Is anyone else getting REALLY annoyed when Sox players, esp fastball hitters, let a FAT first pitch, heart-of-the-plate fastball go by for strike one?

 

A few games ago there was a stat I heard (I think it was actually a Cubs game) where in the MLB as a whole, hitters are batting in the vicinity of .220/.230 after the count is 0-1 and are batting .270/.280 after the count is 1-0 (they gave exact BA #'s I can't remember). I have a feeling that the Sox collective paltry .255 team BA is being affected by this phenomenon.

 

Mr. Paul O-fer Konerko has been letting all kinds of first pitch fastballs go by him lately. I dunno if this is of his own accord or Greg Walker's doing, but it has got to stop! Do what has made you successful! Yesterday Zito gave him a couple first pitch fastballs. Zito gave a lot of Sox hitters first pitch fastballs, yet he knew they'd stand there with the bats glued to their shoulders. If Zito gives you first pitch fastball strike, YOU GOTTA SWING! Once you're down 0-1, all you are going to see is JUNK. And junk is exactly the kind of stuff that will strike out most of our Sox hitters... which is just what happened.

 

Meanwhile on the other side of the plate, Oakland hitters have been doing nearly the same thing. The bats will NOT move from their shoulders on the first pitch (there were some exceptions). They do NOT swing at breaking balls in or out of the strike zone unless there are 2 strikes. They wait there till our pitchers outthink themselves and have thrown them a 2-0 count, then they wait on a fastball in the zone. They're contact hitters that wait for fastballs in the zone after they're up in the count. That's it! That's the great mystery to why they've beaten us. Buerhle had the right idea yesterday when he was doing first pitch strikes only his defense let him down (as his own did last time). Normally Garland pitched like that too only two days ago he didn't have location of his pitches and fell behind many A's hitters.

 

In conclusion:

Konerko, swing at first pitch fastball strikes... Frank Thomas was good enough in his hayday to get away with letting the first strike go by, YOU ARE NOT AND NEVER WILL BE THAT KIND OF HITTER

Rowand, do what made you a .310 hitter last year, swing at first pitch fastball strikes!

Dye, hey you got hot because you stopped letting that first strike go by unchallenged!

Ozzie, you wanna win, right? Stop starting Willie and Timo! Aaaargh!!!

Oakland is NOT that great of a team, we just make it look that way.

I dont like it much either, but they did a study last year that when batters swing at the first pitch, their average was .143.

Is anyone else getting REALLY annoyed when Sox players, esp fastball hitters, let a FAT first pitch, heart-of-the-plate fastball go by for strike one? 

 

A few games ago there was a stat I heard (I think it was actually a Cubs game) where in the MLB as a whole, hitters are batting in the vicinity of .220/.230 after the count is 0-1 and are batting .270/.280 after the count is 1-0 (they gave exact BA #'s I can't remember).  I have a feeling that the Sox collective paltry .255 team BA is being affected by this phenomenon.

 

Mr. Paul O-fer Konerko has been letting all kinds of first pitch fastballs go by him lately.  I dunno if this is of his own accord or Greg Walker's doing, but it has got to stop!  Do what has made you successful!  Yesterday Zito gave him a couple first pitch fastballs.  Zito gave a lot of Sox hitters first pitch fastballs, yet he knew they'd stand there with the bats glued to their shoulders.  If Zito gives you first pitch fastball strike, YOU GOTTA SWING!  Once you're down 0-1, all you are going to see is JUNK.  And junk is exactly the kind of stuff that will strike out most of our Sox hitters... which is just what happened.

 

Meanwhile on the other side of the plate, Oakland hitters have been doing nearly the same thing.  The bats will NOT move from their shoulders on the first pitch (there were some exceptions).  They do NOT swing at breaking balls in or out of the strike zone unless there are 2 strikes.  They wait there till our pitchers outthink themselves and have thrown them a 2-0 count, then they wait on a fastball in the zone.  They're contact hitters that wait for fastballs in the zone after they're up in the count.  That's it!  That's the great mystery to why they've beaten us.  Buerhle had the right idea yesterday when he was doing first pitch strikes only his defense let him down (as his own did last time).  Normally Garland pitched like that too only two days ago he didn't have location of his pitches and fell behind many A's hitters.

 

In conclusion:

Konerko, swing at first pitch fastball strikes... Frank Thomas was good enough in his hayday to get away with letting the first strike go by, YOU ARE NOT AND NEVER WILL BE THAT KIND OF HITTER

Rowand, do what made you a .310 hitter last year, swing at first pitch fastball strikes!

Dye, hey you got hot because you stopped letting that first strike go by unchallenged!

Ozzie, you wanna win, right?  Stop starting Willie and Timo!  Aaaargh!!!

Oakland is NOT that great of a team, we just make it look that way.

a lot of teams can say that, Oakland has always been a scrappy team, and for some reason they just match up really good against the Sox. their pitchers seem to have our hitters' numbers, and they always seem to capitalize on our mistakes.

Pauly pretty much always avoids swinging at first pitch fastballs, or just fastballs period XD