What skills can be developed

[piccione88]

Today I finally bought the book Moneyball , by Michael Lewis today. I am sure many of you have read it already. I am on the third chapter, in the second chapter, they are going over who to draft and who not to draft. Throughout the chapter, they keep talking about how power can be developed, but the author says plate discipline cannot.

 

I recently have come around to the idea, that a guy like Alcides Escobar, despite his total lack of walks, and power, could one day become decent enough at the plate to warrant an every day spot in the lineup, given his gold glove caliber defense.

 

The point of this thread is not, whether Escobar can, or cannot be an everyday player. I am just wondering, what you guys think are the most likely skills for a player to develop. The things I am really interested in are the 5 tools that everyone talks about, throwing arm, speed, batting average, batting power, and fielding, and also plate discipline, mainly walks, not so much strikeouts. Out of those which are the easiest for a prospect, and which are most likely not going to get any better.

[DHonks]

players can learn a better batting eye, however most free swingers keep swinging away. Power isn't developed as much as it is honed. That is, better pitching is more around the plate. And better hitters make more solid contact.

[DrWood]

for pitchers, command can be developed. new pitches can be developed.

for hitters, power can be developed, if the problem is lack of physical power. some plate discipline can be developed.

hand-eye coordination cannot be developed.

baseball sense can be developed.

[igor67]

Speed, ceiling, velocity, and general approach at the plate cannot be taught. Basically if you look at the 5 tools vs. the seven skills approach you get a pretty good idea about what parts are teachable. Plate discipline is kind of tricky because you can help a free swinger to swing at less junk, but he will never draw a lot of walks, unless he becomes so ridiculously good that he never sees anything to hit (and he still might swing anyway). Sosa is the only reformed free swinger I know of.

[mothershipconnection]

The idea that you can't teach plate discipline is nonsense. What it means is that maybe they haven't been successful in doing so. Unless a player has some sort of physiological impairment, there's absolutely zero reason that you couldn't teach him to discriminate balls from strikes better.