What are they so afraid of?

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Likely just has a fantastic eye and a refusal to swing at anything outside of the zone, or even on the edge of the zone (lots of strikeouts to). You can almost forgive your catcher hitting .155, when he still has a .400 On base percentage.

Makes me wonder how many other players fit the mold of walking far more then you'd think they should, given their profile.

First player I thought of was Willie Randolph. Pretty good hitter, but given a lot of the lineups he was a part of, you wouldn't think pitchers would be pitching around him. However, unlike Grandal, Randolph also rarely struck out and had great bat control. I'm pretty sure he was really good at fouling balls off and working the count in his favor.

Randolph, while perhaps being the closest comparison (good call), presented far less of an immediate (HR) threat, but, as you said, hit for a much higher average.



This takes us back to the singular threat of the long ball...even from a .155 hitter.



Randolph stats for 1979, 1980 & 1981, the last of which was a shortened strike year (at least we're not having to put up with that BS again)


1979: 153G-155H-5HR-95BB-39K-.270BA

1980: 138G-151H-7HR-119BB-45K-.294BA

1981: 93G-81H-2HR-57BB-24K-.232BA


Thanks once again George Herman for showing us the biggest weapon in our tool-boxes.

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