Odds And Ends On A Cloudy Thursday

Where you are it may or may not be cloudy and for that matter it may or may not be Thursday. But I’m not here to discuss the weather — I am, however, here to discuss the Oakland A’s.

A couple random notes from the Eyeball Scout before the A’s try for a series sweep in Cincinnati...

Corners Too Deep?

As the Houston Astros were making the leap from bottom feeders to perennial division winners, a change was seen not just in the standings (or heard near the garbage can lids). Right handed batters were hitting to right fielders who were playing shallower and cutting off a lot of potential hits in front of them.

I take you back to Tuesday’s game in Cincinnati where the Reds drew first blood on a Ty France bloop single to RF. Multiple factors conspired to prevent Lawrence Butler from catching it for the 3rd out. For one, Zack Gelof ranged out far and made it unclear who was going to go after it. For another, Butler took charge but then seemed to slow down looking at Gelof again and then re-accelerated too late.

But the third factor might have been the clincher: Butler was not playing especially shallow to begin with. I am a big fan of playing the corner outfielder shallow, as the Astros do, to the off field, especially for a hitter who lacks power and especially with 2 strikes.

The reasoning is that most hitters, unless they have significant power, don’t hit a lot of balls to the warning track the other way. They do, however, lob a fair number of balls in front of the fielder.

Essentially, what I am describing and what the Astros were at the forefront of executing, is a “no singles defense” that is less talked about than its cousin “no doubles” which asks outfielders to play exaggeratedly deep so as to defend the alleys and keep balls in front of them.

It gives too much credit to most hitters to guard against an off field drive to the track compared to the all too common short fly ball the other way. I think the A’s could cut off quite a few runs over the course of a season by playing their “off field corner outfielder” a step or two in from where they currently set up.

Low payroll teams need to maximize their talent in every way possible — and shrewd positioning is a freebie.

Brown Was The Latest “TMI” Victim

What Seth Brown recently articulated is a phenomenon I have been observing for years. Players are becoming obsessed with watching video, crunching numbers, sometimes seeming to spend more time thinking about their pitching or hitting than they spend actually practicing the skill.

I believe that we are in an era where “too much information” is getting in the way of reps, muscle memory, a process you can trust, and relaxing into a skill set you have or you wouldn’t be here.

That is not to denigrate the value of hard work, analysis, and the cerebral aspect to a physical game. It has a place, without question. But at some point, more is too much and it does not benefit every athlete to break down every pitch and every swing 5 times over.

You absolutely need a good approach, good mechanics, and a good plan in order to pitch or hit at the major league level. But once these areas are solid, sometimes a “see ball, hit ball” approach is superior to any other. If you have any questions, please refer them to the man batting .296/377/.481 in August following a .304/.360/.609 July.

Your thoughts on the above, or really anything else, are welcomed. And let’s hope JT can pick up his first winn this afternoon!