A theoretical baseball question
 

What would the range of batting averages be if every batter in MLB knew what pitch the pitcher was trying to throw?

Assumptions:
- The pitcher doesn't know that the batter knows
- The batter knows that the pitcher is going for an inside fastball...this doesn't mean that the pitch will actually be inside...the pitcher may miss out over the plate, high, etc...
- Manager's don't know that the batter's know (for either team)

What would the 'average' BA be for the entire MLB?

What average would lead the league?

How many homeruns would lead the league for a given season?


*question originally derived from this thread **warning NSFOOT

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

It would be pretty high...around .400 or higher. MLB hitters can all hit fastballs when they know they are coming. They would simply wait for them. Look at the MLB average when the count is 2-0, which means fastball like 80% of the time. It is up there.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

Batting practice.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

Theoretically, you'd know there's a sports forum.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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Batting practice.

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you know this is incorrect right?

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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Batting practice.

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you know this is incorrect right?

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I was hoping that you would chime in.....what do you think?

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

hell if I know, but this reminds me of a summer league game I was in after high school. my team was scrimmaging a friend's team and my friend was up to bat. my friend was up, my cousin was pitching and I was umpiring behind the mound. in league that year, my friend went off with about 9 bombs in 16 games.
I told my cousin to groove one, then called out "hey, Kawika, fastball coming". I don't think it's landed yet.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

don't a lot of players get signals from their own teammate if he is on base and can see the catcher's signal? i remember a few years ago tony gwynn was accused of often getting tipped off by a teammate. of course tony was only being tipped of a small percentage of the time.


but if you had access to video you could probably calculate tony's ave with and without tips and that would give you a pretty good estimate in regards to how it would affect a player.


intuitively, i would guess that in the OP's scenerio it would raise a players batting average as much as .075 though it might be more appropriate to express the change as a percentage gain. its likely it would help good batters more than bad batters.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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what do you think?

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well it wouldn't be batting practice since BP is designed to allow the hitter to find his stroke and BP is only medium paced fastballs.

in spring training before you get to the actual games against other teams you go through what is called "pitchers BP" where the pitcher tells the hitter what is coming, it is designed to get the hitter repititions and his timing down since hitters always show up to camp behind the pace of where the pitchers are and it gives pitchers time on the bump.

now you are calling the pitch but not the location so you aren't given everything it takes to hit a pitch so it isn't as easy as you think, in camp the hitters don't do that well with this, they actually do terrible but it's early and their timing is way off. before answering this you would have to tell me who the pitcher is, can he locate a plus back-knee slider (which is basically an unhittable pitch b/c you either hook it foul and if you keep it fair you snap your bat), so the pitcher means a lot in this scenario.

avg big league pitcher vs. avg big league hitter i would say he would hit over .300. avg big league pitcher vs. barry bonds or albert pujols is another story.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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intuitively, i would guess that in the OP's scenerio it would raise a players batting average as much as .075 though it might be more appropriate to express the change as a percentage gain. its likely it would help good batters more than bad batters

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That's an interesting question. It would negate a good hitter's advantage in terms of recognizing pitches and adjusting to them. I think the big beneficiaries would be power hitters with high strikeout numbers (Andruw Jones, Adam Dunn, etc.).

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It would be pretty high...around .400 or higher. MLB hitters can all hit fastballs when they know they are coming. They would simply wait for them. Look at the MLB average when the count is 2-0, which means fastball like 80% of the time. It is up there.

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There is no way they would just sit there and wait for a fastball. They would tattoo any hanging offspeed pitch as well as a fastball.

This would not be BP no doubt about that, and there would still be some pretty decent pitchers, but runs would go through the roof. League leader would be around .500 I would guess (may seem high, but I feel it is about right). League avg overall would be up 100-150 pts and HRs would approach 100. These stats may seem absurd, but in the majors, no pitcher totally overpowers hitters, not even the Unit and the likes. Pitchers survive by mixing it up. A pitcher like Trevor Hoffman who was once one of the most dominant pitchers for a long time, would be absolutely shelled. He mainly relies on 2 pitches, fastball and change-up. If a hitter knew that it was a FB instead of a change, or vice-versa, it would be all over.

Most hitters do not want to know what is coming because it throws their timing off if they rely on the info too much and they get crossed up. That could be the difference between a brushback and getting drilled in the head by a fastball because you "knew" it was a breaking ball. Obviously the OP said the the hitter would know 100% accurate what the pitch is.

