That's an interesting link, thanks. One little nit:
Not only are the Mariners swinging away at a high rate, they are also swinging at a large amount of baseballs, outside of the zone. If the team as a whole just was a little more patient at the plate, the offense I believe would start to see better results.
Not exactly. Plate discipline and strike zone judgment have been conflated in a lot of people's minds because they both correlate with walks, but there's a difference. A good example of a player who has little patience but great strike zone judgment is Vladimir Guerrero in his prime -- he swung a lot and didn't walk much, but his understanding of the strike zone was illustrated by his Z-Swing% of close to 90%. (Compare that with players known for being patient, like Jason Kendall and Brian Giles, with Z-Swing% in the 50-60% range and O-Swing% in the teens.)
A closer-to-home example is Yuni's sudden spike in walks (relatively speaking) in May after not walking a single time in April. He was more patient, but he reduced his swinging percentage for both pitches in the zone and pitches outside the zone. The result was a few more walks but it didn't mean he became a better hitter overall; his OBP actually declined in May. Yuni was more patient and took more pitches, but it didn't mean he had any more of a clue at the plate.
As between those two qualities -- patience and strike zone judgment -- the latter is more important, and the M's can't just turn it on by swinging less.
