Happy Memorial Day to all of you out in Natstown, especially to the individuals and families that have dedicated their lives to protecting our wonderful country. It would be cliché to say this if it weren't so true, but every one of the 300 million of us owe you a debt of gratitude for your selflessness in service. Now I try to tackle the big news of the weekend without losing my cool (see disclaimer at bottom for an explanation).
My initial idea for today's post was going to be about how the Nats were seeing Roy Oswalt before the Nats offer some prospects (Chris Marrero and Chris Duncan, anyone?) and an obscene amount of guaranteed money for the Astros ace behind closed doors. Because let's face it, the Nats need starting pitching. But Oswalt got tossed in the 3rd inning for showing his displeasure for the home plate umpire's strike zone a bit too excessively. In fairness to Oswalt, it did appear that he was squeezed on a pitch to Adam Dunn, who rocked a 3 RBI double to right center later in the at-bat. He may have had a legitimate gripe. But after his short and unimpressive 4 run outing before the ejection, I was panicked thinking of a new blog post idea. But thanks to a 9 run 7th inning in a blowout and Mike Rizzo's Strasburgeriffic news, my job was pretty much done for me.
In the afternoon holiday game, the Nats simply exploded offensively, scoring 14 runs over the Astros, with 9 of them coming in the 7th inning. The Nats haven't scored that many runs in one inning since the team returned to the District. They did it on the efforts of Ryan Zimmerman and... Nyjer Morgan? What?
Coming into Memorial Day, Tony Plush (he earned the name back after this outing) was 2 out of his last 23. He acknowledged he was swinging a bat of ice and he needed to fix it. Everyone that watched him play saw his desperation to recover, which was making him even worse and more frustrated. A vicious cycle. So Jim Riggleman, like Nostradamus, said, Let's try Nyjer batting 2nd behind Guzzie. Well, it resulted in a 3 for 4 day, plus a walk, and 4 runs scored for Nyjer in that 2nd spot. This may be a fairly permanent change for the Nats in the coming weeks. Why change a good thing?
And then: Gentleman Zimm. Zimmerman had an OBP of 1.000 today. Basically, that pretty much sums up Zimm's night. 2 walks, plus 2 hits, including a big fly that landed him 3 of his 4 RBI. The stats speak more loudly than I can at the moment.
Then there's the news. STEPHEN STRASBURG WILL START JUNE 8TH! I would make that flash and blink and stuff, but I mean, every sports organization on the planet has already broken that story, so I won't beat it to death. But he probably is the best pitcher ever, right Curt Schilling? Of course, the game sold out in about an hour. Most of the tickets probably went to Phillies fans because of Stan Kasten. Or maybe not, I'm just speculating.
As a note of disclaimer: I'm fully aware that this post is unusually sarcastic, but my brain is still trying to process a Flyers loss, putting them down 2-0 in the series against the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals after an incredibly dominating 3rd period performance. The frustration is working its way out in rancorous form. I'll get back on the wagon tomorrow with a legit post along the lines of "Seriously, why isn't Cristian Guzman the Nats every day 2nd baseman? I mean... really?!" Until then...
Monday, May 31, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Nats Take Game 1 from NL-leading Padres
Well, after a weird start to Game 1 against San Diego, John Lannan had a great outing for a 5-3 win. When Padres Manager Bud Black submitted his lineup card on Friday evening, he listed Adam Russell as the starting pitcher. The problem with that? Well Adam Russell had just been sent down to AAA Portland earlier in the day. It was Clayton Richard who was supposed to get the start. The Nats officially protested the game; the umpires accepted, which meant if the Nats had lost, the league would have reviewed the game.
It wasn't a problem though, largely because of a 7 inning outing for the Nats starter Lannan, now 2-2. It was the first time any Nats starter had gone 7 or more innings since May 9th. On Friday, Lannan got 12 ground ball outs on only 88 pitches and 1 earned run. Good old fashioned Lannan ball. The Nats are surely thrilled to have the old-school New Yorker back. The Nats are now 23-0 when leading after 8 innings. That's a stat that you like to see from your team. Here's the breakdown:
The offense was almost non-existent for either team until the top of the 4th when Josh Willingham crushed a 3-run homer to deep center field off Clayton Richard (the actual starter). In the top of the 7th, with Richard still pitching, Ian Desmond went deep to left for his 4th HR on the year. This put the Nats up 4-1, and the Nats never looked back... almost.
