More Aggression

Peter Gammons writes about the changes Alex Cora brings to the Red Sox. One of them may be a change in approach against starting pitchers:

What Cora talked about in his press conference was one of the elements that took the enormous talent of the first five hitters in their lineup and made them the highest scoring team in the game. For a generation, taking pitches and trying to get deep into counts was vital to getting into bullpens in the fifth and sixth innings. That has changed, from 2003-2004. Bullpens today do not consist of sinker/slider failed starters. They come in throwing 97-99, in case you missed what Brian Cashman assembled. Starting pitchers will throw breaking balls early in counts, especially curveballs, in tandem with high four seam fastballs that change eye levels.

Cora talked about hitters going to the plate with an idea of what he needs to look for from each opposing pitcher (more data, sorry). George Springer gets a fastball on the outside half first pitch? Drive it. Ditto Bregman. Or Jose Altuve and Correa and Yuli Gurriel. The Astros had hitters who made contact, hard contact when they got their pitch. They led the majors in runs, OPS, hit line drives and hit them hard.

The Red Sox also have a half-dozen players, most approaching prime career ages, who make contact. But as Tim Britton in the Providence Journal pointed out, they took more first pitches than any of the 30 major league teams. They were in the top third in hitting the ball on the ground. And everyone knows that they were last in home runs.

This would be a huge organizational shift.

This approach is another good example of how offense and defense adjust to each other. If getting to the back of the bullpen isn’t a good strategy so harder after the starters.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2jeV7Gu