Like I said, it wouldn't be BP, but it would resemble it a bit.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

you seem to be under the impression that everytime a hitter gets out its the pitcher that gets him out.

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I think fairly substantial, but if that were the case, pitchers like Moyer and Maddux might not have a job.

Other pitchers, like Mariano, wouldn't be affected since hitters pretty much know whats coming at them.

If I had to guess, maybe 30 - 40 points higher. Purely a guess.

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I think fairly substantial, but if that were the case, pitchers like Moyer and Maddux might not have a job.

Other pitchers, like Mariano, wouldn't be affected since hitters pretty much know whats coming at them.

If I had to guess, maybe 30 - 40 points higher. Purely a guess.

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Yeah, I think it's more a case of which pitcher. Some guys you know what they're going to throw and you can't hit it (or lay off) anyway.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

Averages would be around .400, instead of .260.

League leader would probably hit about .500. Hard to say about the HR's.

A lot of times the batters know what is coming but still can't hit it. Plus, even if they rake it, it could go right to the outfielders.

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HRs would approach 100.

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This is absurdly high.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

.500 and 100 hrs is ridiculous, you wouldn't see numbers like that off a pitching machine set to the speed of the batter's liking.
I think the average would be pretty close to the league average when the ball is put in play on 3-0 counts, since it's the same situation. I don't know what that is, however.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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Averages would be around .400, instead of .260.

League leader would probably hit about .500. Hard to say about the HR's.

A lot of times the batters know what is coming but still can't hit it. Plus, even if they rake it, it could go right to the outfielders

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these numbers are way to high. like i said earlier to bravos1, hitters get themselves out as much if not more times than a pitcher gets them out, and like you said this doesn't take in account the times when you hit balls on the screws and they are right at somebody. this is why hitting is one of the toughest things to do in all of sport.

numbers will go up but not up to .400-.500. the thing is is that you can't actually know for sure b/c there are too many variables.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

They are not too high. Tony Gwynn hit .394 in 1994 or something, Brett hit .390 one year..

Bonds hit .370 and Ichiro hit like .362. Heck Piazza hit like .362 one year.

You tellin me Ichiro couldn't hit .500 if he knew what was coming? Gwynn would hit about .550 to .600 (if he were still around).

And I did take into account hitting screaming liners right at people. I think it's fair to say average would hover around .400 with the leader hitting near .500.

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.500 and 100 hrs is ridiculous, you wouldn't see numbers like that off a pitching machine set to the speed of the batter's liking.


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Of course you would. Don't be ridiculous.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

you need to read my post in reply to sossman, you are talking about one player not the league average, you fail to forget that there are hundred of players that are going to bring down the high averages of the ichiro's and pujols and bond's of the world.

a very close friend of mine and former teammate got a september call up this year for the giants and could barely hit over .100, he is a top 3 prospect in their organization and set just about every AA eastern league record and will mostly likely start in the outfield next year depending on what happens with alou...i know for a fact he can't hit .400 if he knows what is coming, and there are hundreds more in his shoes. you are talking about a very select few that won't bring the TOTAL avg up enough to make a difference.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

You are wrong. FWIW, my friend is pitching in one of these games on Wednesday, and Ichiro hits over .400 against him even when Ichiro doesn't know what is coming. That is just one example.

You don't realize how hard it is to recognize a slider half way to the plate and be able to make contact, if you know what is coming, then it's much MUCH easier.

Plus you can just waste the breaking stuff until he throws a fastball again. I stand to my original assessment that the league average would be about .140 points higher.

Plus, say you know a slider is coming... and the pitch starts at the low part of the K zone, you can just lay off it assuming it will drop out of the zone. This would help IMMENSELY.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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you seem to be under the impression that everytime a hitter gets out its the pitcher that gets him out.

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Not at all... BUT, there would be less weak groundballs and popups. There are several pitchers who have nasty sliders, but as the OP stated, the pitcher does not know that you know, so it is doubtful that you'd have someone throwing slider after slider. If the hitter knows what is coming, there is much less likelyhood that he'll top the ball to the SS because he got out on his front leg too earlty. You see guys like Manny, ARod, and Pujols who hit everyone hard. Pujols hit .359 in 2003 and I'd guarantee that it would be at least 100 pts higher if he knew every pitch.

