Welcome to the Complete Game Podcast where we're all about baseball with Ethan Dungan, owner of Glovehound Baseball glove repair shop, Rick Finley, founder of MDNI Baseball Academy and the creator of George Foster Baseball, the MVP himself, Reds hall of Famer George Foster.

I'm your host, Greg Dungan.

Now let's talk baseball.

Well, hello everybody.

Thank you for coming Back to episode.

1818, the SEO Geor.

Today we're going to talk about, we're going to do the first of a three part series that we're calling Offensive Objectives.

And we've identified three main things that you try and accomplish in baseball on the offensive side of the action.

And we're going to tackle the first one today, which is get on base.

We're going to start off with an understanding of the stat of on base percentage.

And you may have heard, if you're young players out there, you may have heard on base percentage.

And I'm going to have Ethan explain to us mathematically exactly what on base percentage is.

And then we're going to be talking about that a lot today is why it's significant and how much we should focus on it and that kind of thing.

So, Ethan, why don't you explain our mathematician.

So the simple explanation is basically times that you got on base over opportunities to get on base.

So, so the, the complicated explanation of that is hits plus bet plus walks plus hit by pitches divided by at bats plus walks plus hit by pitches plus sacrifice flies.

And the reason you have to add sacrifice flies in there is because they don't count as at bats.

So the easy way to explain that is over plate appearances.

But plate appearances also account for catcher's interference and sacrifice bunts.

So that's why, that's why the slightly more detailed calculation sound complicated.

Just do it.

So, yeah, so you're basically.

I like the way you broke that down though.

It's, it's opportunities and, and results and they're the way they're, they're.

I thought he just sent it off the top of his head.

He's reading it.

So let's start with, with a name five and let's, let's name five players who were especially good at getting on base.

Ethan, once you start us off, who's a guy that you know who's especially good at getting on base?

Don't say my guy.

The first guy that comes to mind is Joey Votto.

Oh, man, that's shows over.

The show's over.

Especially being here in Cincinnati.

He led the league.

And on base percentage.

Yeah, I Think seven different times.

I mean, he, the thing is about Joy Vados.

He also walked a lot and that became kind of controversial later in his career that maybe he was trying to walk too much.

Selfish.

We're going to see later in the episode, I think a lot of guys who have high on base percentages that maybe don't walk a lot.

And so I think we're going to get into that more.

But Joey Voto was a guy who did walk a lot and had a high on base percentage.

Okay, good.

What you got, George?

Well, I have a guy that Joey Voto broke his record, team record as far as walks.

It's Joe Morgan.

But a guy like Joe Morgan, I don't mind him walking.

I mean, he can drive and run, so I didn't mind him walking because he could steal a baseball.

Contrary to Joey Votto, he walks and he's not going to steal a base.

So going base to base and he's batting in the third slot.

We're looking for him to drive in runs.

And somebody asked him one time, would you rather have a sacrifice fly or walk?

The sacrifice fly would have won the game.

He'd rather have a walk because he was concerned about his on base percentage.

But up to then, you know, he was tough at the plate, a tough out.

But later on he, he got into much stats.

But I would say Joe Morgan would be my, my guy.

What you, Rick?

My guy would be Tony Gwynn.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

He, he handles good on base percentage and a high batting average.

And, and I think he had a good arm base percentage because he used the whole field.

Being a lefty, he always said to the left side, left center, center, left center.

And he can pull the ball.

So that's seven batting titles.

Seven.

Something like that.

Not bad.

No, not bad.

I got eight batting titles.

Sorry.

Sorry, Tony.

Yeah, he's waking up, George.

One more seance.

All right, well, y' all had a shot at him.

I'm gonna bring up Ted Williams.

That was an easy one.

Yeah, Ted Williams being the, the all time leader in on base percentage and somebody who we're going to talk about quite a bit today with several different ways that his stats interacted with one another.

So I, I chose.

My dad was also a big.

He really liked Ted Williams and so we heard a lot about Ted Williams when we were kids.

My next guy is Mike Trout.

I mean that he.

For pretty much any name.

5.

He could probably be, be brought up for that.

But another guy with a huge on base percentage, another guy who walked a Lot.

And I think as, as, as we'll come to.

As you'll come to see in my next few guys, I think it starts to become just feared hitters and pitchers not wanting to pitch to him and that's why they have so many walks.

But, but Mike Trout early in his career was a guy who could do some real damage on the base paths.

You know, now he's too many injuries.

Yeah, yeah.

He's got to take a walker to get to first base.

But you know another high on base percentage guy.

Yes.

I haven't checked it, but I assumed that he would beat it because he had the most hits of all time.

Pete Rose, he had to been on base quite a bit.

Yes.

And in his case, I don't mind, he didn't.

