Manufactured runs banned from baseball

[jhowdy54]

Its sad to see the most simplist fundamentals not apart of baseball anymore. Its getting so hard to watch with every player swinging for the fences. There are simple ways to score runs but managers must be so afraid to ask a hitter to give up an out. Every right handed hitter is facing 3 fielders on the left side with lefties seeing 3 on the right side. Every ground ball in the infield you already know its hit right at a fielder. Teams that shifted on Votto years ago were giving up hits about every AB. They had to play him straight up. Now I know he's been one of our best hitters this year but still seems like he's in a home run derby anymore. With all the free passes pitchers are giving us you would think that a team could atleast manufacturer one run in a game. With so many close games one run is making a big difference. Sorry just getting frustrated with how baseball has turned into.

[Rijo's Ghost]

*Team starts giving up outs and slapping the ball against the shift. BA raises 15 points, OBP drops, SLG craters*

What happened to our power hitters???? They need to step up or this team won't score runs!

[klw]

*Team starts giving up outs and slapping the ball against the shift. BA raises 15 points, OBP drops, SLG craters*

What happened to our power hitters???? They need to step up or this team won't score runs!

Reds are 5th in the majors in HR (3rd in AB/HR), 13th in Runs.
https://www.mlb.com/stats/team/home-runs

6th in walks but only 12th in OBP because the team BA is only .206.

Reds are 29th in BABIP which suggest they are being unlucky at the moment.
https://www.mlb.com/stats/team/babip?expanded=true

[dfs]

It's interesting to see MLB as a whole shift away from what was conventional wisdom 40 years ago. Given the popularity of Moneyball as a text and the fact that every team is looking for market inefficiencies to exploit, you would think one team would try and develop slap hitters who focus on making contact instead of driving the ball. In the same vein there has to be a pitching coach out there who believes that not walking batters, getting ground balls and pitching 8 innings on every start is more important than striking out hitters by throwing as hard as they can on every pitch.

But that team hasn't appeared in the last 20 years. Since that team hasn't appeared in 20 years, it may be that this new way of doing things is more effective at the major league level than what has been happening before. Is it how you want to build your softball team? or you High School baseball team? No. That would be silly, but you have to either believe that the game has evolved this way at the major league level OR that every organization out there is just lemming like following the herd.

[reds77]

If this is a vent thread, I miss the stolen base.

[TheBigLebowski]

Reds are 5th in the majors in HR (3rd in AB/HR), 13th in Runs.
https://www.mlb.com/stats/team/home-runs

6th in walks but only 12th in OBP because the team BA is only .206.

Reds are 29th in BABIP which suggest they are being unlucky at the moment.
https://www.mlb.com/stats/team/babip?expanded=true

Luck definitely has eluded them. I don't know how much of an opportunity it'll have to balance itself over the course of 60 games, but it has been a factor.

My concern is once we start having those line drives hit where they ain't, our starters will begin surrendering more runs.

And this bullpen is just STANK. That's not luck.

[Cooper]

Usually it's losing teams that attempt new stratigies.

[RedsManRick]

Its sad to see the most simplist fundamentals not apart of baseball anymore. Its getting so hard to watch with every player swinging for the fences. There are simple ways to score runs but managers must be so afraid to ask a hitter to give up an out. Every right handed hitter is facing 3 fielders on the left side with lefties seeing 3 on the right side. Every ground ball in the infield you already know its hit right at a fielder. Teams that shifted on Votto years ago were giving up hits about every AB. They had to play him straight up. Now I know he's been one of our best hitters this year but still seems like he's in a home run derby anymore. With all the free passes pitchers are giving us you would think that a team could atleast manufacturer one run in a game. With so many close games one run is making a big difference. Sorry just getting frustrated with how baseball has turned into.

I agree about the lament stylistically and we could talk about how to get back there. But to have that conversation, I think we have to separate out the changes that result from natural improvements in player skill and strategic understanding from the particular strategic choices or approaches that result from the changed environment caused by progress.

For example, teams now have entire staffs of pitchers that have the velocity and movement that would have made them stars in prior eras. It's never been more difficult for hitters to merely make any contact at all. While they could choose tailor their approach to mere contact, the idea that it's "simple" to make a productive out is an outdated notion, if it ever made sense. It's harder to do than ever and the payoff is worse.

As for manufacturing a run, the problem with doing so in anything other than late in a 1 run game is that you typically need to score 4+ runs to win. You might be able to increase you chances of scoring 1 run, but you lessen your chances of scoring multiple runs -- especially if you're taking the bat out the hands of guys who can do real damage. Those situations where you might manufacture a run are the same situations in which an extra base hit is particularly valuable. So you're making a real trade-off of scoring fewer runs on average for the sake of having a higher chance (maybe) of scoring that 1 run. That 1 run better be the difference maker.

In any event, I don't think there's any going back per se'. 1-run strategies only really make sense in very low run scoring environments. Unless you want to resurrect the dead-ball era in terms of run scoring, you're not going to see much of that again. Make pitching harder to reduce strikeouts and you just encourage batters to swing for the fences even more than they do. They know that trading strikeouts for power is generally worth it in most situations. It's like shooting 3s instead of mid-range jumpers in the NBA. The math is undeniable. And like the 3-pointer, I think the way mitigate the trend is to make it objectively harder to do. Push back the fences significantly. I could maybe support a limited no-shifting rule as well (2 IF & 1 OF required on each side of the field prior to the ball being struck).

But in any event, I think we have to be smart about 1) What type of game we want to see, 2) What we're actually capable of changing, and 3) What the impact of those changes are likely to be.

[mgbrown66]

After watching what the Indians have trotted out to the mound the last three nights, they could definitely get away with playing small ball.

But with our bullpen, you better put up at least 4 a game in order to have a chance.

[mth123]

No fleas please.

[Roy Tucker]

No manufactured runs. Only organic and natural runs with no additives. As the baseball gods intended.

[westofyou]

Jay Bell is a dinosaur, giving away outs is like going to strip club on a Walmart salary, not advisable in today's world

[WildcatFan]

Seems to me their batters are stinging some balls directly at defenders. That tends to normalize.

[Shoeless Jeff]

If this is a vent thread, I miss the stolen base.

If this is a vent thread, I'll call my Heating and Air Conditioning guy!

[15fan]

Suarez hitting like Suarez rather than a la Aaron Harang would go a looooong way towards fixing what ails this team.