"I assume if he doesnt swing it isnt because he is a pussy that would rather take a free base and that he didnt see a pitch he believes he could have put good wood on."

It's not about being a pussy, AP. It's about narcissism. It's about your best hitter's unwillingness to sacrifice on-base percentage and just turn the keys over to the next guy when the game is on the line.

All those homers Bonds hit, can you remember one walk-off? Im sure he had some, but I can't remember one.

Last edited by artie_fufkin (4/29/2013 9:10 pm)

Latos showing off that new and improved attitude again. Guy throws six shutout innings and he's bitching about balls and strikes.

Off topic, berkman is batting 2/15/.319

artie_fufkin wrote:

All those homers Bonds hit, can you remember one walk-off? Im sure he had some, but I can't remember one.

Barry Bonds was intentionally walked 240 times during his steroid peak. I'm not sure you can hit a home run when the team is throwing balls six feet from home plate. 

He had 10 walk-off and 262 go-ahead home runs in his career. 
 

OK, a couple of runs off this stiff and go home ...

I don't know how a left-handed hitter even tries to hit Chapman. It's got to be terrifying.

tkihshbt wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

All those homers Bonds hit, can you remember one walk-off? Im sure he had some, but I can't remember one.

Barry Bonds was intentionally walked 240 times during his steroid peak. I'm not sure you can hit a home run when the team is throwing balls six feet from home plate. 

He had 10 walk-off and 262 go-ahead home runs in his career. 
 

I'm obviously not including intentional walks in the discussion. And go-ahead homers is a bullshit statistic, like GWRBI, which was so useless MLB doesn't give it any statistical value anymore. Bonds hits a solo homer in the top of the first inning and his team loses 22-1, that's a go-ahead homer.
So, he played 22 years and had 10 walk-off homers. Throw out 2005, the year he almost entirely missed because of his knee issues, and he hit one walk-off about every other year. Not that walk-offs are the be all, end all measure of clutch hitting. But it's telling.
 

Last edited by artie_fufkin (4/29/2013 10:24 pm)

artie_fufkin wrote:

 And go-ahead homers is a bullshit statistic, like GWRBI, which was so useless MLB doesn't give it any statistical value anymore. Bonds hits a solo homer in the top of the first inning and his team loses 22-1, that's a go-ahead homer.

I agree with that. 

So, he played 22 years and had 10 walk-off homers. Throw out 2005, the year he almost entirely missed because of his knee issues, and he hit one walk-off about every other year. Not that walk-offs are the be all, end all measure of clutch hitting. But it's telling.
 

True, but Jim Thome holds the MLB record with 17. The second-most is between Musial, Mantle, Ruth, Fox and Frank Robinson. They have 12, and I'm guessing pitchers were told to go after them in those situations. I don't think Bonds saw a single strike in the seventh inning on after 2001.

I'm not necessarily defending him for this as much as pointing out that, historically, he did well in walk-off home runs, even though pitchers were deathly afraid of him.*

With the caveat that he was roided up.
 

I'm not sure that walkoff HR is the best means to argue the original point which was whether hitters were being overly selective in what they swing at.

Pujols in his prime was the best example of a guy who could hit pitches out of the zone and cause significant damage.  I can still see the look on Justin Verlander's face when Pujols took a fastball that was up and 6 inches off the plate and served it into the right field bleachers.  And there was a time the pitcher couldn't throw a pitch far enough inside (without hitting him) to prevent Pujols from lining a HR into left field while somehow keeping the ball fair.  I was at the Easter Sunday game in 2006 when Pujols hit 3 HR, and each time the catcher moved inside.  I still remember turning to my friend Greg when Pujols came up the last time and saying "the one thing we know they won't do is trying to bust him inside with a fastball" and then watching in astonishment as the catcher moved inside just in time to watch HR #3 sail into the yet to be finished 3rd deck in left field.

Maybe it's just my disdain for Bonds, but I think his walk totals were inflated because the last few years of his career, he seemed to rarely get any called strikes.  It was as if the umpires assumed that if Bonds didn't swing, the pitch had to be a ball.  It's a lot easier to hit when the strike zone is the size of a shoe box.  And don't even get me started on MLB allowing him to wear armor to the plate.

I'm not advocating hitters chasing everything the pitchers throw, but I do think the theory of working pitch counts is overly simplistic.  Against the 2013 Cardinals, working the pitch count and getting to the bullpen is a good strategy.  Against a team with a shut down bullpen, not so much.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090815&content_id=6439870&c_id=ana