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silveradept[This is part of a series exploring the Baseball Tarot.]
While television broadcasts, fantasy sports, and commentators focus on individual players and their progression through the game and the season, baseball is a team sport. The offense has to work together to score runs. The defense has to work together to collect outs. While one or another player may be having a hot streak, or may be the marquee player for any given squad, it's very easy to make one player utterly ineffective by hitting away from them or pitching around them. Two, close in the lineup, are much more dangerous, and the more that the team itself is able to do things from any position, the better the team itself does.
Sometimes, however, the needs of the team override the desires for individual glory. Runners on the bases need to be advanced and scored, even if that means trading an out to make this possible.
This is the essence of the sacrifice. A team trades an out from their stock to advance or score runners and create a better situation for the remaining runners to also score. Official Sacrifices generally come in two varieties, the sacrifice fly ball (sac fly) and the sacrifice bunt (sac bunt).
A sacrifice bunt is a deliberate attempt by a batter to advance runners on base by bunting the ball. So long as a runner advances at least one base and isn't put out in the attempt, the bint is classed as a sacrifice. These bunts don't count as at-bats, since penalizing a hitter for giving themselves up in a tactical exchange doesn't make sense.
Sacrifice bunts require a certain amount of finesse to complete well, mostly sharing the same kind of skill needed to bunt yourself on to base. A bunt that drops almost immediately, gets nice and close to the foul line without crossing it and that forces the player fielding it to have to turn around to throw to get the lead runner will generally do quite well as a sacrifice bunt. The main point is to put the ball in such a place and way that the only out the defense really has its to throw to first and get the batter. Before the general overall increase in fitness and strength among baseball players characterized by an era of steroid scandals and other performance enhancing substances, it was almost a staple of a National League baseball game that the pitcher, so as to save their energy for throwing, would generally attempt to lay down a sacrifice bunt if they were in a position to be able to do so, so that other batters would be able to drive in runners from there. At the time of these posts, interleague play and continuous improvement in training and strength had pitchers taking swings seemingly more frequently than they were before, including hits that can travel far enough for home runs. The increase in pitcher hitting has helped spread the duties of sacrificial bunter to many other spots in the lineup, making the bunt possible at any point in the game.
Sacrifice bunts are also a characteristic of a team that plays "small ball", whose game plan involves manufacturing runs in small batches and using stellar defense and pitching to keep the score low. A small ball team is geared toward winning a game 1-0, rather than 13-12, and their willingness to trade an out to advance runners into scoring positions is attempting to provide a high percentage chance of making the few hits of the game productive ones. Small ball is an interesting game to study and use, and it can make teams with limited payrolls competitive against titans that throw money at players to build a lineup of power hitters.
The other official sacrifice is the sacrifice fly ball, which can be a little trickier to recognize, as it is generally not a deliberate action like the sacrifice bunt, but instead a decision made by the scorer on fly balls hit to the outfield. The criteria are that there have to be less than two outs, the ball must be hit out of the infield on the fly, the ball has to be caught on the fly, and, most crucially, a runner has to score on the play without a defensive error allowing them to. Most sacrifice flies, then, have the characteristic of being a sufficiently deep-hit fly ball to the outfield that the runner on third base is able to advance and score before the throw from the outfield arrives and a tag is applied to them.
As with sacrifice bunts, a sacrifice fly is not counted as an official at-bat, but the run that scores is added to their total of runs batted in, resulting in a net positive to the offensive statistics of the batter that flies out. So even the individual metrics go up when a player helps the team score runs. Which is the idea for helping remind us of the team nature of the sport.
