Anytime you throw a changeup that fat after the guy just fouled off four straight fatsballs you screwed yourself.

That changeup if you look at the setup was supposed to be low and outside. It was neither the pitch got away from him and it got crushed.

Bottomline is it was a MISTAKE! A Mistake that would not have been possible if he took one of those close enough to call fastballs because he would have been punched out by the UMP!

He was able to foul off those pitches because with two strikes he expanded the zone to be sure that the only thing that got by him was NO DOUBT outside the strike zone.

Placido Polance showed a lot of this last night. All the best hitters do!

With two strikes they expand the strike zone in their head and protect that zone by fouling off pitches until the pitcher makes a mistake be it throwing an obvious ball or throwing a fat pitch!

I would guess your confusing it with being aggressive at the plate because the same guys who like OBP use the opposite extreme to sell OBP! But we are not talking about being aggressive in the at bat we are talking about being defensive once the two strikes are on you.

Then you foul off pitches that are “CLOSE ENOUGH TO CALL” in order to extend the AB so you can try and get a pitch you can hit or as a consolation take the walk on a pitch the Umpire could never call a strike because it was outside even your expanded strike zone!

The changeup was a MISTAKE, Either a mistake of execution or as you think a mistake in strategy. That mistake was not possible if he let one of those close enough to call fastballs go un tipped and called a strike by the UMP!

Murphy took the decision away from the Umpire by doing so and forced the pitcher to throw enough pitches to be ready for anything and when anything was a mistake deposited it over the fence!

He really only has two choices against LHP. 4 seam and change. The four seam was getting timed to the point that Murphy was now ahead of it. Good time to change speeds but at 3-2 He was at the very least forced to bring it up to look like the FB. Not saying he put it exactly where he wanted but Murphy forced him to bring it into a spot he would have preferred not to and then probably missed the exact spot he wanted.

No way a pitcher is walking the potential tying run in the eights inning. At 3-2 outside corner maybe but the intent of the pitch is to beat you on timing, location only matters if you don’t meet your primary goal.

Murphy made him elevate the change to give the appearance of the fastball by taking three previous changes for balls.

But I agree Ike has changed his approach a bit and it has served him well.

He will still have problems with the high strike due to his swing and it will be interesting to see how they adjust to him this year and how fast he re-adjust to it.

Like I said so far he has really been the player of the month. Definitly the most consistent batter we have and he has made some very impressive fielding plays as well such as going home for the force to save the run last night.

He also had more strikeouts when ahead in the count why didn’t he swing at those? Why was he punched out on called third strikes half the time?
Because he was waiting for his pitch>

He had 1 hit when ahead in the count and all of the remainder behind in the count.

So the data shows he got HIS PITCH to hit when he was behind in the count not ahead.

If he had taken a few hacks at those whren ahead he might have actually got some BETTER pitches to hit no matter what he was ahead or behind in the count!

What happened in the first 4 Pitches is irrelevant! What is key is what happened in the last 3 where the Batter was one strike away from walking back to the bench.

Fouling off the last fastball that was up in the zone and probably a ball is the pivitol pitch that showed Murphy he was timed correctly and that he had MORE time to size up and identify the pitch before swinging. If he lets that pass it was close enough for the unpire to call a strike, AB over!

So he waited on the next two pitches, The Changeup in the dirt identified and layed off. No Swing!
The Fastball that was again fouled off because it was not a very hittable pitch but close enough to be called a strike.
And the final changeup that was a MISTAKE not a pitch thrown to where the pitcher wanted it (unless he is dumb) and crushed!

The only argument you could make is that the pitcher intended to throw that chageup where it was. And by not swinging at the balls he made him throw one for a strike.
And if you think that then there is no point in even discussing this at all because your premise is dumb. NO PITCHER would EVER throw a changeup where that ball was INTENTIONALLY!

No matter what the batter did in the previous chageup offerrings or no matter what the game situation was.

EVEN if the bases were loaded in a tie game the choice would not be to throw a changeup over the fat part of the plate the choice would have been throw another fastball and hope to get it by him!

Throw a changeup over the middle of the plate INTENTIONALLY!

He tried to get Murphy to swing and miss at the Fastballs. He did swing but did not miss!

He then tried to get him to swing at the changeup in the dirt. He didn’t.
And then came back with a fastball. Didn’t work.

The pitch Murphy hit was a CLEAR mistake!
NO PITCHER in ANY SITUATION would intentionally throw a Changeup fat in the strike zone!

The pitch Murphy hit was a mistake not an attempt to strike him out! That pitch was probably also meant to be in the dirt or low and outside but the pitcher missed.

Your attempt to try and say the pitcher intended to throw that pitch because of previous changeups flys against the face of logic.

Most changeups are not meant to be thrown as strikes.
They are meant to fool the batter and get him to miss based on timing not location. And because Murphy fouled off all those pitches it actually HELPED his timing so that the change of speeds was not an issue and therefore could not fool the batter!

Metsie, I totally agree. That homer competition was the beginning of the slide. Too bad.

