Offensive / Hitting Approach

[ChiSox_Sonix]

The abbreviation for Sacrifice Bunt is the same as the abbreviation for Stolen Base, so if you want to compile them all, you need to change at least 1 of those abbreviations.

 

That's why they use SAC

[Vance Law]

By the way, I think the key hitting statistic is our average w/ RISP. It's dead last. We've actually finished last twice before under Greg Walker ('05-surprisingly & 07) but we were much closer to the mean both times.

 

In 2007 they had the worst batting average in baseball period. It shouldn't be a surprise that they were also worst with RISP. Their batting with runners in scoring position was perfectly in line with their batting in general. That was by far the most injury-plagued team of recent seasons, and an abnormally down year for a number of players. It was as much of an anomaly as 2006 was in a good way.

 

Sox were first with RISP in 2006 and 8th in MLB in 2008. Figure out their average with RISP for the 5 years Walker has been here and I bet it is middle of the pack. Right in line with where their overall average is.

 

 

The team may not end up a great hitting team this year. But they are not this bad. They are hitting .230. They will end the year hitting .250 at least. They have been a combination of bad and unlucky over the relatively small sample size of the first 20% of the season. Plenty of other teams will hit .230 for a given stretch of 35 games. This particular 35 games is magnified in the eye of the fan who looks and sees that that is the batting average FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON! and flips out. This fan does not go back and check every team's batting average for every team for every 35 game interval. There are 5 starters batting .226 or less. If they are healthy and play the rest of the season, 0 of those 5 will end with a batting average that low.

[joeynach]

We must be extremely unlucky if we put the ball into play more than any other team, but get a hit worse than 28 other teams. Either our hitters are weak pansies, or we are unlucky w/ our hit placement.

 

We need to go back to BABIP, remember the discussion about that about a month ago. The sox were on pace to shatter some sort of MLB record for BABIP. We were at like .202 and I think the record low was like .260 with the MLB average around like .275-.280. If the sox BABIP is headed back toward league average number then I would expect our team OBP, Batting Avg, and RBI totals to start going up. If the BABIP is still well below league average then this offense is simply a failure.

[joeynach]

A few more stats...

 

HBP's -1st

 

SH (sacrifice hits) - 22nd

SF (sac flies) - 27th

 

I expected us to be higher in SH.

We've only got 7 all year?

Almost half the teams in baseball have 2X as many as we do.

So much for small ball.

 

And only 6 sac flies all year?

 

Two more indications of our challenges with situational hitting this year.

 

I believe that success in situational hitting comes from coaching. Its something you would practice in camp and throughout spring training, something that your coaching staff hammer home from the get go. Hence, when it comes to game time you are ready to go, have practiced it, and have the right mindset. Its amazing that the smallball and fundamental approach our staff has taken has failed so miserably on the field.

[qwerty]

Bottom 7 teams in MLB:

DBacks

Giants

Pirates

Twins

White Sox

Astros

Orioles

 

All at 17% or so.

 

The Sox being that low isn't surprising. 2 teams that caught my eye were the D-Backs, who were the same team with the anomalously high batting average given their strikeouts/PA ratio, and the Twins right above us.

 

 

Your list is whack.