Sexson at-bats for April 5th
DMZ · April 5, 2008 at 7:30 pm · Filed Under Mariners
I don’t even need to show you pictures.
I will, quickly, note that what we’ve been saying is not that Sexson’s helpless, or never going to get hits — it’s that his bat speed is appreciably slower than it was when he was an effective hitter. Then his whole approach degrades quickly, because he has to cheat to make good contact, guess a lot, and let a lot of pitches go by. The result is, as Steve Nelson’s pointed out a couple times in comments, the classic old player crash: walks go up, average dives, and power declines though when they do make contact, by guess, cheat, or luck, the ball can still go a long way, because he’s still strong.
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Should we even dream of his being released? If no one will take him (and I doubt they would unless the M’s ate most of the contract), what are the odds that this organization would just dump him and eat the millions?
And.. Bedard is scratched for tomorrow due to hip inflammation. Felix will pitch.
Why can’t Sexson have hip inflammation?
If he did, he wouldn’t say anything about it until people started (continued) to boo him. At that point, McLaren would try to make him look like a hero for playing through an injury even though someone else might actually help the team win.
What’s the difference between “cheat” and “guess” in a hitting context?
If bat speed is the problem, Vidro and Sexson should trade bats. Sexson can hit singles with the lighter bat and Vidro could jack a few more.
I’ll take a shot.
You could cheat in various ways: choke up, start swing early, stand further back in the box.
Guessing is deciding to swing prior to the pitch being released.
I have no idea whether Sexons guesses or cheats. Hope that helps.
I frequently listen to the radio pre- and postgame. Not one analyst mentions that obviousness of Sexson’s slow bat speed. They just mention that “it’s early,” as if his results so far this year (and last year) are merely a reflection of a small sample size. Are they blind, or simply unwilling to make an accurate yet damning observation?
That’s more or less the distinction I’m trying to draw — there’s a difference between guessing and looking for a slider, say, which a lot of players do, and doing things to try and make tradeoffs to try and compensate for problems or to take advantage of a particular tendency.
If a player’s having trouble covering the outside of the plate and they move way in the batter’s box to hit those pitches better, in the process giving up the inside corners, they’re “cheating”.
Or at least that’s how I understand the terms used.
It would be interesting to know the success rate of swings resulting from guessing. I don’t know how one would find out without asking players.
My comment was meant to be a joke. However, could there be some way to convert Sexson (or any batter) from a power hitter to hitter for average? If there is a viable way, then is that a better scenario than an outright release?
I’m referring to Comment #6.
There is no help for old Richie. His bat speed is gone. When your ability to swing the bat throw the hitting zone and make contact is your problem. You no longer have the time to make pitch recognition. All a hitter can do is guess.
This situation is just like Boone a couple of years ago. His bat speed went away. and no longer had the time for pitch recognition. And it is completely unlike Edgar’s situation in his last years. Gar’s bat speed, though not like his prime was still good. He just could no longer see the ball leave the pitchers hand.
Richie is done. Any pitcher throwing harder then 89mph will just tie him up all day. It is going to be a long painfull agonizing death.
We are not even talking about how poor his range at 1b is. Hes booting the ball all over the infield. Every game this year he has missed a play on the ground at first. He runs like a guy with arthritis in all his joints, Slow and painfull. It is quite laughable. I hope Mac can see at one point how bad he looks as a manager keeping this up.
Hey, who’s this “Steve Nelson” character. I thought it was ME saying “old-player skills” over and over. Being something of an old player myself. Last name’s Thornton….
On this board, you’re Steve T Nelson. DMZ so decrees. You’ll be getting the apporpriate legal forms shortly. Sorry about that, but hat’s how a (benign) dicatorship works.
My wife’s going to be pissed.