#1 yes. not sure if it is the wood or the leather though. 

#2 usually late but can also happen if you reach and get under it

#3 not possible in modern environment, just too many Ks. 

Dominik85 posted:

#1 yes. not sure if it is the wood or the leather though. 

 

#2 usually late but can also happen if you reach and get under it

 

#3 not possible in modern environment, just too many Ks. 

Interesting.....too many K's to hit .400, really? Care to expand?

CaCO3Girl posted:

Dominik85 posted:

#1 yes. not sure if it is the wood or the leather though. 

 

#2 usually late but can also happen if you reach and get under it

 

#3 not possible in modern environment, just too many Ks. 

Interesting.....too many K's to hit .400, really? Care to expand?

I think the emphasis (at least in upper level ball) has shifted more towards power over contact.

I'm sure there is a statistical analysis over which is the better approach - but regardless it seems there is much more of a swing for the fences mentality.  You see fewer of the Ichiro style guys who are just trying to put a bat on the ball.

Couple that with how good pitchers - and even defenders have become, and .400 becomes incredibly difficult.

How many different looks to hitters see now? Will they see the same guy more than twice? Will they see four different guys today? How good are the guys on the backend today vs how good they were back in the day? Ask any hitter and they don't like seeing a different look every at bat. At the ML level I just don't see it happening. JMO

Excerpt from an April 1986 Sports Illustrated article:

A Real Rap Session

Wade Boggs, Ted Williams and Don Mattingly rendezvous to talk about-what else?-hitting. 

Shattered Maple posted:

Excerpt from an April 1986 Sports Illustrated article:

A Real Rap Session

Wade Boggs, Ted Williams and Don Mattingly rendezvous to talk about-what else?-hitting. 

 Ted Williams and Wade Boggs had been talking nonstop from the time they left Winter Haven, Fla. 70 minutes earlier. The two batting champions were on their way to a rendezvous with yet another, Don Mattingly, when Williams, in the backseat, posed a question to Boggs, who was in the front.

 

"Have you ever smelled the smoke from the wood of your bat burning?" asked Williams in a voice not unlike that of John Wayne.

"Whaaat?" said Boggs.

"The smell of the smoke from the wood burning?"

"What are you talking about, Ted? I don't understand."

"Five or six times, hitting against a guy with good stuff, I swung hard and—oomph—just fouled it back. Really hit it hard. And I smelled the wood of the bat burning. It must have been that the seams hit the bat just right, and the friction caused it to burn, but it happened five or six times."

Boggs shook his head. "Awesome."

....

If you can find the entire article do so. It's incredible.

CaCO3Girl posted:

Dominik85 posted:

#1 yes. not sure if it is the wood or the leather though. 

 

#2 usually late but can also happen if you reach and get under it

 

#3 not possible in modern environment, just too many Ks. 

Interesting.....too many K's to hit .400, really? Care to expand?

Pretty easy. A K is not really worse than any other out but they are still an out. If you strike out more you Need to have a higher average on balls in Play. However BABIPs above .400 are extremely hard to maintain over a season let alone BABIPs of 420+ (which you would Need if you strike out around 13% with average HRs -which is excellent contact skill in These days).

Today the league is striking out 21% while in williams time it was about half of that or so. that means it is tougher to put the ball in Play (old time glorifiyers always say that it is the hitters Swinging for the fences but pitchers got tougher too, williams would not strike out 6% today).

BABIPs are higher now on average because contact Quality is better but there is a Limit to it. BABIP rose as Ks went up but it capped around .300 in the mid 90s and stayed there since.

the highest BABIPs in These days are around 370-380 for a season. BTW it is possible to hit .400 with a Sub 400 BABIP but then you Need to hit more than 1 HR for every 1.5 Ks which is extremely rare in These days.

Tony Gwynn actually did that in his .394 season: 12 HR and just 16 Ks (1 HR for 1.3 Ks) which allowed him to "only" have a .389 BABIP and .394 average. Gwynn only did it over 110 games though (and fell still short of .400) and that is about the best modern Profile for .400 you can imagine.

there simply isn't a guy around that can K only 25 times in a season (and still hit about 15 HRs) which is gwynns full season projection for that year.

So basically you Need excellent contact skill while still having some Pop. Williams hit 37 HR with a K rate below 5%. that gave him a great K to HR Ratio and allowed him to have a .378 BABIP (which is very high but still realistic in These days - this year the leader is at 388 and the non coors leader is JD Martinez at 378).

for comparison the contact leader this year is Joe panik at 8.9% but he has very Little power (and a very low BABIP in his case).

a very good current Profile had Vmart in his prime (single Digit K rate with double Digit HRs) but he was probably too much of a pull (and flyball) hitter to maintain super high BABIPs.

today low K hitters are extremely rare and if they are they are usually slap hitters with no power and even they strike out more than williams.

the combination of excellent contact Quality AND quantity and some Pop is just very rare.

Consultant posted:

Of course with wood. Yes, I did!

Question #2 - if you hit a weak fly ball did you swing too early or too late? If you hit a weak ground ball - "did you swing early or late"?

Question # 3 - how and why to hit .400 ?

Bob

Bob, what level of baseball were you asking about?

CaCO3Girl posted:

Consultant posted:

Of course with wood. Yes, I did!

Question #2 - if you hit a weak fly ball did you swing too early or too late? If you hit a weak ground ball - "did you swing early or late"?

Question # 3 - how and why to hit .400 ?

Bob

Bob, what level of baseball were you asking about?

I hope I answered your question.

CACO;

any level that uses wood bats. It is the red seams that burn into the wood. a player can add 100 points to his average with "proper thinking" and a "plan". When we travel to Australia, our coaches [pro scouts and minor league managers] can definitely improve the BA.

Bob <rwilliams@goodwillseries.org>

I had heard of Ted's question before and it quickly came to mind when I thought I saw it in a AAA game in Scranton last year. I had to slow down the video and watch it a number of times to finally deduce that it was just a lot of rosin on the bat. Still, it was the first time I had seen "smoke" when a bat and ball collided.

great video, what camera did you use? 

I don't think that is the burning though probably just some dirt on the Bat. 

the burning occurs when you just clip the ball so that the ball is rubbing over the bat surface. that ball is squared quite well that won't cause the wood to burn.