Add new comment

At least that's when I started questioning the truth about the Wedge hitting mentality.
In the end, what I suspect is that it comes down exclusively to looking strikes - especially looking called third strikes.
My view on aggression vs. patience is that the ultimate arbiter is what is the response to watching "borderline" pitches go by. In order to BE an Adam Dunn, you have no choice but to let LOTS of borderline pitches go by. The intent is to swing at REALLY good hitter pitches. That means passing on "at the knees on the black" pitches.
If you get strikes called on pitcher pitches, so be it. The concept, (proven most effectively by one Barry Bonds) is the better the pitch you actually swing at - the better the aggregate result when you do swing.
I have believed since early on that while Wedge talks a good game publically, the results of his hitters (as a group) is far more Ks ... far fewer walks. This is in comparison to these same hitters elsewhere. Additionally, there has been little to no patience in regards to walk-first style hitters, (Bradley and Langerhans got very quick DFAs last year is one example).
Peguero gets called up and an extended look. Seager ... the doubles king of the minors with next to no walk rate leaps from nowhere to the majors in the same time frame as the far more patient Ackley. Olivo plays every day despite a 427 to 1 K/BB ratio. Figgins, hired originally based on a stellar walk rate, has seen his walk rate plunge to nothing in Seattle.
My opinion ... Mariners can whiff as much as they want ... so long as they are swinging at strike three. Too many prospects have seen their walk rates plunge (and eye ratios go from good to horrid) for me to accept that this is simply random change.
Carp, Seager, Ackley, Smoak, Montero ... look at those K:BB ratios and try to explain the across the board decline in walk rates. I've watched lots of specs come up with the Braves. And some had issues with handling MLB pitching. But I've never witnessed this kind of "mass" skew anywhere else.