In the bottom of the 7th, the first base ump missed a call on what almost became a crucial play in the game. Adam Dunn clearly tagged out Oscar Salazar in a not-so-close play at first. The Nats should have had their first out there. That play translated into a run for San Diego, making the game 4-2.
In the 8th, Clippard came in and looked great. His fastball was dancing all over. The kid needed some time off, which he's gotten lately. Unfortunately, it's because the Nats haven't been winning as many games, but Clippard looks like he's gotten enough rest to be effective here for a bit.
The Nats got a 5th run in the 9th after Adam Dunn laced a double to right center that would have been a home run in basically any other ball park. Adam Kennedy came in to pinch run, got moved over to 3rd, and Ian Desmond laid down a beautiful bunt for hit on a squeeze to score Kennedy, making the lead 5-2. Here's where the game got stressful.
Good ol' Matty Capps came in to attempt a save and looked a bit rattled to start once again, like he did in his first blown save of the game. He let a guy on first to start, and then Desmond, after a great game offensively, had 1 official error early in the game, and a costly non-error error in the 9th going for a spectacular play that got no outs with 2 men on base. Capps then continuously pitched away to Jerry Hairston, Jr. and allowed a slow rolling single, and the bases were loaded with no outs.
After he was put in this situation, Capps started to get squeezed. No strikes anywhere. So then Capps was forced to throw it over the plate for an RBI single, making the game 5-3 with the bases still loaded. Then Capps had to face the very dangerous (and significantly thinner) Matt Stairs. After leaving pitch after pitch up in the zone, Capps throws a breaking ball down the middle of the plate that Stairs just looked at, probably in awe that he had the audacity to throw it, for the 1st out. Then Capps struck out Venable for the 2nd out. To end the game, David Eckstein grounded out to Zimm. A good old fashioned Capps style save. Which he apologized for at the end of the game saying, "I'm sorry to make it interesting." Class act.
One bad note for the game, Maxwell looked terrible once more. He was swinging at bad pitches and never really made solid contact. He was (one more time) sent down to AAA Syracuse to make room for a pitcher, J.D. Martin, who will start today against the Padres in place of the injured Scott Olsen.
It wasn't a problem though, largely because of a 7 inning outing for the Nats starter Lannan, now 2-2. It was the first time any Nats starter had gone 7 or more innings since May 9th. On Friday, Lannan got 12 ground ball outs on only 88 pitches and 1 earned run. Good old fashioned Lannan ball. The Nats are surely thrilled to have the old-school New Yorker back. The Nats are now 23-0 when leading after 8 innings. That's a stat that you like to see from your team. Here's the breakdown:
The offense was almost non-existent for either team until the top of the 4th when Josh Willingham crushed a 3-run homer to deep center field off Clayton Richard (the actual starter). In the top of the 7th, with Richard still pitching, Ian Desmond went deep to left for his 4th HR on the year. This put the Nats up 4-1, and the Nats never looked back... almost.
In the bottom of the 7th, the first base ump missed a call on what almost became a crucial play in the game. Adam Dunn clearly tagged out Oscar Salazar in a not-so-close play at first. The Nats should have had their first out there. That play translated into a run for San Diego, making the game 4-2.
In the 8th, Clippard came in and looked great. His fastball was dancing all over. The kid needed some time off, which he's gotten lately. Unfortunately, it's because the Nats haven't been winning as many games, but Clippard looks like he's gotten enough rest to be effective here for a bit.
The Nats got a 5th run in the 9th after Adam Dunn laced a double to right center that would have been a home run in basically any other ball park. Adam Kennedy came in to pinch run, got moved over to 3rd, and Ian Desmond laid down a beautiful bunt for hit on a squeeze to score Kennedy, making the lead 5-2. Here's where the game got stressful.
Good ol' Matty Capps came in to attempt a save and looked a bit rattled to start once again, like he did in his first blown save of the game. He let a guy on first to start, and then Desmond, after a great game offensively, had 1 official error early in the game, and a costly non-error error in the 9th going for a spectacular play that got no outs with 2 men on base. Capps then continuously pitched away to Jerry Hairston, Jr. and allowed a slow rolling single, and the bases were loaded with no outs.
