Will Braun ever learn to take his Walks?

[3and2Fastball]

I suppose part of what makes Braun "Braun" is his aggressiveness at the plate, going after particular pitches especially if he finds what he's looking for early in the count.

[HiAndTight]

I suppose part of what makes Braun "Braun" is his aggressiveness at the plate, going after particular pitches especially if he finds what he's looking for early in the count.

 

 

You mean for instance being able to hit a 95 MPH out of the zone, low and away after being pounded inside 3-4 pitches in a row? I don't recall the game, but it was a couple weeks ago he hit a laser in that scenario to the RF gap that one hopped the wall.

 

I just thought...how many hitters can hit that ball? Cabrera, Pujols, Kemp right now..there are other great hitters. Prince obviously, but he doesn't hit that ball. Votto's the same. I suppose those guys carry higher OBP's because they don't go after it, but it was impressive.

[PKBadger]

The strategy doesn't make much sense to me. If you were going to pound a guy inside, wouldn't it be someone with below-average or declining bat speed who wouldn't be able to catch up with the pitch? Braun doesn't really fit that description.

[dlk9s]

Braun does have a very long swing, so I could see how pounding him inside could be a strategy, if executed well.

[RWeeksFan23]

Braun's walk rate isn't even that bad, plus it's gone up every season of his career..

[rluzinski]

It is certainly a skill that can grow with time but I think it usually grows more because pitchers stop throwing strikes and force the hitter to adjust to it.

 

An average aging batters will lose power but will continue to see an increase in walk rate so I dont think that's true. Of course, there's some sample bias going on as well.

[dlk9s]

As long as he keeps raking, I'm not going to be terribly concerned about Braun's walk rate.

[rwa12]

Regarding pitching him inside, I read before the season (may have been Olney again), that many pitchers feel the hole in Braun's swing is inside. They were afraid to exploit it with Prince behind him. The writers thought was that more would come inside on Braun now, and test the theory, as ARAM isn't the same threat.

 

Regarding him walking, I'm not worried about it. As mentioned, Braun's approach makes him the hitter he is. I don't want drastic changes, his SLG is more important to me than his OBP, which isn't that bad in the first place.

[jjfanec]

I dont think pitching Braun different has had much of an effect. He is 5th in OPS in all of baseball. The guy is just a terrific hitter. I wish he could pick up a couple more walks but overall he is simply a great hitter. He seemed to start slow this year and is still putting up MVP type numbers (although Kemp is running away with that right now)

[The stache]

The old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is apropos here. Would it be nice if Ryan walked a few more times? Yes. If I'm his hitting coach, or manager, am I doing anything at all to change Ryan's approach? No.

 

Brauny's the reigning NL MVP. He's one of the top 5 hitters in the game, and off to a Hall of Fame start to his career. What he's doing is working. What is not working is Weeks and Morgan in the 1 and 2 spot. If we're going to be concerned about anybody improving their OBP, it should be the two guys "setting the table" for #8. Because as it is right now, when Ryan is coming to the plate, there's no fork or spoon.

 

Braun has ten home runs. Eight of his bombs have been solo shots. Is it any wonder why we are not scoring?

[ELCABALLO45]

Someone had to say it. 4 walks tonight. Not bad

[DHonks]

Someone said that Braun was an aggressive hitter. I think that's true. I also feel that Weeks and others should be. I always base my approach on what I had success with as a kid (granted, Elmbrook little league was a joke and super easy). I often liked the approach of "take till there are two strikes" because it's amazing how often pitchers will throw 4 balls before 3 strikes. Yet at the same time, when facing the really talented pitchers I tweaked my approach to be "swing at the first meaty pitch." Braun typically swings at hittable pitches. If that's aggressive, then I love his approach since it's what all the Cardinals seem to follow every year. Sometimes the good pitch is the 1st, 2nd or 3rd pitch. Sometimes it never arrives. I feel like Weeks, Hart, et al seem to sometimes take the best pitches and swing at the crap because they're overly concerned with working the count. Working the count is very important, but as Dale Sveum always said, so is swinging at your pitch. As much as I like Rickie working the count early in games, I also love it when he ambushes the first pitch of the game--usually a 90% velocity thigh high heater that's crushable. He hasn't ambushed one in a while.

[dlk9s]

I always base my approach on what I had success with as a kid (granted, Elmbrook little league was a joke and super easy). I often liked the approach of "take till there are two strikes" because it's amazing how often pitchers will throw 4 balls before 3 strikes. Yet at the same time, when facing the really talented pitchers I tweaked my approach to be "swing at the first meaty pitch."

Funny. When I played (longer than little league, but yeah, still not comparable to MLB), I patterned myself after Paul Molitor, who wasn't shy about swinging at the first pitch. I had a good eye and would take my walks, but if the first pitch was a good pitch to hit, I figured why just give the pitcher a strike?

