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Post by Hart's Middle Finger on Jun 15, 2023 22:46:25 GMT -5
Baseball is a funny game. Despite what some might erroneously believe, bad teams win 2 in a row against good teams. Perceived pitcher's duels end up with score of 9-8.
Remember last year when Matt Olson was a doubles machine, leading the league in that statistic for half the season?
Remember when people said they expected one of the players to reap the benefits of the elimination of the shift would be that same Matt Olson? It was expected that the elimination of the shift may make Olly's BA jump 30+ points, but quite the opposite has happened, and him hitting doubles regularly is a distant memory.
Personally, I think with the shift; he tried as best he could to take a go where it's pitched approach and that is what led to the doubles. Now with the shift eliminated, he has started trying to pull everything. I like the guy and the resulting mammoth HR's are certainly valuable and appreciated, but I still think BA matters, and his sucks. As I think it was Keystone who said... he's become Dave Kingman.
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Post by Hart's Middle Finger on Jun 15, 2023 22:52:33 GMT -5
In 2022, Matt Olson finished 3rd in the league in doubles, leading the league for half the year.
This year he isn't in the top 80.
Last year he finished as a .240 hitter with most expecting an increase without the shift of 25 to 30 points...
...instead, he's down to around .230
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Post by Hart's Middle Finger on Jun 16, 2023 23:00:59 GMT -5
Man... you guys really don't want to talk about anything other than the game in progress, do ya?
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Post by PABraveFan on Jun 17, 2023 8:06:37 GMT -5
Man... you guys really don't want to talk about anything other than the game in progress, do ya? Any talk about Olson likely brings up the whole Freddie thing again. Nobody wants to rehash that! Oslon can do his thing. Just let that be lower in the order. I didn't realize he was such a swing and miss/K machine when we signed him.
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Post by Hart's Middle Finger on Jun 17, 2023 11:26:41 GMT -5
Man... you guys really don't want to talk about anything other than the game in progress, do ya? Any talk about Olson likely brings up the whole Freddie thing again. Nobody wants to rehash that! Oslon can do his thing. Just let that be lower in the order. I didn't realize he was such a swing and miss/K machine when we signed him. It really shouldn't bring up the Freddie thing again. That ship has long sailed. I'm just truly shocked that Olson hasn't benefitted from the shift being removed. Not even in the top 80?
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Post by keystone61 on Jun 17, 2023 11:32:31 GMT -5
You can add this to the Olson file. He had a tremendous Spring, which had most expecting a stellar year, too. That hasn't happened. The bottom line is that he's only a so-so hitter, but with a lot of power. His fielding isn't what I expected, either, given his gold glove rep. He's not very athletic, being mechanical in his movements. Overall, he's a good, solid first baseman who helps you more than he hurts you, and he's a good guy. I think I'll keep him, warts and all.
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Post by Hart's Middle Finger on Jun 17, 2023 12:58:33 GMT -5
You can add this to the Olson file. He had a tremendous Spring, which had most expecting a stellar year, too. That hasn't happened. The bottom line is that he's only a so-so hitter, but with a lot of power. His fielding isn't what I expected, either, given his gold glove rep. He's not very athletic, being mechanical in his movements. Overall, he's a good, solid first baseman who helps you more than he hurts you, and he's a good guy. I think I'll keep him, warts and all. I will as well because his power numbers are there, but I am still shocked he has turned into HR or bust. I think he changed his approach when the shift was eliminated. Maybe he didn't though... Maybe all those hit balls that were doubles before are now being snagged by shortstops and 2nd basemen playing in their new alignments. I would love to see this examined in detail... like look at a breakdown of all of his batted balls to see if last year many now being caught would have actually been hits when the shift was employed. It would be interesting to know if teams shifting actually hurt them against Olson when it came to his BA and extra-base hits that stayed in the park.
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Post by keystone61 on Jun 17, 2023 21:43:41 GMT -5
I'm sure there will be lots of deep-diving analysis on the effects of the shift rules. Corey Seager has apparently benefited. His average is up 100 points.......or is that coincidence?
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Post by Hart's Middle Finger on Jun 17, 2023 22:03:43 GMT -5
I'm sure there will be lots of deep-diving analysis on the effects of the shift rules. Corey Seager has apparently benefited. His average is up 100 points.......or is that coincidence? Well that's comparing him to one really bad season last year, that was really an outlier. He's up about 30 points if you compare his stats to 2020 and 2021, and I don't think he's going to finish this year where he's at right now.
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Post by Hart's Middle Finger on Jun 18, 2023 18:08:48 GMT -5
Finally... two doubles today.
These threads seem to work, so next up....
"Riley.... WTF MAN???"
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