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Canes #4 in the first preseason poll of the year

ALLoverCANE said:
Yes I think so. Andrelton Simmons has a career .380 SLG.

Hitting HRs didn't win in the 80s because teams weren't trying to win that way. Modern FOs realize you're better off taking a walk and waiting for a bomb than giving away outs and trying to manufacture runs.

Of course market values also influence how MLB teams put together their rosters. If small ball skills became undervalued, I'm sure eventually you'd see a shift in that direction, at least somewhat. But as long as there are only 3 outs and 4 bases, avoiding outs will always be more valuable than taking an extra base.
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My opinion is that the open air stadium teams will still have trouble winning WS titles if they favor the long ball over pitching and defense. The HRs will win a lot of RS games, but look at how many warning track fly balls there were in this past post-season (that probably would have been 5 - 10 rows up during the summer.

I get it's all relative if every team looks alike; but, the Astros never won their first title until they spent the money on Verlander and then almost repeated when adding Cole to go with him.
 
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ALLoverCANE said:
Yes I think so. Andrelton Simmons has a career .380 SLG.

Hitting HRs didn't win in the 80s because teams weren't trying to win that way. Modern FOs realize you're better off taking a walk and waiting for a bomb than giving away outs and trying to manufacture runs.

Of course market values also influence how MLB teams put together their rosters. If small ball skills became undervalued, I'm sure eventually you'd see a shift in that direction, at least somewhat. But as long as there are only 3 outs and 4 bases, avoiding outs will always be more valuable than taking an extra base.
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I have no doubt that the analytics prove walks and HRs trump small ball. That's why every AB in MLB seems to be a walk, strikeout or homerun. I enjoyed watching players like Ozzie and pitchers like Greg Maddux, so I find the current style of MLB very boring/borderline unwatchable. I guess I'm a dinosaur. :noidea:
 
The home run strategy wins in the regular season but doesn't win championships. The pitching is too good in the postseason to be able to swing for the fences while striking out a lot. You will see the MLB trend settle in the middle as teams realize this. The last three World Series champions have all been top 5 in fewest regular season strikeouts. When it comes down to it, putting the ball in play always gives you a better chance than striking out.
 
ALLoverCANE said:
Modern FOs realize you're better off taking a walk and waiting for a bomb than giving away outs and trying to manufacture runs.
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I think you're combining two different philosophies. We've always known that taking a walk is ideal. But today's FO's seem to think that walking doesn't even matter, that their players should just be trying to hit home runs.

The average number of walks per team isn't any higher than it was 10 or 20 years ago, so teams aren't really emphasizing that. They just want the long ball to get them to the postseason, where they soon realize that they won't be facing Baltimore or Detroit this week.

Also, the idea of not manufacturing runs has moved to the extreme. No, we shouldn't be bunting a guy from first to second in the 4th inning, a la Jim Morris. But MLB teams aren't even moving a guy to third with no outs with their 9-hole .202 catcher at the plate.
 
ThePurpleHunter said:
I think you're combining two different philosophies. We've always known that taking a walk is ideal. But today's FO's seem to think that walking doesn't even matter, that their players should just be trying to hit home runs.

The average number of walks per team isn't any higher than it was 10 or 20 years ago, so teams aren't really emphasizing that. They just want the long ball to get them to the postseason, where they soon realize that they won't be facing Baltimore or Detroit this week.

Also, the idea of not manufacturing runs has moved to the extreme. No, we shouldn't be bunting a guy from first to second in the 4th inning, a la Jim Morris. But MLB teams aren't even moving a guy to third with no outs with their 9-hole .202 catcher at the plate.
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How many MLB players have 30 HRs and 150 Ks in a season? I'm guessing many.
 
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pcitycane said:
little bit of the former and the latter going on here
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Same. I think my biggest thing is, I don't want to see these guys be the same as last year, make the same mistakes. I'd like to see some further development in all of their respective skill sets. Just some examples of what I'm looking at:

1) Toral needs to show more plate discipline. I think he did from FR year to SO year, but that has to continue. Also, working on his mobility/speed to help him on the base paths needed to be an emphasis, maybe reshape his body...I want to see if any of that happened.

2) Guys like Lala, Jenkins, Vilar, Tuero, Paige all needed more weight room work to get stronger so they can have more pop at the plate and control the bat better. I want to see if any of that occurred, and if we can see the benefits.

3) Has Zamora gotten better defensively? He took a big step forward last year with the bat, but he suffered with some errors and long mechanics on some throws from SS at times. He needs to clean that up not just for us, but to help his draft status as well.

4) I want to see Gil have more plate discipline. At times, he went up there just swinging for the fences. Some of that paid off w/his power surge, but he's got to be more selective at the plate, and a tougher out late in the count. There were times when he had 2 strikes you KNEW the opposing pitcher was coming with a fastball at or above the letters. Sometimes Gil made them pay, others - he wasn't able to catch up. Either get better at hitting those pitches, or get better at laying off of them.

5) Has Federman taken a step forward? Can he be the closer? Or are we forced to use one of the newcomers or Keysor in that role, depending upon who is deemed the midweek guy? Or - do Ruiz/Maury step up and take that role?

Lastly and most importantly - will DiMare/Arteaga handle the pitching staff overall better? I think there were times we tried to keep guys in games either as a starter or reliever when it was obvious they were either done or just didn't have it that day. That ended up costing us a few ballgames last year. I want to see if they've learned from those mistakes and have a better feel for it.
 
BWCD said:
Same. I think my biggest thing is, I don't want to see these guys be the same as last year, make the same mistakes. I'd like to see some further development in all of their respective skill sets. Just some examples of what I'm looking at:

1) Toral needs to show more plate discipline. I think he did from FR year to SO year, but that has to continue. Also, working on his mobility/speed to help him on the base paths needed to be an emphasis, maybe reshape his body...I want to see if any of that happened.

2) Guys like Lala, Jenkins, Vilar, Tuero, Paige all needed more weight room work to get stronger so they can have more pop at the plate and control the bat better. I want to see if any of that occurred, and if we can see the benefits.

3) Has Zamora gotten better defensively? He took a big step forward last year with the bat, but he suffered with some errors and long mechanics on some throws from SS at times. He needs to clean that up not just for us, but to help his draft status as well.

4) I want to see Gil have more plate discipline. At times, he went up there just swinging for the fences. Some of that paid off w/his power surge, but he's got to be more selective at the plate, and a tougher out late in the count. There were times when he had 2 strikes you KNEW the opposing pitcher was coming with a fastball at or above the letters. Sometimes Gil made them pay, others - he wasn't able to catch up. Either get better at hitting those pitches, or get better at laying off of them.

5) Has Federman taken a step forward? Can he be the closer? Or are we forced to use one of the newcomers or Keysor in that role, depending upon who is deemed the midweek guy? Or - do Ruiz/Maury step up and take that role?

Lastly and most importantly - will DiMare/Arteaga handle the pitching staff overall better? I think there were times we tried to keep guys in games either as a starter or reliever when it was obvious they were either done or just didn't have it that day. That ended up costing us a few ballgames last year. I want to see if they've learned from those mistakes and have a better feel for it.
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Well said.
 
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