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Thread: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

  1. #16
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    I’m glad Reds are focusing on launch angle.

    They also need to focus on swing and miss. The team K% has increased and was 3rd highest in the NL last year.


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  3. #17
    Member Shoeless Jeff's Avatar
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    Quote Originally Posted by RedsManRick View Post
    I have a couple of posts in recent years that had graphics which touch on this issue:

    https://www.redszone.com/forums/show...rom-TangoTiger
    https://www.redszone.com/forums/show...y-Launch-Angle

    This graphic from that post is my favorite. Left to right is low exit velocity to high exit velocity. Y-axis is wOBA (run value). Yellow line is grounders. Red line is low liners. Purple line is high liners. It illustrates a basic concept that if you hit the ball at a lowish angle, harder is always better, but your power upside is limited. If you hit the ball a high angle, you better be making very contact or you're going to get punished.

    As a team last year, the Reds had the 7th highest average launch angle and the 20th highest average velo. They were 9th in barrels, which is good. But because of their LA/velo combo (and likely because of a healthy dose of bad luck), when they weren't hitting barrels, they weren't getting hits. And that's a problem.

    It's OK if guys like Castellanos, Suarez, Winker, and Moose look to elevate -- those guys regularly hit the ball north of 95 mph, which is where fly balls shine. But guys like Votto, Senzel, Shogo, and Barnhart don't seem to have the raw power required to justify a high launch angle approach.
    That's a great point. We talk about an overall strategy, but it really needs to be applied on a player by player basis so that we use each player's strengths most appropriately.
    "Baseball is only dull to those with dull minds."

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  5. #18
    Member Alf_Red_E's Avatar
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    I've always adhered to the hit 'em where they aint strategy. With all the defensive shifts used in baseball today it can only be player's stubbornness or quest for personal stats that cause guys to hit 'em where they are.

    I read a story once where Ted Williams was complaining about the defensive alignments being used against him. None other than Ty Cobb laughed at him saying

    "The way those clubs shift against Ted Williams, I can't understand how he can be so stupid not to accept the challenge to him and hit to left field."

  6. #19
    Member Old school 1983's Avatar
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    I remember as a kid I watched a George Brett instructional video. His number one rule was try to hit the ball hard, not far. The Reds don’t need a launch angle approach in GABP. Place is already a launching pad. Hard hit balls will go. Fly balls that may leave GABP becomes cans of corn on the road.

  7. #20
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    Quote Originally Posted by Old school 1983 View Post
    I remember as a kid I watched a George Brett instructional video. His number one rule was try to hit the ball hard, not far. The Reds don’t need a launch angle approach in GABP. Place is already a launching pad. Hard hit balls will go. Fly balls that may leave GABP becomes cans of corn on the road.
    This was Joe Morgan’s hitting advice too. He and Brett did okay with their approach
    Hoping to change my username to 75769024

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    Old school 1983 (03-03-2021)

  9. #21
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    Quote Originally Posted by CesarGeronimo View Post
    After finishing 27th out of 30 teams in runs scored in 2020 and not improving their personnel during the offseason (the Doolittle offseason), the Reds are aiming for line drives and luck in 2021.
    My thoughts almost verbatim. Sometimes I wonder if the folks running things even watch this team play or just look at numbers and make the decisions based on that.

    I would buy into the whole "we were just unlucky" except for the fact that in the playoff they were horrendous and the quality of the at bats looked worse than the results which is hard to believe since they put up goose eggs for 22 straight innings.

  10. #22
    Member Ron Madden's Avatar
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    Lance McAlister @LanceMcAlister

    Hitting coach Alan Zinter talked in spring training about the Reds missing hits on the spectrum last year.
    2021: 113 more hits
    -7 HR, +2 3B, +26 2B, +92 1B

    Reds offense: 60 games

    2020
    BA .212, H 390, R 4.05

    2021
    BA .247, H 503, R 4.87

    Good news:
    Reds have scored 49 more runs through 60 games compared to a year ago.

    Bad news:
    Reds have allowed 76 more runs through 60 games compared to a year ago.
    Last edited by Ron Madden; 06-11-2021 at 12:50 PM.

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    HammerTime (06-11-2021),Tom Servo (06-11-2021)

  12. #23
    I wear Elly colored glass WrongVerb's Avatar
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    Makes you wonder if the pitchers cottoned onto that line-drive approach as well.
    Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. -- Carl Sagan (Pale Blue Dot)

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    Wonderful Monds (06-11-2021)

  14. #24
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    Re: Reds Emphasizing Line-Drive Approach

    "Reds have allowed 76 more runs through 60 games compared to a year ago."

    I would say that the departure of Bauer and Iglesias, plus the implosion of Castillo and Garret, probably account for those runs.


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