Quote:
Originally Posted by Pirates
"When you don't put the ball in play, you have no chance to get on base. Absolutely none, unless the catcher can't catch," Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire says. "The point of baseball is to get on base. I don't think that will ever change.
That was in the article.
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And he's wrong unless baseball outlawed walks and HBP recently. If the game was truly about "putting the ball in play" then Ricky Henderson wouldn't be considered one of the all time greats. Has any hitter in history put a smaller percentage of balls pitched into play than him? Maybe but my assumption is that his rate of balls put in play would not fall anywhere near the top or even in the middle of the pack. Then you also have guys like Barry Bonds, another all time great who did not care about "putting the ball in play". Look at how many walks he took. Was he just trying to slap at the ball to make the defense work? Putting the ball in play worked back when defense sucked. Today you need to put it in play with power and if you can't get a pitch that lets you do that then you are better off working a walk than hitting some weak, defensive grounder.