He walked some, but most he get like led the league in not only hits, but of the hits were doubles.

So he's on second base majority of the time.

So in essence it's like a guy get on base and still second.

So he was on base a lot.

And for me, I look forward to that man on bases loaded, first and third or second and third.

He's always in scoring position, right?

I was in scoring position.

Yeah, we know.

Yes, we know.

I just want to show that my guy present.

Juan Soto.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, Juan Soto, man, I have a lot, but I'm going to the present now.

Juan Soto hit for power average on base percentages off the.

Yeah.

Walk a lot.

Too much.

Yeah, he walks a lot.

We're talking about pitches that are hittable.

Yeah.

And he's challenging the umpire all the time.

He is close.

But you talk about again, like what Ethan said, we're going to see a lot of big hitters that people were afraid to pitch to because the second one on the list is Babe Ruth.

So Babe was the second highest OBP of all time.

And you don't think of Babe as being a fast guy or anything like that.

He just, he walked a lot because people didn't want to see.

Right?

Yeah, yeah.

And I'm a stay on my trend.

My, my third guy is Miguel Cabrera, another guy who led the league on base percentage four different times.

And you think on base percentage, you, you would not.

He would never come to mind.

I mean a guy who, who played for.

For 21 years and only has 40 stolen bases.

I mean it just.

I think all the time we think on base, we think fast.

And Miguel Cabrera was not that.

So hit.

You could hit.

Oh, one of the best.

Yes, it was.

So we talk about guys who are feared had to go to it.

Barry Bond.

Yeah.

Oh man, you took my.

So what leader in intentional walks too.

Oh, lots of yeah lot there.

There's a video out there on YouTube.

I can't remember exactly what the title is, but it's what if Barry Bonds never swung a bat.

And so they basically put Barry Bonds in and they simulate all the stats just based on his walks, intentional walks and hit by pitches.

And he's still a good player if he never swung the bat.

And also this is before, you know, the steroid era stuff.

He was.

Some of it was man.

So he was still good man.

Yeah, sure.

I don't thought he may have gone to the play without a bat and they still wouldn't have pitched to him.

But last but not least.

But the.

They walked him.

Actually walked him intentionally with the bases loaded.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

That doesn't happen often.

Right.

Because they'd rather have one than four.

Yeah.

After crazy sh.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah.

Sh.

I like.

He can hit for power, average.

Walks.

Stolen bases, all of it.

I know.

He's a unicorn.

That's the only one in the 5050 club.

What two years?

One one.

Okay.

He's more than a five tool guy.

What would you call.

He's just the whole box, I guess.

The whole box of tools.

Well, you go to another.

Another all time name would be Lou Gehrig.

Was, was, was a high on base percentage.

Man, those Yankees, man, no wonder if got over 25 World Series.

Yeah.

Only 23.

Sorry.

All right, one more round.

Ethan, what you got?

Well, Rick took my Juan Soto.

I'll take another easy one.

I'll take Aaron Judge.

Why not?

Again, that just another.

Another slugger who happens to get on base.

Yes.

Yeah.

Or this, this is a guy.

He's good speed and he got on base a lot of Timmy Reigns.

Hall of Famer.

There you go.

Yes.

Okay.

I like Tim Rains a lot and.

I'm gonna go back to the.

To the past a little bit and just because he had a high batting average and hit over 300 all the time.

Rod Carew.

How can we miss Rod Carew?

I know.

Whoa.

Ryan Carew, man.

Man, he stayed in Minnesota for a long time.

We shared.

He was Minnesota for a long time.

You guys did.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

Get, get, get out of here.

Go and find that.

Yeah, I know.

I've seen it.

He.

He was Minnesota.

He was Minnesota.

Hellman Harmon, Killer brew.

Yeah, they were until.

Until Kirby Puckett showed up to be like he was Minnesota.

He was.

Yes, he Was Minnesota one more, One more all time.

Name Ty Cobb.

Ty Cobb was also very big on getting on base, which is funny because Ty Cobb, you think of Ty Cobb and Pete Rose.

Oh yeah, the hits together for the hit.

That's true.

But on base percentage, it's extremely different.

Ty COBB is number 11 and Pete Rose is number 228.

What for on base percentage?

He didn't walk.

He hit the ball all the time.

And what we're going to see is if you didn't get a lot of walks, it really affects the on base percentage which is why on base percentage can be, can be deceiving, deceiving sometimes and can be something that you may not want to necessarily focus on but keep track of.

I'm going to throw another one out there real quick because we completely glassed right over him.

Is Wade Boggs.

Oh yeah, I had him at Dot Mattingly.

Oh, very good.

There's another guy, Wade Boggs, he's not.

He walked but he's not going to steal any bass.

No, he was not going to steal.

Ted Williams the same way.

He wouldn't go.

