https://x.com/thesportsontap/status/2089839002992189544?s=20
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His hitting skill when combine contact, power and all facets of the skillset is the greatest skill in all of sports history.
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Agents and lawyer.
“Heya Teddy boy! Sit out these games. We’ll say your ankle hurts or something. Being a .400 hitter guarantees these six marketing deals! You play, and you throw away 10 million dollars, and you lose me as an agent! Think of all your teammates! The exposure the Sox get if/when you’re a .400 hitter! It’s sefish and reckless to play these meaningless games!”
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I was just going to bring this up. The incentive structure has changed. Now there is an eight to nine figure difference over the course of a career whether or not you hit that mark.
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the way pitching is nowadays I don’t think anyone will be able to hit that way over the course of a season. a month or 2? sure. probably the best hitter I’ve seen that might’ve been able to pull it off is ichiro.
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Just imagine what it would have been if they were not allowed to shift defenders on him like they do today. I think the slug is what makes the 400 avg more impressive. The year he hit 406 he walked 147 times and only struck out 27 times to go along with his 37 bombs and 33 doubles. Just incredible.
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Missed 4.5 seasons flying in WW2 and akorea. Was John Glenn’s wingman on many of Ted’s 39 combat missions.
Stat guys doing projections have him pulling in right behind Babe Ruth with thise age 24-26 and 33-34 seasons added in.
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Speaking of Babe Ruth it’s a little bit overlooked that he was a lifetime .342 hitter.
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Baseball has turned into the worst professional sport by far. Something like only 90 players hitting over .250. Maybe 10 hitting over .300…
Some of the major elements that made baseball great are gone and likely never returning. It’s the only game that has truly been destroyed over time.
This is coming from someone who can’t stand NBA basketball. Even played a little college baseball and I hate what it’s become.
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I think there is a chance that college baseball is about to become pretty awesome given the flood of talent due to NIL. The top of the SEC in particular is going to be absurd next year.
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I can definitely agree with that because the amount of elite pitching in college is still relatively small.
They are all elite or throw 98+ at the MLB level.
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Don’t you think there is a tactical element to this as well? IMO the obvious counterattack to the current state of things is mid 1980s Cardinals. Put the ball in play, run like hell and play awesome defense. But the analytics say not to play that way.
And while I disliked that team bc they kept my Giants out of a WS, they and the Reds that came just after them with a bit more pop, were incredibly fun teams to watch.
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Reds are my franchise. Only sport where I don’t love the home team.
The reds had to play that way offensively because they play in a joke of a stadium. Right center to left center is so tiny that very few balls drop in. Building their stadium like that in the early 2000s was so stupid.
I never missed a Reds game during the Griffey era. My life was kind of hilarious for an early 20s person. Home everyday by 7pm to watch the reds. It was my happy place…so I guess I’m harder on the changes in baseball because of that.
I don’t think approach will change the results all that much. It’s really freaking hard to hit pitchers throwing 98 with offspeed stuff. Those types of pitchers have always yielded low BAs and high BB rates. Now they all throw like that. So I don’t think it’s so much a product of approach rather than necessity.
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I was talking about the Eric Davis, Chris Sabo, Rob Dibble, Barry Larkin teams.
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Wasn’t born yet…
Took the parallel you were trying to make in the total opposite direction lol.
Those teams were so good that not even Marge Schott could slow them down.
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I had watched a good short little YouTube explainer about why the mound is 60 ft 6 in away and long story short is they kept moving them out back as the rules changed that made it harder for the hitters.
So we may see that mound move back again… I don’t think there is a huge chance of it but it is definitely a possibility that isn’t thought of much because it’s been standardized for so long but in the opening 50 years of baseball it moved a whole bunch of times
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Maybe they should lower it again.
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Forgot about that too…1969 I think.
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To neutralize Bob Gibson.
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