Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Yankees were swinging the bats like slow pitch softball players during the playoffs

Yankee manager Joe Girardi said during the playoffs that his hitters had to make "adjustments." Unfortunately none of them did. All they did do was stand at the plate and hack away like they were playing slow pitch softball.

None of the Yankee batters tried stay back in the box, drive the ball where it was pitched and into the opposite field, or not hit lazy fly balls. It should be obvious that the Yankee hitters had success during the regular season because they were smacking around fastballs from mediocre pitchers.

But when a pitcher would throw a changeup or curveball in a fastball count, the Yankees appeared helpless. They were way too aggressive and chased bad pitches. Even in hitters' counts, the Yankees flailed at pitches out of the strike zone.

Some so-called baseball experts believe that a strikeout is no worse that grounding out, but with men on base it's always better to put the ball in play, since it can move runners around the bases, or maybe a fielder makes an error which can keep an inning going.

Curtis Granderson had a couple of good all-around seasons while playing with the Tigers, so next year  instead of just to hit a home run every time he's up, why not just wait on some pitches and try to make contact. Singles, doubles, and triples are good to hit, too.

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