I don't know this, I don't know if he walked a lot.

Ichiro, he knows.

Okay, I was going to bring that up later.

See, he did not walk a lot.

And so he.

Actually there were a lot of people that were kind of on.

Not a lot of people, but there were some, I would say some haters when it came time to induct him into the hall of Fame that wanted to hold that over his head because one writer did because he only, he only had a non base percentage over.400 once.

Usually he was in that mid-3007 which is above average, but not way above average.

Not, not really what you might think of hall of Fame.

But he had a high batting average and he had a ton of hits.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Also also had a ton of at bats.

So that kind of helps his hits out.

But no, he.

And he didn't walk very much.

He only the most he ever walked in a season was 68, which is a decent amount but not compared to some of those guys we've mentioned that are walking over 100 times.

So Ichiro is, you know, you might think of him as an on base percentage guy but he really was more of a hits guy.

More like, more like a Pete Rose but because another guy who also didn't really slug very much.

So that might come into conversation later, but Ichiro can be deceiving when it comes to that.

I gotta ask you a Question.

What about Ricky Henderson?

Is he on the list?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

This is the thing.

So let me just.

Let me go down through and give you the top 25.

Okay.

And no, Ricky is not in the top 25.

I'm sure he's in the top however many, but he's not in the top 25.

This is what's interesting.

So top 25, OBP Ted Williams is at the top with 482 career.

Okay.

Then Babe Ruth with 474.

Josh Gibson.

458.

Billy Hamilton.

The first Billy Hamilton.

Okay.

At 455.

Then guys I've never heard of, like Buck Leonard.

Yeah.

Oh, Buckland, Oscar Charleston.

Yeah.

All Negro league guy.

Okay.

Then you had Lou Gehrig, Barry Bonds, some guy named Judd Wilson.

Oh, I know Judd.

We went to high school.

Then you get some classic names like Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, Jimmy Foxx.

Yeah, Jimmy Foxx.

Tris Speaker.

Yeah, Tris Speaker.

And then George Scales, Eddie Collins, Dan Brewers, a lot of older guys.

Crystal Ball, Toriente.

And then you get to Mickey Mantle, Mickey Cochran.

Yeah.

Frank Thomas is number 20.

Okay.

He also walked.

Yeah, he did.

Yeah.

Frank Thomas had 1667 career walks.

And Ted Williams had 2019.

Barry Bonds had 25.

Herniac Disciple.

Student.

Yeah.

So.

And then finally, we round out with Edgar Martinez.

Yeah.

A guy named Turkey Stearns.

I heard of him.

Thanks, Stan.

Stan Musial.

Yeah.

A guy named Cupid Childs.

Nope.

And a guy named Jesse Burkett.

Okay, so those are the top.

Those are the top 25.

When you go.

Okay.

Ricky Anderson is number 50.

Oh, so when you go to the next 25, I'll just run down real quick.

You get Wade Boggs, Todd Helton, Mel Ott, guy named Bullet Rogan.

What a name.

Roy Thomas, Hank Greenberg, Mule Settles, Ed Delahanty, Manny Ramirez, Jackie Robinson, Harry Heilman, Joey Votto, Goose Curry, Fats Fats Jenkins.

Okay.

It's like the.

Reads like blues singers in here.

Jeff Bagwell.

Okay.

Willie Wells, Mike Trout, Lance Berkman, Archie Vaughn.

Is that Willie Wells or Willie Wilson?

Willie Wells.

Oh, Paul Wehner.

W A N E R. I heard of him.

Charlie Geringer, Lou Blue.

L U B L U E Lu Blue.

New Blue, Jim Tomei, Joe Kelly and Ricky Anderson.

So those are the top 50.

Yeah.

The thing about Ricky is he just made the absolute most of every time he was on base.

So it almost didn't matter that, you know, maybe he didn't get on bases.

Yeah.

Well, and Now Ricky had 2190 walks like when you start getting to walk leaders.

Yeah.

Ricky goes right up to the top of the.

Okay.

He goes to the head of the class.

Okay.

He's up there with Ted Williams and Barry Bonds and those guys.

So I mean, he had a ton.

Of walks, but he walked over 90 times.

12 times.

12 years.

Yeah, I mean, he had a ton of walks, but he's 50th in OBP.

His, his career OBP is 401.

Now he's still a 400 OBB guy, which is, you know, ridiculous.

But, you know, you got, if you.

Base things on OBP like this guy's.

His WAR is down.

So.

Yeah.

So now these guys, all these guys bat either 1, 2 or 3 in the lineup.

Yeah, they're all early guys.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes, the hitters.

So the other thing is, if you were to, if you were to build a fantasy team strictly on obb, what a, what a crazy lineup you would have.

That would be, it would be a good one.

That's, that would be wild.

