Yosemite Dan wrote:
Could it be that they are guessing on 2 strike counts because they are taking full hacks rather than shortening their swing and just try to make contact. They have that mindset that they are gonna take a full hack on 2 strike counts, guess on what that pitch will be for that HR swing and then they get fooled on the pitch and are caught flat footed. I don't know anyone on this team who actually shortens their swing especially with RISP and that's why are so terrible at it and have a terrible record in 1 run games the last 3 years. It's just not dumb luck, they are pathetic situational hitters and the batting coach doesn't seem to want to tell them the change their approach otherwise. And this argument that you can't turn power hitters into singles hitter is riduculous. You adjust your approach for the situation and over a season you have plenty of chances to take your hacks.
Our situational hitting has been as good or better than our hitting overall. In late and close situations, we're actually hitting better than the league average. Our 'clutchness' is almost bang average. Our problem is that we're a garbage hitting team right now.
Being a power hitter doesn't mean you take giant hacks at everything no matter what the situation. 30 years ago, the only guy who did that was Dave Kingman who was always flirting with the the Mendoza line in batting average. the Jays alone have 3 or 4 Dave Kingmans on this team with the Neanderthal batting approach. If you make good solid contact, the HRs will come. The first thing they teach you is shorten your swing on 2 strikes especially with RISP. Jays hitters may look at pitches but take hacks at any one they like no matter what the count. This mentality is common with many of today's hitters and the Jays have more of these type of hitters than most teams. If someone like Jose took this basic approach of hitting, I fully believe that besides hitting 50 points higher, he would have more HRs as a byproduct.
No, he wouldn't hit 50 points higher and have more home runs. This is silly. By referencing the approaches of players 30 years ago, you're missing a whole host of developments in the interim, including the fact that despite the strikeouts hitters today are
way more productive than they were in Kingman's era, when taking into account the introduction of shifts (which have lowered league-wide batting averages) and the vast changes in the average velocity and spin rate of pitchers from the 80s to modern day.