quote:Originally posted by Low Finish:
It's not needed as much. In the old days, batters covered a strike zone from their armpits to the bottom of the knee caps. You had to anticipate where the ball was going to come in. We tell hitters today "Don't guess", and many of them don't hit very well.
There are some players who clearly do think out there, and I think they're the better players in the league. Gibson and Feller threw off 15 inch mounds (for the majority of Gibson's career, and Feller always threw off a 15 inch mound). The benefit to this was that high strikes dropped more, and low strikes dropped a lot more.
It's just like the push/pull off of the rubber argument. Good hitters push with their core muscles to move off of the ground. Good pitchers push with their core muscles to move off of the rubber.
I seem to have rambled... I think Feller and Gibson would be very good today, because they thought, rather than just pitched. I want guys who think playing for me.
Feller and Gibson would be good today because they both had + fastballs and were great pitchers. I saw Gibson pitch.
They weren't guessing then and they aren't guessing now. They are eliminating potentials and making educated estimates based on trends.
There were stupid ball players back then too.
You couldn't take two taped conversations from a dugout then and now and tell the difference except for current event references and perhaps some slang terms.