After he was put in this situation, Capps started to get squeezed. No strikes anywhere. So then Capps was forced to throw it over the plate for an RBI single, making the game 5-3 with the bases still loaded. Then Capps had to face the very dangerous (and significantly thinner) Matt Stairs. After leaving pitch after pitch up in the zone, Capps throws a breaking ball down the middle of the plate that Stairs just looked at, probably in awe that he had the audacity to throw it, for the 1st out. Then Capps struck out Venable for the 2nd out. To end the game, David Eckstein grounded out to Zimm. A good old fashioned Capps style save. Which he apologized for at the end of the game saying, "I'm sorry to make it interesting." Class act.
One bad note for the game, Maxwell looked terrible once more. He was swinging at bad pitches and never really made solid contact. He was (one more time) sent down to AAA Syracuse to make room for a pitcher, J.D. Martin, who will start today against the Padres in place of the injured Scott Olsen.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Nats bullpen flounders, putting the them in familiar territory
Yesterday against the Giants, the Nats sort of were clicking on lots of cylinders. Stammen was pitching better than average, which he needed to even have a shot as staying in the rotation. The Nats jumped out to an early lead (3-1), which they have done a lot this year. When Stammen was all done, he was charged with 2 earned runs, plus 1 on an error, and put him in place for his 2nd win of the season. But the bullpen, and a weirdly-shaped and -marked ball park, saw to it that there was no such luck.
Sean Burnett came in and claimed his 2nd loss of the season, failing to record an out for the 3rd time this season. Big reason why: he's simply been terrible against lefties, which is not what you want to see from your lefty specialist pitcher. It's easy to see Doug Slaten squeeze into this role more and more in the coming weeks, because Burnett simply cannot get the job done. He is much better against righties, so he may become a righty specialist as a lefty. Here's some proof:
- Against righties: .091 average with a .091 slugging. Burnett hasn't given up more than a single against any right he's faced. He has walked 5 righties though, in only 22 ABs.
- Against lefties: .271 average with a .455 slugging (3 doubles and a home run). He's only walked one, but he's given up so many hits in those chances, his "efficiency" is a joke.
As a last note for the people at AT&T Park. Something needs to be done about your upper deck situation. I'm not sure that anyone will ever know if the ball Adam Dunn hit was a home run. If there was a widely available rule available, it would be different. But hitting a railing above the physical concrete would seem to be a home run. A yellow line needs to be added to the stadium. I know it's an eyesore to a very beautiful park, but otherwise there will be discrepancies on home runs that will cost teams a game.
Because of a collapsing bullpen and a questionable home run call, the Nats are back in familiar place. Last place in the NL East and headed into a 3 game series against the best team in the NL West. Bad odds for a struggling team. The Nats need to get on a roll again, and fast.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Stammen Limps into Next Start
Craig Stammen and his less-than-stellar 5.96 ERA enter today's afternoon match up with the San Francisco Giants and Barry Zito. You may think, "oh, Barry Zito, he's not that good anymore." My response: think again.
In his first three years in San Francisco (2007-09), Zito's season ERA was over 4.00, and his record was below .500 all three years. This year, Zito is 6-2 with a cool 2.80 ERA with 37 strikeouts. Zito has pitched at least 5 innings in each game, but he's averaging almost 7 innings a game. As a lefty pitcher, Zito is pitching better against righties (.219) than lefties (.242), and he's only given up one home run all season. This 32 year old, 10-year veteran is having a career season like his early days in Oakland.
Stammen is a bit of a different case. He's struggling immensely. His last 2 decisions have been losses, and the team has lost 4 of his last 6 starts. In those 6 starts, he's averaging just around 5 2/3 innings per game, and he already has two starts this year where he didn't make it 5 innings. His ERA has hovered between 5.00 and 6.00 in his last 4 starts. It's easy to make excuses and call it an anomaly, but if we look at his starts last year, it obviously isn't.
Stammen ended 2009 with a 5.11 ERA in 19 starts and hovered around 5.00 all year. His ERA was never below 4.14 and even that was only for 1 game. Unfortunately, this track record isn't one conducive to a lot of success. Maybe Stammen figures it out, and maybe he doesn't. What is painfully obvious, however, is the Nats can't afford to have too many more starts with Craig Stammen on the rubber. With the Nats still competitive only 4 days from June, it's time for a shakeup. It's becoming clearer and clearer that Stammen should be replaced in the rotation when Strasburg comes up in about about 2 weeks.
Maybe he ends up in the bullpen and poor Justin Maxwell gets optioned to the minors yet again to make the roster space. Maybe he gets sent down to Syracuse or Harrisburg to figure his stuff out. Maybe none of these things happen, because I'm purely speculating. But one thing is for sure, the Nats need to act quickly to stop up this massive hole in the rotation before it's too late.