There is one other notable sacrifice that happens infrequently in baseball, but it is generally recorded HBP (hit by pitch) rather than as a sacrifice - at certain levels of the game, when the fundamentals of the game regarding throwing strikes should be firmly established, pitchers start being taught how to locate their pitches to be the least hittable, and to generally move from attempting to get all their pitches in the strike zone to starting to get their pitches to the edges of the strike zone. In three directions, this doesn't mean much, but the migration of pitches toward the batter's edge of the strike zone means there's a greater opportunity that a pitch will slip too far inside and strike the hitter. Hitters, at this same level, are being taught to "crowd" the strike zone and present themselves in such a way that any mistake too close to them will result in the batter being awarded first base for being hit by a pitch. As velocities increase, so does the likelihood that being hit by a pitch will hurt. And that's before things get to the point where a pitcher is "accidentally" throwing at hitters that have displeased them. (The umpires frown heavily on such actions and have been instructed to eject anyone they perceive as deliberately throwing at a batter and several other personnel along with them.)
In any case, being hit by a pitch is sometimes euphemistically referred to as "taking one for the team", with the expectation that the personal physical sacrifice of the player will be appreciated by their teammates, and possibly rewarded by being a run that eventually scores. Even if they have bruises and soreness afterward.
The presence of this card in the reading is fairly simple - there's a sacrifice being asked of you. Someone else might need what it is you are looking at more than you do. You might be asked to mentor someone else's big project, reducing your own glory but increasing goodwill and possibly giving the other person the confidence they need to succeed at full potential. Sometimes, that may even mean having someone else take your place on the team. You could sacrifice your own privileges to help others get a leg up. Sacrifices in baseball aren't easy, but they're not the same as sacrifices asked in life. But the sacrifices asked of in life often come with benefits to those who can make them.
That said, constantly being asked to make sacrifices (unless you're the pitcher) is probably an indication of team dysfunction - make sure you're not being taken advantage of by your team. If you're a person that likes to help by nature, this is a difficult thing, sticking up for yourself.
The downside of the card is the person who won't make sacrifices at all. The person that cannot give way, accept help, or do anything other than stand in the spotlight and try to draw all of the attention to themselves. As with everything, a little bit of self-aggrandizement is okay, but putting yourself in front of everyone else constantly is going to end up with the team not supporting you when it would otherwise. Bad Ends often catch up with time.
While television broadcasts, fantasy sports, and commentators focus on individual players and their progression through the game and the season, baseball is a team sport. The offense has to work together to score runs. The defense has to work together to collect outs. While one or another player may be having a hot streak, or may be the marquee player for any given squad, it's very easy to make one player utterly ineffective by hitting away from them or pitching around them. Two, close in the lineup, are much more dangerous, and the more that the team itself is able to do things from any position, the better the team itself does.
Sometimes, however, the needs of the team override the desires for individual glory. Runners on the bases need to be advanced and scored, even if that means trading an out to make this possible.
This is the essence of the sacrifice. A team trades an out from their stock to advance or score runners and create a better situation for the remaining runners to also score. Official Sacrifices generally come in two varieties, the sacrifice fly ball (sac fly) and the sacrifice bunt (sac bunt).
A sacrifice bunt is a deliberate attempt by a batter to advance runners on base by bunting the ball. So long as a runner advances at least one base and isn't put out in the attempt, the bint is classed as a sacrifice. These bunts don't count as at-bats, since penalizing a hitter for giving themselves up in a tactical exchange doesn't make sense.
Sacrifice bunts require a certain amount of finesse to complete well, mostly sharing the same kind of skill needed to bunt yourself on to base. A bunt that drops almost immediately, gets nice and close to the foul line without crossing it and that forces the player fielding it to have to turn around to throw to get the lead runner will generally do quite well as a sacrifice bunt. The main point is to put the ball in such a place and way that the only out the defense really has its to throw to first and get the batter. Before the general overall increase in fitness and strength among baseball players characterized by an era of steroid scandals and other performance enhancing substances, it was almost a staple of a National League baseball game that the pitcher, so as to save their energy for throwing, would generally attempt to lay down a sacrifice bunt if they were in a position to be able to do so, so that other batters would be able to drive in runners from there. At the time of these posts, interleague play and continuous improvement in training and strength had pitchers taking swings seemingly more frequently than they were before, including hits that can travel far enough for home runs. The increase in pitcher hitting has helped spread the duties of sacrificial bunter to many other spots in the lineup, making the bunt possible at any point in the game.
