Quote:
Originally Posted by Syd Thrift
...they were guys who tended to follow the Earl Weaver philosophy of looking only for your pitch, let’s say a fastball high in the zone, and not swinging at anything else.
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I tended to believe that's what all batters do, or ought to do. You can tell when one doesn't because he stops hitting and then it becomes about just not getting beat, so he swings at whatever looks like strikes. Iow batters who swing at good-looking strikes tend to do poorly. The pitcher/batter showdown is so unique and variable one can spend the entire game just analyzing that.
If a batter can pick up most pitches and protect against most there might be _one_ pitch that always beats him, ie Deer. Then a pitcher has to be able to throw that one pitch well enough for a strike and if he does it's a K and if he doesn't, a BB or HR. This scenario would account for TTO appearing briefly in a season. Since the TTO is a power threat opposing managers might take a while to figure out who can throw that pitch effectively. Once they do, goodbye high BB rate.