In his first three years in San Francisco (2007-09), Zito's season ERA was over 4.00, and his record was below .500 all three years. This year, Zito is 6-2 with a cool 2.80 ERA with 37 strikeouts. Zito has pitched at least 5 innings in each game, but he's averaging almost 7 innings a game. As a lefty pitcher, Zito is pitching better against righties (.219) than lefties (.242), and he's only given up one home run all season. This 32 year old, 10-year veteran is having a career season like his early days in Oakland.
Stammen is a bit of a different case. He's struggling immensely. His last 2 decisions have been losses, and the team has lost 4 of his last 6 starts. In those 6 starts, he's averaging just around 5 2/3 innings per game, and he already has two starts this year where he didn't make it 5 innings. His ERA has hovered between 5.00 and 6.00 in his last 4 starts. It's easy to make excuses and call it an anomaly, but if we look at his starts last year, it obviously isn't.
Stammen ended 2009 with a 5.11 ERA in 19 starts and hovered around 5.00 all year. His ERA was never below 4.14 and even that was only for 1 game. Unfortunately, this track record isn't one conducive to a lot of success. Maybe Stammen figures it out, and maybe he doesn't. What is painfully obvious, however, is the Nats can't afford to have too many more starts with Craig Stammen on the rubber. With the Nats still competitive only 4 days from June, it's time for a shakeup. It's becoming clearer and clearer that Stammen should be replaced in the rotation when Strasburg comes up in about about 2 weeks.
Maybe he ends up in the bullpen and poor Justin Maxwell gets optioned to the minors yet again to make the roster space. Maybe he gets sent down to Syracuse or Harrisburg to figure his stuff out. Maybe none of these things happen, because I'm purely speculating. But one thing is for sure, the Nats need to act quickly to stop up this massive hole in the rotation before it's too late.
Nats Subdue The Freak
Tim Lincecum goes 4 2/3 innings, giving up 6 earned runs and 5 walks. It was an unpleasant display. The real problems started for Lincecum in the 5th.
Adam Kennedy stole his way around the bases after being walked in the 5th. Lincecum never looked to hold guys on base. Zimmerman stole a base as well after being walked.
Ian Desmond put the icing on the cake to The Freak's outing with 2 outs in the 5th. To take a term from Todd Wellenmeyer last night, Desmond had a "duck fart" single to right field that scored Zimm and Hammer, putting the Nats up 6-0. Lincecum got yanked here, and then Denny Bautista got them out of the jam after he threw a wild pitch that let Desmond get to 2nd.
Eventually the Nats added another run, and the Giants got 3, give the Nats a 7-3 victory and putting them at 24-23 on the year.
It was the kind of breakdown that you don't expect to see from the reigning 2 time NL Cy Young Award winner who is now 5-1 on the year. The likelihood of the Nats losing to a 5+ ERA guy like Wellenmeyer and losing to a less than 3 ERA guy like Lincecum were against the, but again, the team figured it out. This sort of success against a Cy Young winner may have been exactly what the Nats needed to get their stagnating offense a boost. In the 11 games prior to last night, the Nats had scored more than 5 runs only twice, one of them was in a 10-7 loss against the Mets.
On the other side, Atilano looked great until the 6th inning, where he looked like he almost gave up a bit. But never fear, Doug Slaten got them out of the inning. Storen gave up another run in his one inning appearance on a walk and a hit, but the run was not earned on an Ian Desmond error. Tyler Clippard had a great 2 inning outing to close the game where he gave up 1 hit and struck out two. He threw 19 pitches in 2 innings, and 14 of them were strikes.
The Nats looked great against a San Fran offense that has struggled all year. The Nats will try for the same results this afternoon at 3:45 in the east before they head down the coast to San Diego for a 3 game series against the NL West leading Padres.
Adam Kennedy stole his way around the bases after being walked in the 5th. Lincecum never looked to hold guys on base. Zimmerman stole a base as well after being walked.
Ian Desmond put the icing on the cake to The Freak's outing with 2 outs in the 5th. To take a term from Todd Wellenmeyer last night, Desmond had a "duck fart" single to right field that scored Zimm and Hammer, putting the Nats up 6-0. Lincecum got yanked here, and then Denny Bautista got them out of the jam after he threw a wild pitch that let Desmond get to 2nd.
Eventually the Nats added another run, and the Giants got 3, give the Nats a 7-3 victory and putting them at 24-23 on the year.
