Archive for October, 2011

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2011 National League All-Star Picks

October 16th, 2011

Last week I took a look at who I felt was deserving of consideration for the 2011 American League All-Star Team. This week, let’s look at National League players deserving of the honor. The same criteria will hold true. These players are evaluated upon the season they are having thus far in 2011. Past statistics will be considered but preference will be given to those players at each position who deserve to be a baseball All-Star this year.

CATCHER
Brian McCann (ATL) – Hits for average (.307 BA), hits for power (10 HR), he drives in runs (39 RBI) and has played in 58 of his teams first 66 games. With Joe Mauer out due to injury, McCann is the premier catcher in the game today.

FIRST BASE
Prince Fielder (MIL) – Sure it’s a contract year, but Fielder is delivering. BIG TIME. His 19 HR are tops in the NL and only 2 behind power-hitting machine Jose Bautista for the MLB lead. Fielder also has a whopping 58 RBI to go with his impressive.305 BA and a ‘Ruthian’ 1.013 OPS. This Prince is the King.

SECOND BASE
Rickie Weeks (MIL) – Funny what can happen when you remain healthy. For the second straight season, Weeks has avoided the injury bug and for the second straight season he has impressed at the plate. His 12 HR are tops at the position (in both leagues) and Weeks has shown speed with 7 SB so far, all while hitting from the leadoff spot.

THIRD BASE
Ryan Roberts (ARI) – With injuries to David Wright and Pablo Sandoval (who was a shoe-in for the All-Star Team before he got hurt), the hot corner is up for grabs. Roberts has stepped in for the Diamondbacks with power and speed hitting in multiple positions in the D-Backs order. It’s a shallow field this year, but Roberts has delivered.

SHORT STOP
Jose Reyes (NYM) – Reyes is back flashing the glove, swinging the bat and posing a threat on the base paths, with a Major League-leading.346 BA. Although he has only 3 HR, Reyes is 6th in the NL with a.921 OPS due to 19 doubles and an eye-popping 11 triples. Through in 20 SB and Reyes is a major player on the base paths in 2011.

OUTFIELD
Matt Kemp (LAD ) – After hitting only.249 with 19 SB in 2010, Kemp drew criticism in several circles. However, with 20 HR, 56 RBI and 14 SB in 2011 so far, Kemp is silencing even the staunchest disbelievers. Through in a slash line of.331/.411/.641 and Kemp sets the standard for NL outfielders in 2011.

Ryan Braun (MIL) – Not to be outdone by his All-Star-worthy teammates, Braun has clipped along at a pace of.309 BA, 14 HR and 48 RBI. His 14 SB have already matched last years total in less than half the number of games.

Lance Berkman (STL) – Don’t tell Berkman it’s not 2006. He’s hitting like he did 5 years ago. His.619 SLG and 1.05 OPS are both good for 3rd in all of MLB. Sure, he had some recent wrist soreness requiring cortisone shots but it hasn’t affected him as he has hit 5 HR in his last 8 games.

What are your thoughts? If you think there are more deserving players than these, let the baseball debates begin!

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Baseball And Bottle Caps

October 16th, 2011

In our never ending quest to find new methods of teaching baseball, especially the hitting aspect, perhaps we should stop and look behind us instead of always looking forward.

Once upon a time a high .380% or .400% batting average was not all that uncommon, and of course there’s been plenty of change to the game since then, but still… does change explain everything. I think not.

An old time baseball player, named Tony Pena, once performed the catching duties for the Pittsburg Pirates and although he won great notoriety for his unorthodox catching style, he’d literally catch and throw while sitting straddled in the dirt, he was especially known for his swing at nearly every pitch style of hitting.

For the pitchers in that era, walking Tony Pena was nearly as hard as throwing a no hitter, and in spite of his apparent wild swings at nearly anything resembling a baseball, he hit for a high average. How could a player, who seemed to totally abandon any self control and proper hitting mechanics while hitting, hit for a high average against major league pitchers?

Tony Pena grew up in a very poor Latin American community where baseball was the all time favorite sport of the neighborhood youngsters, but no family was able to afford bats, balls and gloves which we consider so critical to the game.

However, everyone drank soda, and since the aluminum can hadn’t been introduced to soda, it came packaged in a glass bottle with a metal bottle cap. Metal bottle caps, carefully removed in order to not bend them, could be made to sail and a broken broom stick could be used as a bat to hit them with. This is where Tony Pena learned to hit.

Now, after some practice a bottle cap can be made to sail, dip, tail away and rise at will, and since this was the only activity available in the town, there was constant practice. In order to hit such a difficult target with a broom handle, took exceptional vision and timing, again the result of constant practice.

This is how and why Tony Pena apparently swung wildly, which we know now was actually an extremely controlled swing, yet hit for a high average. He’d spent his whole life swinging and hitting darting, jumping objects with a small stick.

Hitting coaches of today would require Tums, for their heartburn and Advil, for their headaches, attempting to coach a player like Tony Pena. It just wouldn’t happen anymore and I’m not per se recommending the strategy of free swinging be revived.

However, I do think a good old fashion game of Whiffle ball, where the ball darts, soars and jumps, would be an excellent occasional substitute for the batting cages. Instead of attempting to perfect timing through mechanics, which is what perfecting hitting a ball traveling in essentially the same path dozens of time in a row consist of, we play contact ball.

Let’s expose our eyes and reflexes to the split second darting and dipping of a moving object and learn to hit it. I can’t see that hurting anything. Can you?

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