 

Braun is great a spoiling pitchers' pitches. You're right - he's aggressive, but he swings at pitches he can hit. Even if his O-zone swing % is higher than the typical batter, he doesn't usually just hack at junk. He has the ability to hit pitches just outside the zone - and hit them well - better than almost anyone I've ever seen.

[Oxy]

I was always patient at the plate in T-ball. I took my time adjusting the telescoping ball rest until it was just right, often to the chagrin of the jeering, impatient crowd. I didn't have the best walk rate, but I always got my pitch.

[markedman5]

So if pounding him inside is the way to pitch Braun why would it matter who is hitting behind him?

 

Were they afraid of hitting him ahead of Fielder so they didn't pitch him inside? So in trying to avoid hitting him you pitch him in a less effective way which allows him to put up monster numbers accross the board?

 

Makes little sense to me......he killed them last year when they didn't pound him inside.....Prince or no Prince they should have pitched him there if they honestly feel its the best way to get him out even if they plunked him once in awhile in front of Fielder.

[dlk9s]

I was always patient at the plate in T-ball. I took my time adjusting the telescoping ball rest until it was just right, often to the chagrin of the jeering, impatient crowd. I didn't have the best walk rate, but I always got my pitch.

 

http://i.imgur.com/m8OLP.gif

[TooLiveBrew]

Completely agreed, dlk

[Funketown]

After the last few games, his BB% is up to 8.8% now, and he has another drool-worthy batting line: .305/.382/.644.

 

Also of note: Braun's OPS of 1.026 almost exactly double Pujols' OPS of .514. If somebody had predicted that, I would have been perfectly willing to eat my own shorts.

[monty57]

So if pounding him inside is the way to pitch Braun why would it matter who is hitting behind him?

 

Were they afraid of hitting him ahead of Fielder so they didn't pitch him inside? So in trying to avoid hitting him you pitch him in a less effective way which allows him to put up monster numbers accross the board?

 

Makes little sense to me......he killed them last year when they didn't pound him inside.....Prince or no Prince they should have pitched him there if they honestly feel its the best way to get him out even if they plunked him once in awhile in front of Fielder.

 

I wondered about that as well. Pitchers obviously had no problem working Prince and Rickie inside, and probably the whole team, as we always seemed to have a lot more HBP than any team in the league. If the thought were that his "hole" in his swing is so small that he'll kill the pitch if you miss, then they would be more worried about that this year because of lack of "protection."

 

Seems like Olney believes pitchers were willing to let the MVP kill them by throwing him pitches "in his zone" simply because they were worried that if they hit him Prince would get an AB with a runner on first. Kind of a weak arguement. I could understand them throwing meatballs to a weak hitter in front of a strong hitter, or occasionally grooving a 3-1 pitch to not walk a batter in front of a slugger, but I can't understand why they'd purposely throw pitches into the hot zone of an MVP-caliber hitter simply to avoid the potential of hitting him.

 

Either way, it appears this "strategy" isn't working so well, and as was probably to be expected, the early season start was simply a small sample, and Braun is once again hitting as we've grown to expect.

[jjfanec]

Braun's HR%, BB%, and XBH% are all at career highs. His K% is the second highest. His BABIP is actually the second worst of his career.

 

Braun is a really good hitter and if pitchers try to beat him somewhere he seems to learn. I love that he is putting up big numbers after the off-season drama. Shows his mental-toughness as well

[rluzinski]

Batters simply aren't affected very much by who bats before or after them. That's what the numbers show, at least.

[Funketown]

I imagine if Roenicke decided to bat Izturis behind Braun his numbers would change. Whether you have Fielder or Ramirez behind you, you're better off trying to deal with Braun than face Fielder or Ramirez with him on base. I wonder if you looked at the difference in outcomes for the same players when hitting 8th in front of a pitcher vs. up in the order in front of a competent hitter if you'd find that there is a significant difference.

 

*Also, what I remember from the study I've read about "protection" is that it doesn't change a batters' overall production, but I'm not sure if I've read anything that indicates that how they put up the production changes, i.e. it could be that Braun is just as valuable, but he draws more walks, hits for a bit less power, etc.; just that those effects both even out, so to speak. I imagine somebody has looked into this and I imagine the conclusion would be that the effect is once again minimal, but I'm curious to know whether that's been looked at.

[3and2Fastball]

My main hopes for Braun in drawing walks have little to do with hopes for more effectiveness and more to do with purely a fan based thing: Braun is my favorite player and I'm hoping he'll someday be thought of as one of the greatest players of all-time.... so I'd like to see him with a career OBP over .400 and a career OPS in the .970-1.000 range which would then compare favorably to the very best ever.

 

His slugging % is already in the top 15 all-time so the place where he can most improve his career OPS is by drawing more walks....

 

I know, it isn't very rational, but that is the fanatic part of being a fan....