Pujols and Plate Discipline

aside from the decided lack of 5-run HR’s he has for his career, is the Z-Swing% on that page, that I’ve intuitively noticed as well. I.E., he, in recent years (specifically ‘07 and ‘08) has let a lot of juicy pitches go by. His strike-out on Monday was two called strikes in the zone, and a whiff at one out of it. He was closer to League average when he was younger.

I realize that all zone pitches are not equal, but there have been a few that I think he could have tee’d off on, that he let go. Is this why his HR’s are down this year?

on yesterday’s thread that I would like to see Pujols improve his plate disipline now that it seems he is going to get the Bonds treatment from here on and a couple people hopped on me about it. I had noticed that Albert actually a lot of times, starting last year actually swung and made contact with often the 2nd or 3rd best pitch he had seen in a sequence. Sometimes he gets a hit off it but mostly it results in an out, which is logical.
Several people quoted me Pujols great stats and how his 1st 5years are record breaking etc. but I didn’t consider it a statistical matter. I stated that with Pujols greatness, I would not rate him in my top 10 great hitters in plate discipline and it is the only thing that I have seen that he doesn’t excel in.
Sure his stats are going to be better than most great hitters I would name above him but that just shows how good he is at knocking the hell out of anything he chooses to go after. With that said, think how good a hitter he would be if had the discipline of, just say Hank Aaron for that matter. Actually I have seen good hitters that I thought were too choosy, EX. Mike Smhidt; which is going to up their strikeouts.. and also over the years I have seen a number of average hitters with excellent plate discipline: just couldn’t hit good pitches with something on it, so who knows maybe it’s best to just let Pujols be Pujols. After all there have been great hitters that didn’t have good plate disipline; EX Roberto Clemente.

- and I recognize what chutzpah it takes to complete this sentence -

I see him swinging at ball four a lot, especially on the low and away pitches. He’s actually acknowledged this previously, being frustrated by all the walks and trying to force hits.

Often times, this is in a full count, so maybe with close pitches, he’s trying to defend the plate.

I don’t see him letting the meatballs go by, so much, as the ongoing problem.

that we are even having this discussion. The man would have three MVP’s, possibly four, had it not been for Barry Bonds’ all-century type seasons. If he is able to play well into his 30’s he’ll go down as one of the top 5 all time hitters—and we’re talking about his plate discipline when he’s leading the majors in walks and still hitting .370? Sheesh, I guess the guy can’t do anything right.

Never mind the fact that none of us could probably touch major league pitching—I think it takes a lot of stones to suggest that he “looks at too many good pitches”. Albert watches tons of film on each pitcher he’s going to face, looks for tendencies, and then works his at-bats around those tendencies. He goes up there looking for a certain pitch in a certain area of the zone, and if he doesn’t get that pitch he lets it go. I’d much rather he did this than swinging freely and hitting a lazy fly ball somewhere. Albert doesn’t have a quick bat, so his preparation and long plane of his swing are what makes him a great hitter. These allow him to square up the ball to nearly every field, making him nearly impossible to pitch to.

My favorite at-bat this season happened on Sunday against the Cubs.

In the 6th inning with Shawn Marshall pitching, Albert came up after Kennedy had just singled to drive in a run. Marshall proceeded to throw the first two pitches a combined 8 feet off the plate away, for the final two pitches, Albert just stood there with the bat on his shoulder. Marshall could have grooved one down the middle and Albert wouldn’t have hit it. On the 4th pitch he was halfway down the line before the ball crossed the plate.

I think the next time he’s in this situation he should just flip the bat around, a la Mr. Baseball, and hold the bat by the barrel while swinging the handle at the ball, just to see if they’ll pitch to him.