Purp
Active Member
I've wondered the same things at times this year, but I've recently come to the conclusion, I think, that our level of patience varies from game to game. You hit on it earlier, but last night we watched a lot of pitches that we've waved at at over times this season. When guys like Skoug, Wanny, Brown, Merrill, Cam, (hell, the whole damned lineup) aren't offering at that breaker down and off the plate if forces the pitcher to come to them. When we do offer at it consistently we expand the zone for the pitcher and give him the advantage.The DBU game was interesting because their pitching was so bad - I think it might have sucked the life out of them after the 2nd inning by giving up so many runs with so few hits. They came out swinging and then either Brian got a lot better command, the strike zone moved a little down and in for him, or they just slowly lost faith in their staff - maybe all of that.
And I will agree that we are as patient at the plate as any team we have faced all year and have earned those walks.
A good question, and one I don't know the answer to, is when we face the better pitchers this year that have been able to throw enough strikes without making mistakes - and that being patient approach has resulted in getting down 0-2 or 1-2 a lot more then it resulted in walks - should we adjust our approach?
Or is it better to continue to try and eat pitches to get the count up and the starter gone to someone that will make a mistake and we can capitalize on? and does that perspective changes as the competition gets better throughout the playoffs or do you stay with the one that got you this far?
I really think this is less about a pitcher having a great performance and more about our hitters trying to do more in some games than other games. Maybe the fact the our rotation seems to have stabilized over the last several weeks is helping the offense to be less assertive at the plate. I just can't explain why our hitters can lay off of a great breaking ball one night and fan on one that's not nearly as nasty the next day. That is the key to making our offense work, though, and everyone has known that for the last month and a half. If they still walk us a lot with good arms on the mound it tells me we're working walks more than they're always having bad outings.