Everyone in our current lineup can hit a home run at any time. This is very positive, particularly at home at homer friendly GRF.  The additions of Hernández, Eloy and Robert have made a difference in this area.  This makes it easier for us to build bigger leads and/or come back from deficits.  The 3 run homer weapon is back in our arsenal.  On the other hand, we need to be careful to not be swinging for the fences at every opportunity.

Edited August 18, 20214 yr by hankchifan

It was always going to be the case that the power outage at the beginning of the season wasn't representative of this roster. 

21 minutes ago, hankchifan said:

Everyone in our current lineup can hit a home run at any time. This is very positive, particularly at home at homer friendly GRF.  The additions of Hernández, Eloy and Robert have made a difference in this area.  This makes it easier for us to build bigger leads and/or come back from deficits.  The 3 run homer weapon is back in our arsenal.  On the other hand, we need to be careful to not be swinging for the fences at every opportunity.

I hear 3 run homer and I immediately think of Earl Weaver.  He didn't believe in small-ball like bunting a man into scoring position.  He frequently pontificated that you only get 27 outs and he didn't believe in giving any of them away.  Pitching, defense, and the 3 run homer got him into the HOF.

Such a welcome sight from all the groundballs. 

I was curious if they were actually hitting a lot of groundballs this season or if it just seemed that way, so I decided to look it up. Turns out 1) they are hitting a lot of groundballs, but 2) they sort of always have (at least as far back as the data goes):

Year: ML Rank (GB%)

2021: #2 (47.7%)

2020: #5 (45.9%)

2019: #4 (47.1%)

2018: #8 (46%)

2017: #4 (48.2%)

2016: #10 (47%)

2015: #3 (50.3%)