So because you got power hitters in here, you've got base dealers in here, you've got average hitters in here, you got a lot of different guys.

And.

And yet it all translates to, to high obps.

But the bottom line is driving in runs and scoring, scoring runs.

That's games and that's what we're going to talk about next.

So part two is moving runners and part three is scoring runs.

And so with today, we're talking about getting on base.

What I want to do is we talked about what OBP is and why it's.

Why is it an important indicator of a player's contribution to team success?

So what, what about the high OBP tells us these guys were great contributors to their team?

Well, you got to look at how many times they scored, though.

I mean, it's important.

But what's the, what level?

You know, if you have one to ten.

Yeah.

What does it rank?

And to me, if it depends on who it is, like Frank Thomas, you know, walk.

I don't want him to walk.

I want him to swing the bat.

And that's why I get into.

When you talked about earlier, hitting if it's hittable, but I know a votto or Frank Thomas, if even if it's hittable and it's not a strike, they're not going to swing at it.

And I know in Frank Thomas's, he had a good balance.

100 RBIs, 100 run scored home runs hit over 300.

And a Hall of Famer But I, I said earlier with Joey V, he got on my bad side as far as not swinging the bat.

You have a Billy Hamilton on base, you're going to get fastball to hit.

What does he do?

He take the fastball down the middle.

He want to take until he get to three and two.

Swing the bat.

Because I was aggressive up there.

If it's close, I'm swinging.

You swinging?

Yeah, yeah.

I think, I think on base percentage is just an indicator that something's happening.

I don't.

You're not going, you're not going to have a good player with a low on base percentage.

I mean, I think the knowledge of the strike zone, that's really where it comes down to.

Well, and I, I think what we're going to find is that no one stat is going to tell you the whole, going to tell you the whole picture because like what you're saying when it comes to like Moneyball, you know, Scott Hatterberg, if he can get on base, that's great.

But with a guy in scoring position, like you're brought up it.

Sometimes you need a sacrifice fly and.

Not a walk or a sacrifice.

But are you a team player or being selfish there?

Exactly.

Well, let me, let me do this.

So if I jigger these stats up according to runs, career runs scored, it gets to.

Some of this becomes very different.

Ricky Henderson is number one.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Two.

295 run score.

So he dropped from drop jump from 50 to number one.

Yeah.

Then you get Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose is six.

Okay.

Hank Aaron, that's.

And then.

So Pete Rose should be.

Should have been higher if they got George hidden behind him.

Yeah, it should be.

Yeah.

What's going on?

Here's another one.

This is, this, this is your old buddy.

Willie Mays is 7.

I had him on my list.

We got a lot more all time.

You've got a lot of very long careers right there, right?

Yeah, 20 plus year career.

Well, and we also have a lot of.

It's a lot more very famous names here.

So Alex Rodriguez, Stan Musial, Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, Mel Otto, Craig Bgio, Frank Robinson, Eddie Collins, Carl Yastrsky, ted Williams is 19th in run scored.

Paul Molitor, Charlie Garringer, Jimmy Fox, Honus Wagner, Jesse Burkett and Cap Anson.

So those are your top 25 in run scored.

So.

But then you look at the other category.

Rbis.

Yes, sure.

And.

And we'll be looking at RBIs when we talk about scoring, scoring runs.

Okay, so, so yeah, when you talk about the number of runs scored versus the on base percentage, on base percentage is one of those stats that's good to know and good to keep track of, but it's by no means a whole picture of what a player does.

Overemphasize it now.

I mean, you look at, go to a game and look at the scoreboard, they don't talk about what's your, the average anymore.

Before the average really stood out.

But now Most averages under 2:50.

So don't talk about it.

So they put up, oh, on base percentage, obp.

So now that's a stat that really, I felt overemphasized and people focus on it too much.

Sure.

Well, I agree with you and I think that when you look at something like the obp, what you, what you don't get is a person looks very valuable who, who may not be contributing to runs and wins.

So, you know, you got.

It really doesn't do you good to get on base all the time unless you're going to move over, unless there's somebody behind you is going to move you or if you're going to steal bases or, you know, because it doesn't do you a whole lot of good to have a guy who's, who gets on first all the time and then gets left there.

Otherwise you end up with lots of left on base.

Right.

And that's.

I think that's a great point, George.

You're talking about what you need to move guys.

And that'll be the, that'll be the next episode, I believe is moving runners.

We'll leave that for there.

But yeah, I think it's important.

I think it is important.

It at least gives you at a glance a player's ability to, to make things happen.

I was managing a independent team and, and they gave me a list of guys from which to select.

So I would look at, I look at the average first and I look at, then I look at stolen bases.

So if the average is good, but then I look, look at Ron scored.