We would run a lot of situational hitting/fielding when I was in college, and guys would rip the ball. We would run a lot of hit and run drills. As a LHP, I absolutely hated them because I knew I was most likely gonna take one off the body at sometime (usually my foot) since these guys knew a curveball was coming and had to hit it to the right side. Guys were still hitting ropes to the right side even through they "had" to make contact and were cutting down on their cuts. If you know a curve or changeup is coming, it is much easier to then sit back and groove one.

For a few pitchers, nothing at all would change. Take Tim Wakefield for example. There would be very little change since he throws 90% knukles and everyone already knows it is coming.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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You don't realize how hard it is to recognize a slider half way to the plate and be able to make contact, if you know what is coming, then it's much MUCH easier.



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i don't? i know a lot more than you think.

if a pitcher throws a pitchers pitch then there isn't anything a hitter can do period. mariano has been throwing the same pitch for years and nothing has been done about it. ichiro is 1 hitter, i repeat 1 hitter. 1 hitter will not make a difference in the entire league average.

yes, the avg's will be higher but there are too many variables. now that what is being thrown is out there, defenses will be shifted more often just as an example.

this little excericise we are talking about, i have done this and i know how it works, one last thing from my experiences...hitters used to complain about "pitchers BP," saying they hated knowing what was coming, that they just wanted to react to the pitch, that when they knew what the pitch was they would think to much and get in their own head and fail more than when they were just reacting. just a thought for you.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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You are wrong. FWIW, my friend is pitching in one of these games on Wednesday, and Ichiro hits over .400 against him even when Ichiro doesn't know what is coming. That is just one example.

You don't realize how hard it is to recognize a slider half way to the plate and be able to make contact, if you know what is coming, then it's much MUCH easier.

Plus you can just waste the breaking stuff until he throws a fastball again. I stand to my original assessment that the league average would be about .140 points higher.

Plus, say you know a slider is coming... and the pitch starts at the low part of the K zone, you can just lay off it assuming it will drop out of the zone. This would help IMMENSELY.

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Exactly, I said that the league avg would be up 100-150 pts, which is probably a bit hit (75-100 pts seems a bit better) and that the league leaders (Vlad, Manny, Pujols, and the like) would be hovering around .500. 100 HRs would also be very possible. Bonds would have easily hit a 100 when he broke the record if he knew what was coming. How many warning track fly balls did he hit because he got out a bit early on a cutter?

TDarko, you said that hitters get themselves out just as much as the pitcher does. I agree with this and disagree at the same time. You see hitters getting themselves out in many ways (ie rolling over a curveball and failing to go the other way, etc.) but you have to remember that the pitcher still has a major impact in that by keeping the hitter off balance. Pitchers can get away with hanging some pitches because of this. If the hitter knew that a curve/change was coming instead of having to solely react, they would be plastering these hanging pitches even more than they do today.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

"hitters used to complain about "pitchers BP," saying they hated knowing what was coming, that they just wanted to react to the pitch, that when they knew what the pitch was they would think to much and get in their own head and fail more than when they were just reacting. just a thought for you."

Not that i know dick about baseball- but wouldn't the fact that hitters spend their entire careers learning to hit a certain way, getting comfortable in a certain zone- and that knowing that "pitchers bp" wasn't going to last more than a few days and it wouldn't do them any good, thier adjustments relally aren't going to be there in the same intensitie that it would be if they knew that they would spend the entire season hitting in this fashion?

run on sentances!!!

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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You don't realize how hard it is to recognize a slider half way to the plate and be able to make contact, if you know what is coming, then it's much MUCH easier.



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i don't? i know a lot more than you think.

if a pitcher throws a pitchers pitch then there isn't anything a hitter can do period. mariano has been throwing the same pitch for years and nothing has been done about it. ichiro is 1 hitter, i repeat 1 hitter. 1 hitter will not make a difference in the entire league average.

yes, the avg's will be higher but there are too many variables. now that what is being thrown is out there, defenses will be shifted more often just as an example.

this little excericise we are talking about, i have done this and i know how it works, one last thing from my experiences...hitters used to complain about "pitchers BP," saying they hated knowing what was coming, that they just wanted to react to the pitch, that when they knew what the pitch was they would think to much and get in their own head and fail more than when they were just reacting. just a thought for you.

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Rivera is 1 pitcher. 1 pitcher.

