Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
Originally posted by teach them linear:
Swinging at the first pitch is not bad hitting unless you swing at bad pitches and thats bad regardless of when in the count it occurs. One major league team charted their whole organization and came to this conclusion; when a first pitch fastball is thrown for a strike the hitter hits over 400 for that at bat reguardless if he put that pitch in play when he swings at it. If a batter takes it for a strike they hit 187 for that at bat. Good aggressive hitters swing at the first pitch often. good hitters swing at strikes! Find something to criticize Henderson for that is reasonable there are plenty of other options including playing guys that swing at balls.
Your premise might hold true, but it is extremely hard to compare college to the majors, especially pitching. There is a huge difference in talent and ability. Just think of all the guys that are picked up by colleges or are drafted early that have no idea how to throw strikes, but they know how to throw 95 miles per hour. Those guys either learn to throw strikes by the majors, are in the minors, or are no longer playing baseball. So, I imagine that those numbers might change, at least a bit, due to the pitching ability. That being said, I agree that it isn't bad to swing early. I just dislike when the guys watch a pitcher walk a guy, hit a guy and then they decide to get aggressive and swing at the first pitch. It is there, I think, that you should make the guy work and see if he can throw strikes.