Sorry Wildcard. I am not Avery Romero but, i do know him real well and have been following him for a couple of years. I have had many opportunities to talk to him and besides beign a great player he is also a pretty good kid. In response to the statement the Marlins do not have their players take the first strike, I beg to differ. I spoke to many of the Muckdogs players and they all said they have to take the first strike. If it were hearsay i would question it as well but, i heard it directly from several players. Maybe it doesnt happen at the other levels but, i can assure you it did happen this year in Batavia. Keep in mind the Front office may dictate who the managers need to play and also what position but, they dont necessarily get involved in the day to day decision making during the games. Maybe it doesn't happen in Jupiter but, like i said it does happen elsewhere. The manager makes those decisions. Unfortunately, i think it hampers your hitters ability to swing at a pitch they like.

I not sure what they did or didn't do but it wouldn't take too long for the opposing team to know you're always taking the first pitch in as much as those teams that have batters swinging at the first pitch. I've seen the GCL team a number of times the last few years and don't recall the team implementing a take approach for first pitch, so maybe this was a trial run in Batavia.

personally I like the idea. Reduces 1 pitch outs.

personally I like the idea. Reduces 1 pitch outs.

 

 

I'm completely for this, myself. Drives up pitch counts, too.

 

Of course, if the situation dictates it, swing first pitch, that's fine [like runner on third less than two outs], but I'm against first pitch swinging for the most part. Guys gotta learn how to hit behind in the count.

personally I like the idea. Reduces 1 pitch outs.

 

I'm completely for this, myself. Drives up pitch counts, too.

 

Of course, if the situation dictates it, swing first pitch, that's fine [like runner on third less than two outs], but I'm against first pitch swinging for the most part. Guys gotta learn how to hit behind in the count.I agree with this strategy if you give certain hitters the benefit of the doubt. Yelich, for instance, first-pitch hacks all the time because he has the strike zone and pitch recognition to do so successfully.

All of our talk about Colin Moran being the future at third base... Must have pissed him off, check out those numbers. Nice article about his quiet year dominating New York Penn League...

 

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130809&content_id=56318926&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb

 

 

What a find!

I like the idea too. Allows these young guys to see more pitches and since you see a lot of fastball first strikes in the low levels it allows the organization to judge a real hitter in game situations. If a kid can only hit first pitch fastball and struggles with anything else then they will struggle with taking the first pitch in an at bat. If a kid is a hitter he will have no problems adjusting to the non-fastballs or he will become a better hitter by not hitting only fastballs. Seems like a decent strategy at these lower levels but as these pitchers gain control of their different pitches at higher levels hitters should be looking to swing at the first pitch they can drive.