And...the other team doesn't know that you know what is coming. Read the OP.

Don't you realize how much easier it is to hit a change-up when you know it's coming? Or to waste a curve-ball if it's in a good spot? Or to get the bat head down on an otherwise good slider?

Even a guy like Brad Lidge would get SHELLED, due to the fact that anyone (in the bigs) can hit a 97mph fastball if they know it's coming. Who's gonna swing as his low and away slider anymore?

You are vastly underestimating the power of deception for the pitcher. Guys like Kenny Rogers, Jamie Moyer, Tom Glavine... would all be grossly ineffective as they rely heavily on "smart pitching", and putting the ball where the hitter can't adjust to it in time. Example soft stuff low and away then a "sneaky" 87 mph fastball on the inner half. lol. Hitters could wait on this inner fastball and turn on it like you ain't ever seen.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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mariano has been throwing the same pitch for years and nothing has been done about it. ichiro is 1 hitter, i repeat 1 hitter. 1 hitter will not make a difference in the entire league average.

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True, but Mariano has more than just a great cutter. Also, his cutter has been progressively hit harder over the past 3 seasons. If a hitter knew for sure that the cutter was coming, RH hitters would start opening their hips earlier on the inside cutters and driving the ball oppo or just laying off it if it was on the outside corner. LH hitters would be able to get the bat head out in front more so they would not be getting busted on the hands.

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this little excericise we are talking about, i have done this and i know how it works, one last thing from my experiences...hitters used to complain about "pitchers BP," saying they hated knowing what was coming, that they just wanted to react to the pitch, that when they knew what the pitch was they would think to much and get in their own head and fail more than when they were just reacting. just a thought for you.

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I have done this little excersize many of times as well. Our hitters never minded this drill because the were able to work better on picking up ball rotation, release angles, etc. If you are facing a patient hitter, they shouldn't mind much. They still work on their reactions, and really start focusing more on location which any good hitter needs to do well. Great hitters would be uncomprehensible if the ONLY thing they had to focus on was location.

It is true, that even great hitters will have a hard time hitting a good pitchers pitch. But good hitters would be laying off of these and waiting for the mistakes. There is no pitcher in the world that has the accuracy to continue throwing these pitches again and again without making mistakes. Also, if the hitter knew that the slider was coming and the pitcher likes to throw it backdoor, the hitter would compensate and a good pitcher's pitch would become a very hittable ball.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

Plus, guys like Juan Pierre and David Eckstein... who don't normally hit for extremely high average, but have great bat control and rarely strikeout... these guys would benefit immensely from this power.

They could easily sit there and foul off pitches they don't like and wait on the pitch they do like.

Plus, studying game film would help you a lot too. If a guy throws a curve and you know it's coming but you still can't hit it... study film and see how far off you are... etc. This would be a most effective exercise against the other teams relievers after the first game of a 4 game series, where you can safely assume you'll face them again soon.

If Tom Gordon comes in and K's you in game 1 of a 4-game series, and you guess to see him 1 or 2 more times then study that game film and you'll nail him.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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HRs would approach 100.

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This is absurdly high.

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And 73 is not? Bonds hit a HR that year in every 6.5 ABs. You have to also take into consideration that the hitters would be getting many more ABs throughout the season.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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Don't you realize how much easier it is to hit a change-up when you know it's coming?

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i wouldn't throw a change up in this situation (i am telling him what's coming and still trying to get him out), a change up is a pitch that works off of your fastball so obviously if you know its coming why throw it?
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Or to waste a curve-ball if it's in a good spot?

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why would you throw a waste pitch if they know whats coming? maybe to change their eye level if you want to come back with a high fastball, but this is a big "if" b/c they know what's coming. this drill isn't designed to get swing and misses. you wan't to locate pitches and get them to put the ball in play.
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Even a guy like Brad Lidge would get SHELLED, due to the fact that anyone (in the bigs) can hit a 97mph fastball if they know it's coming. Who's gonna swing as his low and away slider anymore?