It was the kind of breakdown that you don't expect to see from the reigning 2 time NL Cy Young Award winner who is now 5-1 on the year. The likelihood of the Nats losing to a 5+ ERA guy like Wellenmeyer and losing to a less than 3 ERA guy like Lincecum were against the, but again, the team figured it out. This sort of success against a Cy Young winner may have been exactly what the Nats needed to get their stagnating offense a boost. In the 11 games prior to last night, the Nats had scored more than 5 runs only twice, one of them was in a 10-7 loss against the Mets.
On the other side, Atilano looked great until the 6th inning, where he looked like he almost gave up a bit. But never fear, Doug Slaten got them out of the inning. Storen gave up another run in his one inning appearance on a walk and a hit, but the run was not earned on an Ian Desmond error. Tyler Clippard had a great 2 inning outing to close the game where he gave up 1 hit and struck out two. He threw 19 pitches in 2 innings, and 14 of them were strikes.
The Nats looked great against a San Fran offense that has struggled all year. The Nats will try for the same results this afternoon at 3:45 in the east before they head down the coast to San Diego for a 3 game series against the NL West leading Padres.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Adam Dunn Talks Strasburg, Lincecum, Nyjer's Tantrum, and Golf
The Nats are obviously in San Francisco for the 2nd of 3 against the Giants, and the club gets to face reigning 2 time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. The Nats lost last night after Livan had a rough bottom of the 5th that started with a Todd Wellenmeyer "duck fart" single with 2 outs. I swear, that's what he called it. The Giants went on to sore 4 in the inning, and the Nats couldn't recover. It was Livan Hernandez's first loss of the year to someone that wasn't named Jimenez. Tonight, Luis Atilano gets to face the Cy Young winner Lincecum. Talk about a mismatch. Hey, even a blind squirrel gets a nut every once in a while.
Today on the Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio, Adam Dunn talked to Scott and Ryen about Lincecum, the Nats .500 record, last year's bullpen, Nyjer Morgan tantrum, free golf clubs, and yes, Stephen Strasburg.
When asked how he is going to go about facing Tim tonight, Adam responded simply, "Swing hard in case you hit it." Hopefully Adam heeds his own words and doesn't strike out looking more than once. I know, I'm being optimistic.
When asked about the Nats exciting .500 season this far, Adam responded, "It's where we thought we would be.... We're gonna score runs, we just gotta hold them under a touchdown." Maybe a bit of a jab there to the starting pitching that has floundered a bit lately? I support it. The only two guys that have held their weight (joke kinda intended her) have been Hernandez and, surprisingly John Lannan since his return. Of course Scott Olsen is on the list, but he's on the DL now, so I'm not including him. DL is a killer for starting pitchers all too often to be excited about Scott's return.
In what is a stupid journalistic question, co-host Ryen Russillo asked "Are you underrated or overrated as a player?" To which Dunn responded, "Oh overrated, no doubt." Love the sass on the WTF question. He was also asked about how much better this year's bullpen has been than last year. After giving due credit to the "7th, 8th, and 9th inning guys," Adam said what we all know, "That's [the bullpen] what killed us last year."
Of course the guys asked Dunn how much flack Nyjer Morgan got after his 5 year old poutfest in center field that caused an inside-the-park home run. Adam: "He's such an emotional guy and you don't wanna crush him... He takes the stuff personal, in a good way, I'm not trying to say he's sensitive.... He was on suicide watch that night man." Nyjer returned ready to play the next game, so maybe he needed the embarrassment that game.
On a cool note, Dunn got a free set of golf clubs from Callaway for hitting a 471 foot blast of a home run. Apparently, Adam plays golf and when asked how far his drive is, he said only about 280, to which he added, "I'm a finesse player, dude."
And of course, Stephen Strasburg.
SVP: "What's the first thing your gonna say to this young pitcher when he gets called up...?"
AD: "Just be as good as you're supposed to be.... No, I wouldn't tell him that.... He's a good kid. I learned a lot about him in spring; he's gonna handle this well. He is what he is. Really good."
