"Guys need to find ways to just put the ball in play more -- that's the bottom line." Congratulations Sherlock .... you've finally cracked the case! If it's taken 5 years and who knows how much money spent for him to come to the same conclusion that hundreds of us figured out in 2018, his first season, why in the world was he ever hired for this job? How about this: If young players don't mind strikeouts because the coaches don't mind strikeouts, guess what you get? If they understand that strikeouts are always followed by unpleasant and undesirable consequences, I guarantee you the strikeouts will amazingly diminish. How do winning football coaches handle fumbles, missed blocks or tackles and dropped passes? How do winning basketball coaches handle bad shot selections, poor defense and stupid turnovers? By the way, putting the ball in play entails 1) choking up on the bat, 2) getting closer to protect the outside corner and 3) adjusting stance and swing. For the first 100+ years of baseball, this concept was de rigueur for players of all levels, from youth baseball to the majors. But hey, we're now in the age of loading, launch angles, one hand follow-throughs and fence swinging with two strikes. I also got a kick this weekend in watching some of our better hitters step out of the box after each pitch to tighten or re-adjust their gloves, even when they took a strike down-the-middle, with the bat still on their shoulder.
"We just strike out too much" Kingston
- Thread starter bdblack
- Start date
Kingston is a clown, he never deserved to be USC baseball head coach, never should have been hired. To go from Bobby Richardson to this in one lifetime is the saddest thing I have ever seen.
He could use “we need to review the film” and be safe for a few years anyways. It’s been done before.
USCBatgirl21
Well-Known Member
Not a new thing this weekend. Been doing it all season.
Statistics from SEC are telling.Pitching tied with Arkansas in ERA.
BA and OB% next to last ahead of Mizzou.
BA and OB% next to last ahead of Mizzou.
By the time these guys get to us, they should be able to hit in just about ant situation. Kingston may be a crappycoach, but we havent had a really good batting coach since Tan ers next to last year. We just suck at being grown men that hit the damn ball!
True story. Thankful he didn’t play the “gap control” card.
Maybe get them some videos showing Rod Carew, Tony Gywnn or Ted Williams on the art of hitting. Even throw Chipper Jones in there.
Funny....that Kawasaki guy on here says everything is great and there's no approach to hitting. Maybe he's our hitting coach. Lol
At least he didn’t say ‘hitting a baseball is hard’.
Plate control and bat discipline.
His inner Muschamp is starting to peek through.
We’ll see what happens next year.
Of course, there will be the “we’re young” card.
Man, it is hitting the lottery being a Carolina coach.
At least he has clearly determined that our hitting is an issue albeit a little too late. I hope he is smart enough to address this glaring weakness through whatever means are available to him.....new coaches, new players, new bat warmers, a new fish, whatever! Just don't go into next season with the same approach!!!
I’m sure Kingston is smarter than we are and will work to correct the deficiencies.
Love him or hate him, this is a great segment from Pete Rose, and he says a lot of what bdblack says except about your swing. Of course these guys aren’t in the Bigs. He needs to do another one about plate discipline.
With all due respect, I have to disagree with his intelligence in dealing with the KO problem. I noticed in 2018, his first year, that several of our starters struck out at a rate of 1K per 4-5 at bats .... totally unacceptable, even in little league. Not so much smarter than us on "too many strikeouts" issue, but definitely wealthier than most of us thanks to the last four years of SC coinage.
Kingston may be in over his head. True analytics geeks will tell you a strikeout isn't a bad thing. To your point, they want hitters swinging the same no matter the count. Where we grew up shortening our swing with 2 strikes (choke up, etc,), these geeks with pocket protectors want guys swinging out of their shoes on every pitch.
Kingston came here saying he's an analytics guy, well which is it bud? Seems like a lost head coach without a real philosophy to me. Hope I'm wrong as I'm sure Ray Ray has no intention of firing him anytime soon.
Then how do you explain the same strikeout and hitting problems in the major leagues now, which are at an all time record level? And pitchers are throwing no-hitters at a record pace. I don't believe that its "just Kingston". I think you are looking for a simple answer to a complex issue.
I watch a lot of MLB, have MLB.tv to watch my Yanks. The MLB problem is two fold, they changed the baseball this year and they haven't been watching the pitchers closely. Spin rates are off the charts, just last week MLB started telling umpires to inspect the pitchers more closely. Some spin rates are already going down, this means the ball moves less.
I do think analytics are to blame for some of this as well but honestly I don't know where Kingston stands on analytics any longer. While he started his tenure praising analytics, he hasn't been following the principles lately. I've got several examples from this past weekend. The biggest non-analytics move was the sac bunt against ODU to move the runners. That goes against the data driven decision tree.
Ahead of Mizzou by a thread. Had they made it to any kind of post season, we may have found ourselves dead last.
Agree, not only does he seem lost, the team seems lost by extension. Best if he kept all his philosophies to himself and hire more knowledgable guys to handle the various aspects of the game if he wants to keep his job beyond another year imo.
USCBatgirl21
Well-Known Member
I agree. I didn't see any of the changes I expected from him this season.
Same here. In fact I saw a slippage in swing mechanics. I mention that above everything else because that was the most disheartening for me.
USCBatgirl21
Well-Known Member
I remember us talking about his preseason comments about changing is approach. We were hopeful we'd see it. Oh well.
We actually did see it for a little while. Guys were multifaceted for a month or two. Some like to point to weaker competition, that wasnt it from what I was seeing. The way I saw it was when we got to conference play, we changed the way we were playing... and it wasnt for the better.
USCBatgirl21
Well-Known Member
Why are there other SEC teams and Notre Dame ripping the cover off the ball?
I believe at some point you have to not care what everyone else is doing in the sport as a group and focus on what the champions are doing. This is why I hate stats, they're a path mediocrity. From what I can tell, old school is winning championships. I've said this before, but look at Vandy... they lead the SEC in batting average and imo have the best plate appearances in all of baseball to go along with it. They have also laid down more sac-bunts than anyone in the SEC. They come to play. With that said, it wouldnt surprise me to see them win back to back titles. This is the direction I thought we were going to go but whatever. Hope he can find a way to win somehow.
And its the stunning, dramatic difference in the two that is an indictment of Kingston as a head coach.
No I didnt moron. To prove it go copy and paste where I said that. You cant, cause I didnt say it which makes you a liar. A bad one.
Hey Doc! Trying to establish some decorum here too I see
keep up the good work.
Small ball give you a chance to score in many different ways. Walks, errors and hits put people on base. People on base score on sacrifices, wild pitches and pressed balls as well as hits. The average player gets hits with more frequency than they hit dingers. More hours equal more opportunities to score. That said, nothing drives the dagger in like a three run blast
Well, in a way, we sort of got what we asked for. There was a time when we were clamoring for a power hitting game. We embraced living or dying by the three-run homer. I suppose the pendulum is swinging back.
Establishing decorum here is harder than Carolina trying to get a hit with runners on base.Hey Doc! Trying to establish some decorum here too I see
If only we had a person dedicated to leading practices who works on improving the players' skills and knowledge of the game.
