Seattle Sports Insider

14 Hits the Other Way!

Using Your Noodle, dept.

Posted by

4/29/14

Well, maybe one or two of the base hits did go to center field. And it's kinda cheap of Dr. D to count the (1B-side) bunt hit that Almonte grovelled, he'll grant you.

But of the M's 15 hits Tuesday, only one was pulled that we noticed, that being Zunino's soft liner to Ichiro. (But 75% of Zunino's hits were the other way, so you can't even talk about that one.)

Some where, some way, that is a franchise record, gentlemen. You could massage the stats in some way or other, and show that April 30th was the greatest Derek Jeter Imitation Act the franchise ever performed. Maybe it was Highest Percentage of Non-Pulled Base Hits On the Road When the Umpires Gave the Yankees Two Extra Hours to Catch Up, or something.

Almonte "surprisingly" struck out to open festivities. (Ain't it grand to mobilize the army, to range the missiles, to launch the first shot in the war ... and have it go Pfffft up in the air 50 feet? Always let the hostiles know that you are taking no prisoners.)

Anyway, on the next AB, Stefen Romero gave CC Sabathia all he wanted and then --- > took a letter-high, centered fastball the other way, to right field ... well, okay, it was a popout in foul territory off first base. But Romero spent the entire game picking the ball out of the catcher's glove, so we'll cut him some slack.

Cano struck out, and then

Corey Hart flew out ... to RF
Smoak smote the ball rather hard ... to CF
(Gillepsie did ground out to SS)
Seager, although he usually hits left handed, took the ball down the ... 3B line for an out that was no discredit to him in any way
Mike Zunino opened the M's base hit account with a cute humpback liner ... to RF
Willie Bloomquist lined a letter-high fastball up the middle for a single
(Almonte called out on strikes. No punch line. It's too easy.)
Stefen Romero lined out ... to RF

So that's 11 batters through the lineup, it's about 90 minutes of game time, about 3/4 inches of water onto the warning track, and only one (1) pitch where the hitter got the bat out in front.

It kept up all night long. Those 15 hits weren't a bunch of seeing-eye parachute jobs; Dustin Ackley got a 97 MPH fastball from Dellin Betances and hit it 107 MPH past Derek Jeter into left field. They just covered one pitch after another, man, and they did it because they let the pitches travel a little more.

Here's the quick-scan play by play.

.......

Amazing what happens if you can resist a lunge at the ball, neh? You'd think that if you were a major league player, you would acquire a taste for scoring runs, one so strong that it overpowered your burning need to watch a bi-monthly home run. Naahhh.

........

Special shout-out to Cole Gillespie. His second AB, he got an 88 MPH fastball just off the plate away, and he did what he has done 9,000 times in the minor leagues. He squared the ball up and shot it down the RF line for a cinch double.

SSI has pined for the use of players who are willing to put on the foil. Right now, that contingent includes Stefen Romero and Cole Gillespie. If we want to set the tone for "professional at-bats," those two guys are giving us exactly that.

Blog:

Postgame

Comments

It was a blast...

to see the M's get such a flurry of hits. Nice change of pace from, uh, the last three weeks or so.
Smoak for most of his at bats was if anything even more greedy than normal. His first at bat was downright comical. Swings out of his shoes and misses and misses a centered fastball. Lathers, rinses, repeats, takes a hike after four pitches, but acts like a lion on the prowl the whole time, doing his best intimidation stare out to the mound after the third strike before striking his woof pose on the way back to the dugout, as if puffing out your chest is the solution.

The makings

Of a decent 4-man OF (well, 3.5) is Gillespie/Saunders/Romero and Ackley (I only give him .5 because I'm still down on him, despite the two hits....and now three in three AB's). But we have to be willing to use Gillespie or Ackley or Romero in CF. I think Gillespie or Romero could handle it, actually. I'm still way in on Romero because he looks more and more patient and is a tough out, without a bunch of Wee Willie Keeler swings (which I wish Almonte would do. Well, in Tacoma).

That said...

it is encouraging to start seeing some offensive performances that are not offensive, if you get my drift.

Yes and yes!!

Jeff, well said! When you don't have a line up of 30+ guys, you have to make up the lack of distance by using the entire field! I get tired of watching high school kids think it is cool to pull it. Unless baseball starts letting you use a tee, you won't know hitting until you learn to go with the pitch! I haven't been able to follow as close as I would like but I sometimes wonder if an Almonte gets something stuck in his head after watching his bomb in Oakland. Is that like winning in Vegas the first time so now you think you can do it?

The Way Back machine

Watching Gillespie (I just love that guy) and Romero last night in Yankee Stadium took me way back to the days of the Mantle/Maris/Berra Yankees. The guy on that team we most despised was Bill 'Moose' Skowron. Why? Because he was 'weak' and 'lucky'! He never pulled the ball...like a real man. He hit everything over the second baseman's head. It didn't seem fair that all those hits counted.
Only later did we grudgingly admit that they actually did.
Hooray for contact!

Agreed on Smoak...not entirely agreed on Romero.

He's battling at the plate, for sure...and hitting the ball hard when he hits it...but he has a long career of failing to make enough contact to make up for the fact that he never walks. I am just not buying it. And ESPECIALLY not buying it in CF...he looks mediocre at best in the corners defensively...he's a -15 or -20 defensive CF from where I sit.
Smoak does still look greedy as Gollum out there...the rest of the guys seem to be relaxing some, though...especially Ackley (who got all hyper again for a bit...but is calming down) and Zunino.

Fair enough, Matt

I wish Romero had a few more walks in him, too. However, I'm willing to give him that as long as he doesn't go weekly into the night. I think he showing better than decent leather in RF. As a CF, he would be a BU, certainly. Give me Saunders 8 of 10 games, and then Gillespie/Romero on occasion. Or use Ackley there. Were Ackley our 2nd CF, behind Saunders, I would be more up on him.
Ackley's EYE rate ran fairly constant for 3 seasons, as did the # of pts. he walked. Both have toppled this year (SSS). He's walking only 42 pts. Even if he goes back up the 66 (last year's rate) he has to ISO near 120 OR hit .280 to be pretty valuable.
Go kid! but I'm not laying money on that bet right now.

To be sure...Romero looks better than many Ms.

I'm not writing him off, per say...I am just not entirely sold that the league won't adjust and start throwing him a ton of pitches out of the strike zone.
I agree, having just spent some time looking at Ackley's fan graphs card, that his upside is not good. Not unless he radically changes as a hitter and soon...he either needs to be way...way...WAY more aggressive on pitches in the strike zone...or he needs to grow 40 pounds of pure muscle.