I just wanted to take the opportunity to note that it was REFRESHING to hear Keith Hernandez ( a man who knows a little bit about hitting) and Gary Cohen lament the effect that this OBP nonsense just may not be good for baseball in the long run, although not in those exact words.

I’ve been saying that for the longest time.

The discussion came up during Friday nights game vs. Houston

These guys are trained professional HITTERS not takers. Your ability to identify pitches, or as we used to say back in the day “your batting eye” is established very young in a players life, even as young as when they’re kids. Just because some baseball players with good eyes become professional HITTERs doesn’t mean ALL players have to have that same approach as idealistic as that may be.

All hitters are different. Guys like Manny Sanguillen, Jeff Francouer, Vlad, Yogi, and so on are bad ball hitters. That’s what my dad used to call them “bad ball hitters”. IT’S JUST THE WAY IT IS.

Every single day in a professional’s life I’m sure coaches are working with them. The problem nowadays is EVERYBODY’s a coach.

Hopefully over time this approach will be exposed for what it truly is – a bad idea. Batting average is STILL the most important stat that tells if you someone can hit or not. Not OBP.

OBP is a residual effect of your performance. It is NOT to be used to dictate your performance. Sandy Alderson is going to have to relearn that because I’m telling you, if they stick to this OBP ideology in the Mets minor leagues it’s gonna change the culture of athletic competition in the minors here and NOT for the better either.

When the Mets faced rookie pitcher Vance Worley of the Phillies a couple of weeks ago, they lost the game because they took too many pitches, especially first strike pitches. This “new” passive approach is bad for baseball and this attempt to change the approach of batters who have worked a certain way all their lives to become professional hitters is ill advised and will ultimately prove to be detrimental to the game.

Who knows? Maybe that’s another reason runs scored is down. Anybody ever think of that?

Batters are taking TOO many pitchers instead of just being themselves and doing what got them to the bigs in the first place.

Leave the individual work to the coaches.

Way to go Keith and Gary!

OBP is a residual effect of your performance. It is NOT to be used to dictate your performance.

Remember that.

This Fan Shot was written and submitted by Bayonne Met Fan.