But the main one with the stolen base, if that guy can steal bases, I can get him to hit and then being able to get him on base and steal bases so he can manufacture runs there, sure, yeah.

But guys that they hit a lot of home runs or always use the formula one to three.

So if you have 12 home runs, you should have at least 36 runs batted in.

But I remember way back, I think Earl Williams had 30 home runs and he was right on the mark, 90 RBI.

Okay.

But others, you know, they have 30 home runs and 60 RBIs.

So a lot of times you're hitting home runs with nobody in the base, Right?

Yeah.

So you finished the season last year exhausted from all the travel and the tournaments, and you tossed your gear in a bag where it's been sitting all winter.

Now you're ready for another year.

But your favorite glove that fits just right is an error waiting to happen.

The leather is dry, the laces are brittle, and this year you're on a new team with new colors.

And it sure would be cool if it matched.

Well, wouldn't it be great if you had a glove guy who could help you out with that?

You do.

His name is Ethan, and he owns Glovehound baseball glove repair shop in Fairfield, Ohio.

Just contact him@glovehound.com and upload pictures of your glove.

He'll give you a call back to talk it over, and then you can send it in for a repair.

Relays, recondition, whatever you need.

If you're in the area, you can even just stop by the shop.

That way you don't have to bother with shipping.

And a lot of times he can even fix it while you wait.

Rawlings, Wilson, Mizuno, All Star, Nakona, he's seen them all.

And he's helped players at all levels, from beginners to pros.

Last year, he worked on a glove that Jose Trevino used in the World Series.

And he can help you, too.

You can find Glovehound on Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and on the web@glovehound.com you're only going to get busier.

So reach out today and give your glove the love it deserves at glove.

Okay.

So near as I could think, I could think up seven ways to get.

On base and maybe eight, but it's.

Yeah.

Controversial.

So we can talk about that.

Yes.

So out of those seven ways, who wants to name them?

Somebody named me.

The seven ways to get on base.

Me.

You want to do?

Do them all.

Jump in.

Go for it.

Jump in there.

Well, I had it before, so I would say, of course, hit, right?

Yeah.

Air.

Yeah.

Catcher's interference.

Yeah, got that.

What was the other one?

Hit by pitch.

Hit by pitch.

Walk.

Yeah.

Well, what we got?

Two more drop, third strikes.

That pass by.

What was it?

Fielder's choice.

Yeah, but the one that was controversial.

Is that is an intentional walk count as a regular walk, right?

Yeah, yeah, that's a good.

But the one that was was been people may not get is the catcher's Interference.

Yes, I, I, that I did know because I, I think with our team, especially the way we had strategy, we had five, five different things highlighted out of this.

And in letting kids know that these are the ways that you can get on base.

Okay.

Or pitchers, you know, to try to avoid.

Yes, right.

I know in youth baseball, I'm sure you've seen your fair share of catchers interference.

Yes, yes, yes.

We're seeing a lot.

Not a lot, but more.

More than usual this year.

Oh yeah.

Usually the Phillies have done.

They got.

Oh, you know why?

Yeah.

Outreaching for them.

They know that that is too good pitch.

They want to get that, Bobby.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, yeah.

So hits, hits, walks, hit by pitch, error, fielder's choice, catcher's interference and drop third strike.

And so let's kind of, let's kind of walk through these a little bit.

Obviously hit speak for themselves.

You get a hit, you get on base.

That's the number one way to get on base.

That's the way we would all prefer to get on base.

It's probably the most productive way to get on base for, to help your team.

But walks, can walks be productive?

Is there a point during an at bat where as a hitter you go, this is not going the direction I would like it to go in order to get a hit.

Can I get a walk out of this?

It depends on how the guy's pitching to you.

I mean, you know, he's got not going to give you anything to hit.

So you don't want to go up there and go at a pitch and make an out.

So taking a walk some, it has its place and but when the ball is hittable.

I'm talking about myself when the balls, I stress the kids.

If the ball is hittable, swing the bat.

Especially with men in scoring position.

And if you're down, depending on how many runs you're down.

I've seen the Reds are down one or two runs and this guy can hit the ball at the ballpark.

It's a two and O count.

He takes it.

You can hit the ball, it won't tie the game, but you get closer.

Now it's three, two.

So you got to understand that walks sometimes good.

But when men in scoring position and the ball is hittable, swing the bat.

I think also just to teach kids and players don't waste at bats.

You know, I think that sometimes when they get a lot of live VP, you get about 12 and they're like in a game you ain't gonna.

You only get an Average of three to four good pitches per at bat.

So you know, you can't waste at bats.

What is your, what is your thought on.

On three zero count?

Were you.

Did you ever.

Did you.

Were you an always take kind of guy?

Where sometimes did you give yourself the green light?

How did that work?

I.