On when he'll be coming up, he said, "I'm hearing next homestand, but I haven't got the official report." Well when you do Adam, let us all know, would you? I have about 41,888 friends that would like to be there for it.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Bryce Harper's Great Game & A Look at Metal Bats
Bryce Harper is the Washington Nationals prospect for the #1 overall pick in the 2010 draft next month had one heck of a going away game. He is 17 years old. That’s right folks; he was born in 1992. All gasps aside, the Nats are looking to get the young guy on the team for many reasons, but the main one is his grotesque power. And he proved that in what is mostly likely his final game for the College of Southern Nevada. He hit 4 home runs for 10 RBI. The stat is astounding. But the stat alone begs a new question about metal bats. Should we eliminate them?
Through modern technology, companies can create lighter aluminum bats for faster bat speed, and therefore faster ball speed. Baseballs are optimized to come off of the bat at well more than 90 miles per hour. It is dangerous for everyone involved, but mostly the pitcher, who after his windup and follow through is often less than 55 feet from the plate. In 2003, Brandon Patch was pitching in an American Legion game and was hit directly in the head with a ball off of an aluminum bat. He was dead the same day. This alone should be enough reason to switch to wood bats. One death is too many.
Metal bats also affect player development. In a month’s time, Bryce Harper is not going to have the benefit of swinging a lighter, more responsive bat. He’ll be swinging the same bat as everyone else, putting him at a competitive disadvantage. I’m not saying the kid won’t figure it out, like other major league stars, but it is a learning curve on bat speed and sweet spots. Pitchers are also affected by the metal bats. They pitch to different parts of the plate, and the sweet spot is the entire bat. It’s a real problem all the way around.
Wooden bats have their own risks. Maple bats are known to explode when they’re broken. Shards of wood fire across the field, and too often into the stands. Eventually, a spectator who isn’t paying attention will be killed. Or maybe just one who doesn’t have enough time to react. After studies by the Baseball Research Center at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Jim Sherwood proved that maple has no performance advantage over ash bats, but ash bats simply crack. They don’t shatter. But even with the risks that maple bats hold, it’s less than those of metal bats.
It is time now for both the NCAA and for Major League Baseball to act to save lives. The NCAA needs to only use ash bats, and high schools and little leagues across the country need to follow suit. Major League Baseball needs to either prohibit maple bats or adjust weight and diameter requirements to be closer. No one should be allowed to have a 34 inch bat that weighs only 30 ounces. It’s a real addition to the problem.
If the NCAA makes these changes, you won’t see many (if any) more 4 home run games from guys like Bryce Harper. Nor will you see as many 25-11 stat lines like CSN had in their win. But we’ll have far fewer stories of people dying after being hit by a ball off of a baseball bat, and that should be the #1 priority.
Through modern technology, companies can create lighter aluminum bats for faster bat speed, and therefore faster ball speed. Baseballs are optimized to come off of the bat at well more than 90 miles per hour. It is dangerous for everyone involved, but mostly the pitcher, who after his windup and follow through is often less than 55 feet from the plate. In 2003, Brandon Patch was pitching in an American Legion game and was hit directly in the head with a ball off of an aluminum bat. He was dead the same day. This alone should be enough reason to switch to wood bats. One death is too many.
Metal bats also affect player development. In a month’s time, Bryce Harper is not going to have the benefit of swinging a lighter, more responsive bat. He’ll be swinging the same bat as everyone else, putting him at a competitive disadvantage. I’m not saying the kid won’t figure it out, like other major league stars, but it is a learning curve on bat speed and sweet spots. Pitchers are also affected by the metal bats. They pitch to different parts of the plate, and the sweet spot is the entire bat. It’s a real problem all the way around.
Wooden bats have their own risks. Maple bats are known to explode when they’re broken. Shards of wood fire across the field, and too often into the stands. Eventually, a spectator who isn’t paying attention will be killed. Or maybe just one who doesn’t have enough time to react. After studies by the Baseball Research Center at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Jim Sherwood proved that maple has no performance advantage over ash bats, but ash bats simply crack. They don’t shatter. But even with the risks that maple bats hold, it’s less than those of metal bats.
It is time now for both the NCAA and for Major League Baseball to act to save lives. The NCAA needs to only use ash bats, and high schools and little leagues across the country need to follow suit. Major League Baseball needs to either prohibit maple bats or adjust weight and diameter requirements to be closer. No one should be allowed to have a 34 inch bat that weighs only 30 ounces. It’s a real addition to the problem.
If the NCAA makes these changes, you won’t see many (if any) more 4 home run games from guys like Bryce Harper. Nor will you see as many 25-11 stat lines like CSN had in their win. But we’ll have far fewer stories of people dying after being hit by a ball off of a baseball bat, and that should be the #1 priority.
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