Cabrera O Eaton U Ortiz P Marcum P Miller P Fernandez
Wait til they get him back to Yankee Stadium. They do not have the equipment to indoctrinate...err brainwash him yet. I can see Ichiro now...In Kevin Long's "special" batting cage where there is a metal plate under the batter's box and players are forced to wear metal spikes. Every pitch that comes in, if Ichiro does not swing as hard as he can...zap 1000 volts. In the background is Kevin Long saying: Ignorance is strength...2+2=5. Pull everything...HRs are good...singles are bad.
Derek Jeter and brett Gardner disagree. The yankees hit a lot of HR's because they have a lot of HR hitters. Ichiro is basically replacing Gardner for the rest of the season. Brilliant move by the Yankees imo. One prospect was DFA'd twice in the last year but is the other prospect actually a prospect or did they pick up Ichiro for free?
Wait til they get him back to Yankee Stadium. They do not have the equipment to indoctrinate...err brainwash him yet. I can see Ichiro now...In Kevin Long's "special" batting cage where there is a metal plate under the batter's box and players are forced to wear metal spikes. Every pitch that comes in, if Ichiro does not swing as hard as he can...zap 1000 volts. In the background is Kevin Long saying: Ignorance is strength...2+2=5. Pull everything...HRs are good...singles are bad.
Wait til they get him back to Yankee Stadium. They do not have the equipment to indoctrinate...err brainwash him yet. I can see Ichiro now...In Kevin Long's "special" batting cage where there is a metal plate under the batter's box and players are forced to wear metal spikes. Every pitch that comes in, if Ichiro does not swing as hard as he can...zap 1000 volts. In the background is Kevin Long saying: Ignorance is strength...2+2=5. Pull everything...HRs are good...singles are bad.
Long has certainly killed Granderson's career.
Done wonders for Texs avg...Swishers OBP...Aroid...
Long helped Granderson hit lefties which is without a doubt his best achievement. However, Granderson's avg his hovering around 240 and last I checked he is on pace for a record 190+ Ks this year. If he keeps it up, in a few years when his bat speed slows a little he will become Adam Dunn like. It is no secret Long and Giradi are in love with the homer and that the new Yankee Stadium has gone to their heads. The team has one of the worst avgs with men in scoring position in the league (Ichiro fits right in in that respect as last I checked he was hitting his weight in that category). They beat up on bad pitching and bad relievers which is all fine for the regular season, but come playoff time when they need to scratch out a few runs off a Verlander or Weaver or Wilson, this homer happy bunch is going to do what they did in Oakland over the weekend or what they did in the ALDS last season in game 5...namely leave men on base or get shut down. That is because you do not get to see Justin Frasor in the 8th inning in the playoffs. Nor do you get to see starts vs weak 4 and 5 starters. Winnng 100+ games in the regular season is great, but in the playoffs you need pitching and timely hitting. The latter has proven itself inept all season and it imo relates to their approach to hitting not to their underlying talent. The concept of situationally hitting is not known to Long. Cut the swing down with 2 strikes and get a single in the with 2nd and 3rd and 2 out in a one run game...nah...swing as hard as you can and go for a Hr. Look up the numbers of Berra and Dimaggio if you want to see how radically different the game is now and the approach to the game in particular. Berra in 19 seasons struck out a total of 414 times. That's right and that is no misprint. An avg of 22 times a season. Dimaggio 369 times in 13 seasons. They cut their swing down with two strikes and went for a single...what a novel concept.
bigh0rt wrote:^ The game is different now than it was in 1950? Ya don't say...
Different is not necessarily better. The k rate is way too high imo and a lot of players are going for Hrs to get contracts and sacrificing avg in the post roids era. That may make for entertaining regular season games, but if the goal is to win a pennant or title, then it is the dead wrong approach imo. The Yankee teams of the late 90's did not do this nor did they have a bunch of 40 hr guys . Yet they were pretty dominant. That is because they had excellent pitching and guys that could scratch out some runs when they needed to like Williams and O'neill and Martinez. Now most everyone goes up there trying to hit a hr all the time regardless of the situation and what a shocker you can't do that against Verlander that easily. A basic tenant you learn in little league is to cut your swing down and try to hit a line drive up the middle with two strikes. Cano does it at times. The better players in the league like MCab do it. There is a reason they hit 300+ and the Tex hits .245 now. Some like Swisher you can sort of excuse because they are not nearly as talented and are sort of that player to start with. Guys like Tex who have the talent to hit for a decent avg would probably drive in and score more runs if they cut the ks down and got on base 5+% more.
bigh0rt wrote:^ The game is different now than it was in 1950? Ya don't say...
Different is not necessarily better. The k rate is way too high imo and a lot of players are going for Hrs to get contracts and sacrificing avg in the post roids era. That may make for entertaining regular season games, but if the goal is to win a pennant or title, then it is the dead wrong approach imo. The Yankee teams of the late 90's did not do this nor did they have a bunch of 40 hr guys . Yet they were pretty dominant. That is because they had excellent pitching and guys that could scratch out some runs when they needed to like Williams and O'neill and Martinez. Now most everyone goes up there trying to hit a hr all the time regardless of the situation and what a shocker you can't do that against Verlander that easily. A basic tenant you learn in little league is to cut your swing down and try to hit a line drive up the middle with two strikes. Cano does it at times. The better players in the league like MCab do it. There is a reason they hit 300+ and the Tex hits .245 now. Some like Swisher you can sort of excuse because they are not nearly as talented and are sort of that player to start with. Guys like Tex who have the talent to hit for a decent avg would probably drive in and score more runs if they cut the ks down and got on base 5+% more.
There's been a huge devaluation, and rightfully so, of batting average, over the last decade, as well as the un-demonizing of the strikeout. Teixeira's dip in AVG is largely credited to the shifts he faces now and his seeming unwillingness to go the other way while batting, IIRC, left-handed. The Yankees managed to win a World Series with most of the team they have now just a few short years ago, so this really sounds like a bunch of old timer rhetoric. A fun little fact, though, is that Mark Teixeira's K rate has remained pretty consistent throughout his entire career, has not spiked with the Yankees, and is actually at an all-time low thus far in 2012. His BB Rate? Same story. Consistent with Texas, Atlanta, the Yankees... Like I said, it all sounds like a bunch of old timer rhetoric. Choke up. Hustle. Throw some dirt on it. Guys don't play like they used to. Meh.
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