Once again, it depends on the score, but most times I. I'm taking it three zero.

Okay.

I find it.

I'm not as disciplined.

I'm trying to swing out of my shoes, but three and run three and one.

I'm more disciplined, but three and zero.

I remember I was going to swing three zero and the third base coach gave me a take side.

Like, take me.

You know who I am.

I'm taking.

So 3 and O count is.

Is a tough for me.

Or I wasn't comfortable swinging three and all because now you say I'm swinging three and zero and I'm making out.

Maybe I could have walked.

Here you go.

Yeah.

Remember, the game is about getting on base, getting on base with.

With your philosophy in coaching youth baseball.

Was it a.

Was it a hard line?

You take three zero every time no matter what, or did you sometimes give guys?

Sometimes I would give kids because I think sometimes it's a surprise.

It's.

Yeah.

And you need a kid to have some confidence to swing it.

And that's how you learn or you.

Let them know that it's okay.

Yeah, it's okay.

And then.

But as you get older, as they get older, then maybe depending on where they at in the game, maybe take.

I got in trouble for swinging at 30 because I had a coach that was big on always take three zero.

And I was having a good year and it made me angry.

And I thought, I'm going to swing at this just to make you throw more pitches.

And he pulled me.

He's like, we don't do that.

Nobody giving you credit or complimenting you.

That okay, I've gotten a 3 0.

So trust that I know what to do here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I swung at two of them before he finally just about came out of his shoes.

We had a kid named Shaggy.

I was coaching the Riverbats and we gave him a take on 3 0.

And Shaggy had already had a bad game.

Brung his girlfriend to the game.

Oh, never bring his girlfriend to the game.

So he missed a fly ball on the outfield.

Then he comes up to a bat, three zero count and he swung, hit a pop up straight up in the infield.

So third base coach Sean said, why you swing at that?

He Said coach, it look good.

So we all said, yep, you look good sitting on the bench too.

That's funny.

So, yeah, I mean, but talk about, you know, you talk about probabilities of the seven ways, you know, hit is the only thing that you could, that you can do that may result in multiple extra bases.

You might get extra bases.

People in front of you might get extra bases.

Now, if you're super fast and there's nobody in front of you, you might be able to get to first and steal second or do the delayed steel or do something like, I mean, that, that, that exists.

But if the average player hits, a hit can produce a lot more motion and a lot more movement.

A lot more things can happen on a hit.

The other category, other than the hit, hit is more.

The active.

The other one's more passive and say more action can take place with that hit.

But have knowing those other aspects too.

There's some guys.

As a, as a batter, a hitter would intentionally try to hit the catcher's mitt to get off base.

Yeah.

Because he's had a bad day already, over four.

So.

Yeah.

So being able to hit that catcher mid he gets on base.

So we're saying that that hit always takes priority.

Walk.

You're saying when you're, when, when there's runners in base or when there's runners on base, walk becomes less important.

You want to try to move them.

You can take the walk, but don't go look to walk.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, the biggest thing is those two things are the only things that you can really affect or have anything to do with.

Everything else is a circumstance.

Right.

Error happens out of your control.

Fielder's choice happens out of your control.

So does catcher's interference or drop, third strike or, or hit by pitch?

I mean, I guess technically you could step in front of a pitch if you really wanted to.

I.

Especially if you're.

That may be three.

Number three.

I just say you could.

I mean, there are times when I wasn't convinced that Jake wasn't just dropping a shoulder or taking one off the hip.

So we're also saying that, that maybe faster players should give more of a thought, more of a willingness to walk than maybe guys who are going to be less dangerous on the base pass.

Is that what I'm hearing?

Because of the threat to steal, that.

Guy still maybe even hit for a pretty good average.

So now he get it, get a double hit ball in the gap.

So still don't give in just to get a walk.

So my son Ricky was a leadoff hitter.

I worked with them all the time.

And so when younger, okay, he hit like George was saying.

He hit gaps and stuff.

He's not looking to walk.

He's looking to hit.

Okay, but if the pitcher struggling, why give in?

You know, hey, I will take the walk.

But if you got runners in scoring position, man, you.

You trying to drive runs in now.

Put the ball in place, man.

Yes, yes.

But he also, he taught him how to control the strike zone.

You know what I'm saying?

And.

And you just got to be a complete hitter, I guess.

Let me throw.

Let me throw this in there.

So now with tournament play being so prevalent and pitch counts being everything as to how long a pitcher stays in there and how.

How soon you could get a fresh pitcher.

Like, one guy's dominating you and you want.

You're trying to get to another guy.

Okay.

Is there thought to strategies that make them throw more pitches?

That's depending on the guy in the order.

Say you have McLean.

I want him taken till you get a strike.

Yeah, you.

Right now with him swinging the bat the way he is.

Benson, I don't want you to take.