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true, anyone can hit a 110 mph fastball if they get enough pitches to time it. what you aren't thinking about is that lidge throws that slider down and out of the zone b/c he CAN throw it there b/c they HAVE to swing at it b/c his command and "stuff" is way too good, he simply throws way too hard when not telling the hitter whats coming. when telling the hitter whats coming he would eat up left handed hitters with that hard slider in on their hands. i don't think he would get SHELLED but yes it would be a hell of a lot tougher for him.
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You are vastly underestimating the power of deception for the pitcher. Guys like Kenny Rogers, Jamie Moyer, Tom Glavine... would all be grossly ineffective as they rely heavily on "smart pitching", and putting the ball where the hitter can't adjust to it in time. Example soft stuff low and away then a "sneaky" 87 mph fastball on the inner half. lol. Hitters could wait on this inner fastball and turn on it like you ain't ever seen.

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when did i say anything about these guys and guys that throw soft? even still location guys will do ok in this situation than guys with overpowering stuff leaving pitches over the middle.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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.500 and 100 hrs is ridiculous, you wouldn't see numbers like that off a pitching machine set to the speed of the batter's liking.
I think the average would be pretty close to the league average when the ball is put in play on 3-0 counts, since it's the same situation. I don't know what that is, however.

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Hmmm.. lets think about this a bit. You didn't happen to watch this years All Star game did you? In the first round, Bobby Abreu hit 24 Hrs on 34 swings and 41 in 71 swings. These HRs were done in 3 rounds where he basically had little to no rest. In the first round, he hit for 30 straight minutes and was tailing off towards the end because he was tired.

So yes, if it was a pitching machine, Guys like Bonds and Pujols would be hitting 2-3 a game easily!

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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but you have to remember that the pitcher still has a major impact in that by keeping the hitter off balance. Pitchers can get away with hanging some pitches because of this. If the hitter knew that a curve/change was coming instead of having to solely react, they would be plastering these hanging pitches even more than they do today.

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this is the whole point of my arguement. pitchers benefit from more times from the batter making the mistake and pitchers benefit more times from the pitcher making a great pitch thus making it tougher for the hitter no matter the situation. the other side of the coin is hitters DO put great swings on pitchers' pitches and get hits and hitters do get lucky bounces and flairs and weird things do happen this is why i have said so many times that baseball has waaaaay to many variables to truly come up with a set number on this.

you guys are saying, "barry would have hit 100 for sure," thats crap. once he got to 80, he would have never got an official AB for the rest of the year (especially since he knows what's coming), these are all variables. this game is to complex to come up with certainties, i just said that i thought that those numbers were high b/c i have dine this at a level close to what is mentioned in the OP and i know for a FACT that it is harder than you think.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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HRs would approach 100.

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This is absurdly high.

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And 73 is not? Bonds hit a HR that year in every 6.5 ABs. You have to also take into consideration that the hitters would be getting many more ABs throughout the season.

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Bonds was a lab experiment. I'm assuming post-steroid era, for whatever that is worth..

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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Don't you realize how much easier it is to hit a change-up when you know it's coming?

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i wouldn't throw a change up in this situation (i am telling him what's coming and still trying to get him out), a change up is a pitch that works off of your fastball so obviously if you know its coming why throw it?
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Or to waste a curve-ball if it's in a good spot?

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why would you throw a waste pitch if they know whats coming? maybe to change their eye level if you want to come back with a high fastball, but this is a big "if" b/c they know what's coming. this drill isn't designed to get swing and misses. you wan't to locate pitches and get them to put the ball in play.
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Even a guy like Brad Lidge would get SHELLED, due to the fact that anyone (in the bigs) can hit a 97mph fastball if they know it's coming. Who's gonna swing as his low and away slider anymore?


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true, anyone can hit a 110 mph fastball if they get enough pitches to time it. what you aren't thinking about is that lidge throws that slider down and out of the zone b/c he CAN throw it there b/c they HAVE to swing at it b/c his command and "stuff" is way too good, he simply throws way too hard when not telling the hitter whats coming. when telling the hitter whats coming he would eat up left handed hitters with that hard slider in on their hands. i don't think he would get SHELLED but yes it would be a hell of a lot tougher for him.
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You are vastly underestimating the power of deception for the pitcher. Guys like Kenny Rogers, Jamie Moyer, Tom Glavine... would all be grossly ineffective as they rely heavily on "smart pitching", and putting the ball where the hitter can't adjust to it in time. Example soft stuff low and away then a "sneaky" 87 mph fastball on the inner half. lol. Hitters could wait on this inner fastball and turn on it like you ain't ever seen.

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when did i say anything about these guys and guys that throw soft? even still location guys will do ok in this situation than guys with overpowering stuff leaving pitches over the middle.