Sacrifice bunts are also a characteristic of a team that plays "small ball", whose game plan involves manufacturing runs in small batches and using stellar defense and pitching to keep the score low. A small ball team is geared toward winning a game 1-0, rather than 13-12, and their willingness to trade an out to advance runners into scoring positions is attempting to provide a high percentage chance of making the few hits of the game productive ones. Small ball is an interesting game to study and use, and it can make teams with limited payrolls competitive against titans that throw money at players to build a lineup of power hitters.
The other official sacrifice is the sacrifice fly ball, which can be a little trickier to recognize, as it is generally not a deliberate action like the sacrifice bunt, but instead a decision made by the scorer on fly balls hit to the outfield. The criteria are that there have to be less than two outs, the ball must be hit out of the infield on the fly, the ball has to be caught on the fly, and, most crucially, a runner has to score on the play without a defensive error allowing them to. Most sacrifice flies, then, have the characteristic of being a sufficiently deep-hit fly ball to the outfield that the runner on third base is able to advance and score before the throw from the outfield arrives and a tag is applied to them.
As with sacrifice bunts, a sacrifice fly is not counted as an official at-bat, but the run that scores is added to their total of runs batted in, resulting in a net positive to the offensive statistics of the batter that flies out. So even the individual metrics go up when a player helps the team score runs. Which is the idea for helping remind us of the team nature of the sport.
There is one other notable sacrifice that happens infrequently in baseball, but it is generally recorded HBP (hit by pitch) rather than as a sacrifice - at certain levels of the game, when the fundamentals of the game regarding throwing strikes should be firmly established, pitchers start being taught how to locate their pitches to be the least hittable, and to generally move from attempting to get all their pitches in the strike zone to starting to get their pitches to the edges of the strike zone. In three directions, this doesn't mean much, but the migration of pitches toward the batter's edge of the strike zone means there's a greater opportunity that a pitch will slip too far inside and strike the hitter. Hitters, at this same level, are being taught to "crowd" the strike zone and present themselves in such a way that any mistake too close to them will result in the batter being awarded first base for being hit by a pitch. As velocities increase, so does the likelihood that being hit by a pitch will hurt. And that's before things get to the point where a pitcher is "accidentally" throwing at hitters that have displeased them. (The umpires frown heavily on such actions and have been instructed to eject anyone they perceive as deliberately throwing at a batter and several other personnel along with them.)
In any case, being hit by a pitch is sometimes euphemistically referred to as "taking one for the team", with the expectation that the personal physical sacrifice of the player will be appreciated by their teammates, and possibly rewarded by being a run that eventually scores. Even if they have bruises and soreness afterward.
The presence of this card in the reading is fairly simple - there's a sacrifice being asked of you. Someone else might need what it is you are looking at more than you do. You might be asked to mentor someone else's big project, reducing your own glory but increasing goodwill and possibly giving the other person the confidence they need to succeed at full potential. Sometimes, that may even mean having someone else take your place on the team. You could sacrifice your own privileges to help others get a leg up. Sacrifices in baseball aren't easy, but they're not the same as sacrifices asked in life. But the sacrifices asked of in life often come with benefits to those who can make them.
That said, constantly being asked to make sacrifices (unless you're the pitcher) is probably an indication of team dysfunction - make sure you're not being taken advantage of by your team. If you're a person that likes to help by nature, this is a difficult thing, sticking up for yourself.
The downside of the card is the person who won't make sacrifices at all. The person that cannot give way, accept help, or do anything other than stand in the spotlight and try to draw all of the attention to themselves. As with everything, a little bit of self-aggrandizement is okay, but putting yourself in front of everyone else constantly is going to end up with the team not supporting you when it would otherwise. Bad Ends often catch up with time.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-05 11:58 pm (UTC)