Why Does the Cleveland Indian's Offensive Continue to Struggle?

Bob Salyer by Correspondent Written on August 03, 2008
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Yes, I think I may have just figured out what is wrong with the Tribe's offensive. Well, I didn't figure it out myself, comments by Eric Wedge & David Dellucci gave me some very good hints.

First from Eric Wedge: "He's (Dellucci) had pitches to hit, but he's just a tad off. He'll get pitches that he fouls back or pitches that he just misses. Hopefully, as [we keep moving here], he'll start to square some of those baseballs up and help us."

Then Dellucci really spilled the beans when he stated: ""Everybody judges you by numbers," he said. "Our goal is to hit the ball hard. You can't control where it goes or what happens after it leaves the bat. There has been a lot of games where I hit the ball good and had nothing to show for it, and [if] you read the box scores or look at a batting average, you wouldn't be able to tell."

So they are being told that their goal is to 'HIT THE BALL HARD' and don't worry about anything else!!!!

What about drawing walks (which now occurs only 8% of our AB's) instead of trying to 'HIT THE BALL HARD'?

Also, what about working the count so you can have a good ball to 'HIT THE BALL HARD'?

What about cutting down on strikeouts (which now occurs 19% of the Tribe AB's) and keeping the ball in play, instead of "HIT THE BALL HARD'?

What about hitting the ball the other way instead of trying to pull the ball and trying to "HIT THE BALL HARD" for HR's but end up hitting grounders into the ground HARD, which then becoming HARMLESS groundouts?

And looking at the batting averages can't tell us whether the hitters are doing well or not?

You mean that .251 team batting average doesn't say anything about the Tribe hitters?

We should at least learn from the other teams hitting approach, like the Twins. They don't have much power but they put the ball in play and they manufacture runs by just making contact and going the other way.

I can't stand the thought of going through these prolongs hitting slumps for another season, with what we have seen for over a year-and-a-half now.

I just don't believe the Tribe brass is going to make any changes in our hitting coach.

Eddie Murray was not given this much of a chance but he was only a Hall of Famer and wasn't a YES man to Wedge.

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written on August 03, 2008 Opinion

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