One thing I always chuckle at when watching my DVD's of the 2004 postseason is Tim McCarver making a big deal of my man Bellhorn being an unlikely choice as a #2 hitter.
We need Kimmi here.
I believe the idea of having your "best" hitter up second is that you benefit from a combo package of their higher PA's, RBI opportunities and their OBP setting up the hitters behind them.
A healthy rotation is pretty much an oxymoron now. The Dodgers seem to have the right approach-by starting with about a dozen guys, there's a good chance of having 3 healthy ones in the playoffs. Admittedly it's an approach that gets a bit pricey...
As of this moment candidates for 4 and 5 are Giolito, Fitts, Priester and Criswell. Pretty Cap'n Obvious, really.
And Giolito's hammy issue just as Obviously makes him a tad questionable.
Nice comeback win for the Sox last night! 😉
Mayer with the clutch two-out game tying hit, and now OPSing 1.071!
Criswell with 3 scoreless and 4 Ks to notch the win!
I saw Kingman hit one out of Wrigley that went across the street, bounced in a driveway and hit the side of a house. The owner came out to retrieve the ball. I think it was on a Game of the Week. Kingman could launch them.
Throwing a baseball at high speed and spin rates is different from any other sports movement, I have to think, in the amount of damage it causes on a widespread level.
There's just no comparison between throwing a baseball in the high 90's and shooting a basketball. Steph Curry could probably shoot basketballs 500 times a day every day.
The only other factor I can think of is that pitchers didn't throw nearly as hard back then, so maybe that resulted in more "meatball" pitches that were easier to launch.
There are really only two possible explanations:
1) Distances of past long balls were overstated.
2) The baseball is deader now.
What else could there be?
But in this case the main data we're talking about is injuries, and the information we get on that is pretty much out in the open. Red Sox fans know when one of their pitchers goes on the IL and for how long.