Thursday, July 10, 2008
Why does everyone want Frenchy to go the other way?
Posted by Bryan TsaoJC Bradbury hits upon one of my pet peeves, which is asking players to significantly modify their approach. In this case, he harps on Braves commentator Joe Simpson for calling on Jeff Francouer to hit more to the opposite field; I feel the same way when people want Jack Cust to "just try to make more contact."
Cust has been the A's best hitter for most of the season despite a sub-.250 batting average most of the time. Even when he isn't getting hits, he walks enough to get on base about 40 percent of the time, and his swing for the fences approach means that when he does make contact, he hits 'em out enough to be slugging to make him valuable, even in the DH spot, despite a really low batting average.
Bryan Tsao is the editor of The Hardball Times website. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions for both himself and the site via email.