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Earth to you: The pitcher does not know that you know what is coming. For the 2nd time... please read the ORIGINAL POST before arguing a moot point.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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but you have to remember that the pitcher still has a major impact in that by keeping the hitter off balance. Pitchers can get away with hanging some pitches because of this. If the hitter knew that a curve/change was coming instead of having to solely react, they would be plastering these hanging pitches even more than they do today.

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this is the whole point of my arguement. pitchers benefit from more times from the batter making the mistake and pitchers benefit more times from the pitcher making a great pitch thus making it tougher for the hitter no matter the situation. the other side of the coin is hitters DO put great swings on pitchers' pitches and get hits and hitters do get lucky bounces and flairs and weird things do happen this is why i have said so many times that baseball has waaaaay to many variables to truly come up with a set number on this.

you guys are saying, "barry would have hit 100 for sure," thats crap. once he got to 80, he would have never got an official AB for the rest of the year (especially since he knows what's coming), these are all variables. this game is to complex to come up with certainties, i just said that i thought that those numbers were high b/c i have dine this at a level close to what is mentioned in the OP and i know for a FACT that it is harder than you think.

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What other variables are we not considering???

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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i wouldn't throw a change up in this situation (i am telling him what's coming and still trying to get him out), a change up is a pitch that works off of your fastball so obviously if you know its coming why throw it?

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why would you throw a waste pitch if they know whats coming? maybe to change their eye level if you want to come back with a high fastball, but this is a big "if" b/c they know what's coming. this drill isn't designed to get swing and misses. you wan't to locate pitches and get them to put the ball in play.

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You need to go back and read the OP. He stated that the pitcher and other team did not know that the hitter knew what was coming... so from a pitcher perspective, you would still think that you have an edge with deception. But, the pitcher would not as the hitter knows each pitch!

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true, anyone can hit a 110 mph fastball if they get enough pitches to time it. what you aren't thinking about is that lidge throws that slider down and out of the zone b/c he CAN throw it there b/c they HAVE to swing at it b/c his command and "stuff" is way too good, he simply throws way too hard when not telling the hitter whats coming. when telling the hitter whats coming he would eat up left handed hitters with that hard slider in on their hands. i don't think he would get SHELLED but yes it would be a hell of a lot tougher for him.

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This is not right. If the hitter knew Lidge was throwing a slider and it started on the plate, there would be NO reason for the hitter to swing at it because he "knows" it will break down and out of the strikezone. You also have to take into account that Lidge would have to do this multiple times without having the luxary of getting away with grooving one every now and again.
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when did i say anything about these guys and guys that throw soft? even still location guys will do ok in this situation than guys with overpowering stuff leaving pitches over the middle.

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But the location guys would lose a lot of effectiveness because guys like Maddux will not be able to "sneak" that 2 seamer back over the plate. Hitters will know that he is throwing a 2 seamer and will know that it tails back. All of this will already be taken into consideration by the hitter.

Along these same lines about the hitter knowing what is coming, you would see FAR LESS ABs which ended in the hitter chasing a slider 8 inches off the plate and in the dirt. Pitchers would effectively lose the ability to bounce a breakingball up there and have the hitter swing at it.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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Earth to you: The pitcher does not know that you know what is coming. For the 2nd time... please read the ORIGINAL POST before arguing a moot point.


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calm down, i forgot. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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Earth to you: The pitcher does not know that you know what is coming. For the 2nd time... please read the ORIGINAL POST before arguing a moot point.


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calm down, i forgot. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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Fine, but I already mentioned it once. Then to see you go on this rant about not throwing a change up b/c it's not deceptive.. blah blah.. I can't have a logical discussion with that.

Re: A theoretical baseball question
 

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HRs would approach 100.

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This is absurdly high.

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And 73 is not? Bonds hit a HR that year in every 6.5 ABs. You have to also take into consideration that the hitters would be getting many more ABs throughout the season.

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Bonds was a lab experiment. I'm assuming post-steroid era, for whatever that is worth..

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LOL.. nice.

Let's take this year. Andruw Jones hit 51 HRs (I believe, too lazy to check). He strikes out A LOT, especially on good offspeed stuff when he gets caught out on his front leg and is off balance. He would not have this problem if he know the curve was coming. Also if this was true, I would not have to scream at my TV every time he chased a breaking ball which was thrown 58.5 feet!