I want you to swing the bat.

Because I've seen.

Oh, yeah, Frito.

That's the guy.

I want to get in his head every.

I would say 99% of the time, he's taking the first pitch and use a fastball down the middle, and then he's swinging the curveball and pop it up.

I was like, that's not a good percentage.

If you're going to get deep in the count and do something, okay, but you got your.

Maybe the best pitch of the.

Of that at bat, the first one, and that's why I want him to bat third.

Sure.

Yeah.

But I'm saying, like, if I'm coaching a.

If I'm coaching a youth team and I'm in a tournament and it's crunch time and I see that other pitcher, and he's either one of two things.

He's either dominating me and I want to get a different pitcher, or he's really struggling.

So I'm going to make him throw as many pitches as possible.

Or the other thing is, if he's really struggling, I want to keep him for as long as I can.

So I don't want him to throw as many as possible.

There are three different strategies there that you're looking at to try and win a youth game.

Do you.

Do you ever play those angles or do you just say, no, it's not solid baseball.

We're just going to go up there and we're going to do what we've always done and this is what we do.

It's.

It's not etched in stone.

What Once again it sound like a cop out but depends on the circumstances.

And a guy who's having a challenge and throwing strikes.

If a guy just walked in front of you, I'm telling the guy next guy still look for that first because he's trying to groove it.

He tries ahead.

Exactly.

Because the only thing he's trying to do is hey, I don't have to throw it straight down the middle.

And then he's taking some velocity off.

Yeah.

But I, in that situation I probably put a hit and run on.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I don't keep things going or hit and run or but run some, some action going because like say that guy is, is a challenge for him to throw a strike but I don't want to give him a strike by.

Okay.

It's, it's, it's 2 and O and take, not taking it.

Just swing.

Be, be active.

So then let me, let me put it like this is, is the philosophy.

You're going up there and you're looking to attack until three.

Oh then we can be willing then we can have more of a mind to walk.

Right.

Okay.

Okay.

That's, that's what I was hun approach change.

Okay.

But I, but I think that's, I don't think a lot of young players understand.

I certainly didn't understand that I, I wanted to walk too early.

I wish, I wish I hadn't but that you're attacking up until three.

Oh yes.

Everything's.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

I like that.

For me though, when you go up there looking for a walk, you're putting it on the other guy.

Sure.

Yeah.

But for well our guys, you know, we wanted to be the guy.

Yes.

And if I didn't, if I didn't do it I'll.

The other guy will, I feel would do it.

But I'm not going to go up there and, and walk.

You know I get a say.

I get a two and a count and I, I had a guy, we had a guy on the team.

He got get down real low, change the strike zone.

We like swing the bats.

We did.

We didn't trade for you to go up there and walk.

We have guys to walk.

Yeah.

Well and this is.

So let's go back to a two moments of parental frustration here because Ethan is totally true in what he's saying.

He was looking for walks too early and he used to drive me crazy.

Yeah, I just.

I didn't have a good.

You were a good hitter when you made contact.

You were actually way more useful to the team if you had made contact because you weren't speaking.

It wasn't explained to him.

There you go.

That is the coaching by his coach.

I tried many, many times.

Yeah.

But I also, also.

Oh, you're my dad.

Also a fear of striking out.

I just.

I did not want to strike.

Yeah.

So that again, goes over well.

Yeah.

So what?

Live bp.

And so, like, for me, in training sessions, I do a lot of situational hitting that get kids in a position to attack the ball.

And then I put them in positions where they got to protect, oh, two, one, two, or whatever, and they understand how to work middle away or expand your zone.

So you got to get situated.

I just had a guy go on my Facebook page, his name, hopefully he's listening Soup Mike.

And he owns a academy down in.

In Kentucky.

And he.

And I put something up there like that about how to throw live BP to kids.

And he said, man.

He says, man, bro, this is spot on what you're talking about, man.

You know, and you got to be able to change their eyesight, give them different pictures, and let the kids know it's okay to go down swinging.

Dude.

Yes.

Except with men on third base with less than two hours.

Thank you.

Exactly.

And you gotta keep doing that because.

And I always say, parents, baseball is a game of failure, man.

You learn from it.

You learn from different at bats, you learn from different pitchers.

And stop putting all this pressure on these kids.

Let these guys go out there and attack them.

But everybody think the game of baseball is easy, but there are a lot of strategists that are involved.

I mean, you talk about the mechanical, the physical, but the mental part.

What.

What is your approach?

Yeah, what is your approach when you go up there?

There you go.

But like I say earlier, a guy not throwing strikes, and you go up there and swing at the P pitch over your head.

But you got to be disciplined, have an idea.

And the other one is that it's so blatant, the guy's still in the base.

You know it's going to steal.

