Sure, I post this after the Giants won by getting a lot of hits, but this goes back the last few weeks.
It is getting damn frustrating watching a lot of these guys, even the ones I have irrational man-love for like Schierholtz and Belt, swing at terrible pitches, and then let fastballs in the zone go by. What are they looking for?
Now, since my parents (and multiple jobs) have told me not to just bitch at stupidity and offer “constructive, helpful feedback,” Here it is: Get those batters to the parks early, stand in while the pitchers who need to pitch on the side that day go, and have the batters call out the type of pitch it is before it reaches the plate. If they call it wrong, five pushups. If they don’t call it, three pushups. That simple.
If that seems a little bootcamp for you…well, it is because it’s inspired by boot camp. But let me tell you, negative reinforcement by push up is one hell of a motivator.
Now, of course, all pitchers are different, but the Giants rotation has all sorts of pitchers to learn from. You’ve got Cain, who has the prototypical right-handed power pitcher, and Bumgarner, who is the prototypical left-handed power pitcher. You’ve got Zito, who is the pitcher who gets by with breaking stuff, and Vogelsong, who specializes with control and change ups. And then there’s Lincecum, a power pitcher coming from over-the-top, which is starting to become more common.
At the worst, it can’t hurt. At least they’d be doing SOMETHING about this terrible hitting.
I hope Thursday’s revival is the start of something, but they have to do a lot more of it before I believe that.