Comments on: Considering Jack Cust

By: How to Hit .400 « Ball Your Base

How to Hit .400 « Ball Your Base — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:38:17 +0000

[...] that question, I will look at the anatomy of the theoretical modern .400 hitter. Joe Posnanski took this on early last season. His inspiration came while watching Jack Cust, a man who, among above average [...]

By: bob magee

bob magee — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:35:43 +0000

Jack Cust is a classic example of baseball management looking at what a player CAN’T do, rather then what he CAN do.

Name of the game is scoring runs, and if a big league manager can’t figure out a way to incorporate above average OBP and above average slugging, then they need to go back to manager school.

I have been following his career since he was with El Paso in Double A ball and he has been remarkably consistent in his walks and power numbers – both high.

Cust may be many things, but inconsistent in his strengths is not one of them

By: DaytonDogg

DaytonDogg — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:01:05 +0000

Victor Martinez.

By: Shark

Shark — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:55:41 +0000

There’s no way Manny was going to strike out less. His whole approach presupposes a fairly high amount of strikeouts. He has a disdain for balls he cannot hit well (forinstance the slider on the outside corner). He is such an “artiste” of hitting that he ignores situations (like 2 outs, men in scoring position) and will take a 2 strike pitch for a K looking rather than try to just punch out a hit. He NEVER EVER swings on 3-0 so he always gives up a strike there. He INTENTIONALLY misses badly sometimes so as to dupe the pitcher into throwing the same thing to him in a later at bat.

By: David in NYC

David in NYC — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:20:44 +0000

MonkeyHawk #13: Barry Bonds choked up, at least in his later years. (I see Sam #30 already noted this.)

J!m Future #38 and McKingford #39 — I’m guessing neither of you is old enough to have seen Dick McAuliffe bat. He faced directly at the pitcher — in other words, a straight line drawn from shoulder to shoulder would have paralleled a line from 1B to 3B, instead of the standard line straight up the middle (more or less).

By: McKingford

McKingford — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:01:47 +0000

Favorite. Batting stance. Ever.

Dude, clearly you never saw John Wockenfuss hit…

By: J!m Future

J!m Future — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:31:18 +0000

Apropos of almost nothing, can I just say that never did I love my hometown Rangers as much as when Tettleton was in town?

Favorite. Batting stance. Ever.

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:41:26 +0000

Question: Did Bruce Bochy have a weakness for being pulled from games due to ridiculous double switches?

It must be the only way to explain his love of the double switch, especially if the pitcher is not due up in the next 3 hitters.

Also two predictions for you Joe

1) Bochy pulls a double switch when the Giants paly the Mariners in interleague (or at another AL team)

2) The Mets get their first No Hitter courtesy of johan Santana this Saturday when he absolutely dominates the Giants* hitters. On second thoughts, it has perfect game written all over it.

*I am a Giants fan which is why I know this will happen

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:28:13 +0000

Jack Clark’s 1987 season is a classic. This statistic has probably been topped by McGwire/Bonds/Sosa these days, but there’s a guy on BTF who had the theory that Clark in 1987 hit the ball harder on average than just about anybody ever. He calculated on-contact isolated power and Clark’s was one of the highest ever, if not the highest.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:36:30 +0000

Not to mention, if Pujols and Mauer are both batting .400 in June, I’d guess Pujols gets a lot more intentional walks in the second half of the season than Mauer, since Pujols has the power threat too. So that would further reduce his ABs and increase the possible variance in BA.