Saturday, April 10, 2004

More on taking pitches

Go read Bryan's answer (scroll down) to my question about taking pitches. He's persuasive. Obviously he knows what he's talking about. He plays ball at the California JuCo level and works for the Brewers organization.

He often mentions how much starting with an 0-1 count works against the hitter. I wondered about starting with a 1-0 count but he addresses that when he concedes it might make sense to go up with an automatic take in mind if a pitcher isn't getting the ball over the plate.

I'm no fan of automatic takes so maybe I'm too easily persuaded. It smacks of losing to win - of out-"smarting" yourself.

When Brady Clark comments on the Brewers taking more pitches this year and being patient, he could be telling the public what he's learned they want to hear. To some extent most interview comments fall into the "we're going to give 110%" category. We could know more about what big-league players honestly think of various sabermetric principles.

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