David Wright doesn’t do much of what Ike is now doing. It seems to me that besides going to right field with a pitch, he’s always swinging with the intent of knocking the ball through (lol) or over the fence. It’s too bad because he’s lost some of his value with his predctable batting approach.

Getting back to Ike, he’s changed some aspects of his batting stance, according to Keith. He’s dropped his hands so he has less movement when he begins his swing. Also, he often spreads his legs farther in the batting box to minimize lower body moving parts. I’m impressed.

Swinging at pitches you cannot do anything with costs you more points of you BA than anything else, not to mention how many less pitches you get to hit because of your gullibleness. Just look at Murph last night. Didn’t fish on 3 straight pitches yet landed the whale.

The change maynot have been exactly where Clippard wanted to put it but he most definitely was throwing it for a strike…..Because Murphy made him.

I also doubt he was tired. He had thrown 5 pitches in the 7th and 6 more in the 8th before the Murphy AB. I mean how tired could he have been? He had even had a few days off before last nights game.

There was no reason to be scared of Murphy at that point, he had the lead the bases were empty and he could have easily just pitched to the next guy who has been an easy strikeout of late.

Murphy didn’t scare him he merely killed all of his attempts to paint a fastball by him and when he threw the change it hung.
Probably because he was damn tired throwing all those fastballs to no avail!

The whole key to that AB was the three change ups he didn’t swing at. That’s what made Clippard have to throw him the one changeup that he did swing at. The only one that was over the plate.

It was over the plate because Murphy dictated to the pitcher that he had to throw it over the plate or put the potential tying run on base.

He is strong enough to foul off just about any pitch that is close enough to call but not fat enough to hit.

He needs to stop thinking about the fences and the dingers. Just concentrate on making good contact then the HRs and fences will not be an issue. Neither will the low outside pitch!

A good eye is more than just being able to identify a strike and a ball. It also includes having the Eye to make contact with a ball that has movement.

The problem is people want to use OBP as an evaluator stat. But in doing so they evaluate and give credit to a player things that he did not himself do.

A Walk and a HBP are both products of what the pitcher did not the batter!

You can have a high OBP and a lousy BA. But you can’t have a High BA and also a lousy OBP!

And to say to some player “Get the OBP numbers Up!” is telling him to walk more since he can’t just jump in front of pitches to get a HBP.

Mentioning OBP to a player or to pick a player based on OBP if favoring the walk to be as good as a hit.

Who is the better player?

Player A OBP .500 BA .200
Player B OBP .500 BA .300
If the pitcher does not throw a ball and merely throws strikes who will have the higher OBP at the end of the day?

OBP is a bad tool to use because it hides the actual player merit in it’s numbers and obscures what was ACTUALLY creditable to the batter.
And many who like the OBP stat say BA is unimportant. That is until they come to that situation I described above.

This is what happened to Emaus who had a bad BA but a good OBP when selected.
And they threw him strikes! When they didn’t and he had a hitters count he walked more than hit! (which blows the get a good pitch theory out of the water!) But when behind and no chance to walk he was forced to swing and when he did he actually got some hits!

It’s a matter of diminishing goals!

If you believe the lesser is AS GOOD as the greater you will tailor your apporach towards the lesser when it should be tailored towards the greater!

That’s another thing, how can you once be an outstanding 2 strike hitter then suddenly not?
Doesn’t HGH enhance eyesight?

His problem is they asked and he is trying to comply!

He is not a prototypical HR hitter!
Sure he hits some but they are a result of staying controlled, working the count, protecting the plate and getting 30 pitches a season he can crush.

For the past two years he has been going for the POWER instead of the average and that is what has turned 20 more ABs into Ks instead of the 4 or 5 HRs and the .030 points of average he used to have!

He is basically swinging for the fences when he should be swinging for the ball instead!

But hitting/OB in general is about taking what is given and going with what is presented.

In some cases what is given is a walk. But with two strikes you better be damn sure it is a ball and if it is close enough to call then it was close enough to swing at and at least foul off. Sure this will sometimes lead to a ground out or pop fly but at least you did not give into the notion that the pitcher calls the shots. If you put the ball in play they still have to field it and we have seen many times how what looks like a bad hit turns into an OB due to a fielder’s error or bloop hit.

In some cases it is going the other way with a pitch that is outside. It’s not YOUR pitch but it is something you can hit where they are not!

But by fighting off the pitcher with two strikes you increase the chances that he will miss because that is simply a matter of the law of probability.
And as more pitches are thrown the chance of YOUR pitch coming also increased.

The whole concept is to make the pitcher work. Every pitch he throws is one more pitch closer to his tiring, mistake making and pitch count.

By doing this from inning one you can knock a pretty good pitcher out by the 5th inning if you do not give into him and let him dictate the terms of your result.

You will get fooled there is no way around that, You will MISS on YOUR pitch as well, that is also going to happen.

But the more pitches you see and the more pitches he throws the greater the chance of you not only getting th OB but one in a manner that can drive in anyone who did the same and got OB ahead of you!

Bottomline if you want to win you have to MAKE it happen not wait for it to happen or be given to you!

Which is what they seemed to be doing during that long stretch of losing!