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silveradept[This is part of a series exploring the Baseball Tarot.]
Hi there! It's time for a little December Days in July, just in time for the All-Star break. There are only a few cards left on the Baseball Tarot Path for us to explore together, so let's get to it!
The MVP of Bats celebrates accomplishments of action. Bats are the instruments of action in baseball, the method by which the game expands from pitcher and catcher to involve the entire field of play. Statistically speaking, for position players, a snapshot of how their year is going is usually presented in terms of how well they are swinging the bat, and for pitchers, how well they are avoiding having contact made with their pitches. The game is significantly more complex than this, of course, but television broadcasts and the ease in which baseball calculates and tallies statistics really does put a strong emphasis on how everyone relates to bats.
The three main statistical categories one will see displayed about any given batter is their batting average, or how many times they successfully get on base as a percentage of their total of at-bats, their Home Run count, and their Runs Batted In count. Most batters excel at one of the three categories and are placed in the lineup accordingly - hitters for average precede specialists in RBI, with a few key spots, like #4, generally given over to the home run specialists. A good team will have players that can manage two of the three categories - hitters with good sight to avoid lowering their average chasing bad pitches and with excellent bat speed to turn junky pitches into bloop singles or extra base hits, or hitters with good understanding that can scatter lesser pitches to the outfield for hits and RBI and then get solid contact on choice pitches or mistakes to knock them out of the field of play for home runs.
It is a truly good player, and often one that a team is being built around, that can do all three. Having been blessed with sight, smarts, power, and teammates that get on base a lot, each year, there are certain players who strive to be the statistical leaders in all three of the major offensive categories. Some years, there are no real contenders, and three different players will take each category separately. Other years, the stars align and there is a race for the rare prize of the Triple Crown.
The most recent Triple Crown winner, as if this writing, is Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers in 2012, breaking a 45 year drought and proving it possible, although highly unlikely, to be the leader in all three categories and thus able to claim an impressive accomplishment of action.
As with all things involving Bats, however, there's more to it than just swinging the stick. Part of it is that even the best of players still fail more than six times every ten, but another part of it is that good hitters excel at the other parts of good at-bats: knowing the likelihood of getting a viable pitch to hit based on the count, being able to determine which pitches need to be swung at as they leave the pitcher's hand, having the discipline to not act on things that look like they should be acted on, being okay with getting on base by a walk if the pitches aren't there, and being willing to be a sacrifice when the situation demands it.
This card in a reading represents reward for having acted with wisdom, planning, thinking, and execution. To the casual observer, it may just look like you have the raw power to be able to get what you want done, or a large amount of luck, but on a deep dive, or to the eyes of the person with expertise, all of the planning, experience, and work that went into it will be apparent. They will notice the opening of the stance so as to get the bat around on the consistently inside pitches and congratulate you when you cruise into second with a stand-up double.
If you should get this card and its downsides make more sense, the card then represents rash actions taken without thought - the kind of hitter that swings at everything, and consequently is taking the long walk back to the dugout a lot more than is healthy for a good batter. The mental attitude will have to change before results will improve.
Hi there! It's time for a little December Days in July, just in time for the All-Star break. There are only a few cards left on the Baseball Tarot Path for us to explore together, so let's get to it!
The MVP of Bats celebrates accomplishments of action. Bats are the instruments of action in baseball, the method by which the game expands from pitcher and catcher to involve the entire field of play. Statistically speaking, for position players, a snapshot of how their year is going is usually presented in terms of how well they are swinging the bat, and for pitchers, how well they are avoiding having contact made with their pitches. The game is significantly more complex than this, of course, but television broadcasts and the ease in which baseball calculates and tallies statistics really does put a strong emphasis on how everyone relates to bats.
The three main statistical categories one will see displayed about any given batter is their batting average, or how many times they successfully get on base as a percentage of their total of at-bats, their Home Run count, and their Runs Batted In count. Most batters excel at one of the three categories and are placed in the lineup accordingly - hitters for average precede specialists in RBI, with a few key spots, like #4, generally given over to the home run specialists. A good team will have players that can manage two of the three categories - hitters with good sight to avoid lowering their average chasing bad pitches and with excellent bat speed to turn junky pitches into bloop singles or extra base hits, or hitters with good understanding that can scatter lesser pitches to the outfield for hits and RBI and then get solid contact on choice pitches or mistakes to knock them out of the field of play for home runs.
It is a truly good player, and often one that a team is being built around, that can do all three. Having been blessed with sight, smarts, power, and teammates that get on base a lot, each year, there are certain players who strive to be the statistical leaders in all three of the major offensive categories. Some years, there are no real contenders, and three different players will take each category separately. Other years, the stars align and there is a race for the rare prize of the Triple Crown.
The most recent Triple Crown winner, as if this writing, is Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers in 2012, breaking a 45 year drought and proving it possible, although highly unlikely, to be the leader in all three categories and thus able to claim an impressive accomplishment of action.
As with all things involving Bats, however, there's more to it than just swinging the stick. Part of it is that even the best of players still fail more than six times every ten, but another part of it is that good hitters excel at the other parts of good at-bats: knowing the likelihood of getting a viable pitch to hit based on the count, being able to determine which pitches need to be swung at as they leave the pitcher's hand, having the discipline to not act on things that look like they should be acted on, being okay with getting on base by a walk if the pitches aren't there, and being willing to be a sacrifice when the situation demands it.
This card in a reading represents reward for having acted with wisdom, planning, thinking, and execution. To the casual observer, it may just look like you have the raw power to be able to get what you want done, or a large amount of luck, but on a deep dive, or to the eyes of the person with expertise, all of the planning, experience, and work that went into it will be apparent. They will notice the opening of the stance so as to get the bat around on the consistently inside pitches and congratulate you when you cruise into second with a stand-up double.
If you should get this card and its downsides make more sense, the card then represents rash actions taken without thought - the kind of hitter that swings at everything, and consequently is taking the long walk back to the dugout a lot more than is healthy for a good batter. The mental attitude will have to change before results will improve.