So I tell the guy to pretend you're going to bust, keep the catcher back.

But no, they're like, okay, go ahead.

You know, green light, take right.

Ethan is more than my podcast partner.

He's my son.

And like every baseball parent, my first priority was his development as a player.

Every year, we'd start out with A new coach and a new team making new promises, only to end up playing the same old tournaments with little to no practice in between.

You know what I'm talking about.

That's why I'm so thankful that we found MDNI Academy.

I first met Coach Rick over a decade ago when Ethan was just a kid.

And I'll never forget the relief I felt watching his first lesson.

I knew right then that no matter what team he played for, my son would have amazing, consistent instruction from someone who cared.

Rick has trained baseball and softball players at the select, travel and even college levels.

So I knew that Ethan could continue his excellence through training approach.

For his whole baseball career.

He learned hitting, pitching, catching, fielding, and more all in one place.

Most of all, he learned to love the greatest game in the world and how to play it with character.

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You need to check out MDNI Academy Today, go to mdaiacademy.com and contact Coach Rick to learn how you can get all the baseball instruction you need from someone who cares about your favorite player as much as you do at MDNI Academy.

So let's, let's look at some of these other ways to get on base.

So let's, let's kind of group, let's group errors.

Okay.

With fielder's choice and drop third strike.

Okay.

These are all, well, catchers, catcher's interference is kind of its own thing and it's probably the rarest occasion of all of these.

So these other things are things that could, that are going to happen around you.

How important is it to be aware of what's going on outside of just hit the ball, run to the base, but be aware of what's going on and around what's going on.

Marvin Gaye said, what's going on?

Also, I don't think a lot of kids actually played a game in their head like the count, right.

They know.

They don't know.

Yes.

They don't understand.

They don't, you know, they always, you know, and that's.

They have to play the game in their head.

But you can tell when a guy has two strikes.

He looked down as a third base coach for a sign.

You got two strikes, you got two strikes.

Ain't nothing else I can do.

Well, that, but that's a good point.

And we talked about this before.

When you go up to bat, if you're, if your goal is to just not Strike out.

That's.

If that's your number one thing.

Yes, that is.

I don't want to strike out.

And then your number two thing is, I hope something else happens.

Yeah.

Okay, then you're already.

You're already in the hole when you walk out the dugout.

Well.

Because all seven of these outcomes are not striking out, but they're not all equal in their.

In importance.

Yeah.

In production, in value.

And so you say, okay, walk and hit are both not strikeouts.

But walk or.

But.

But hit is so much more important.

So don't.

Don't settle for a walk.

I think if I could go.

If I could go back in time and, you know, what's it.

Is it the sandlot when Babe Ruth comes out of the closet?

You know, if I could do that.

Oh, the field of dreams, too.

Yeah.

If I could do that for my younger self, I would say, listen, striking out sucks.

Yeah.

But it's not so bad that you should want to walk instead of hitting.

Right?

Exactly.

Hunt a pitch.

You can hit until it's 3 0.

Then maybe we can.

There you go.

Yeah.

Like you said, Ben, being aggressive.

Attack when you go up there.

But I like what you're saying about discipline.

I think that's another term that gets misunderstood.

Discipline is not swinging at strikes.

It's swinging at.

Swinging at hittable pitches.

And so sometimes you see.

You see guys in the big leagues, especially when pitchers can have such nasty stuff, you know, they're swinging at sliders in the dirt and stuff like that.

Those are the pitches we're talking about.

They're swinging not because they think it's a strike, they're swinging because they think they can hit it.

Yeah.

And so.

But, yeah, that's the worst part.

And so what you're talking about is discipline, being able to.

Being able to recognize that early.

Yes.

But once again, I had to only talk for myself.

I zone hit.

So now the ball.

I don't.

What if it's up to two strikes?

I'm looking middle in.

Yeah.

Because I know I can drive the ball.

But driving the ball doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to hit it out of the park, but I'm going to be able to hit the ball pretty hard.

But now when you get two strikes, you start looking middle away, protect middle away, but you still prepare for the ball inside.

But a lot of guys, you go up there, the counter in your favor, and it's say a two or one count, and the guy throws a fastball outside, he swings at it.

And then now that Slider.

But back to what you said.

The guy think he can hit it but they don't know how to hit it.

So many right left handers don't get that slider inside.

They break their kneecap, they break their foot because they hit the ball into their body.

Yeah, they sure do.

And they don't know how to hit that ball.

I just laugh it was it.

These guys supposed to be in the major league.

They don't know what to do.

I was just talking to someone about that.

I said that's why I love throwing inside two scenes, some with some movement where they can foul the ball off their shin and then guess what, as a righty, guess what.

I got you outside now because I know you ain't.

You're going to bend over.

The other one is that I remember Body Blue had come over to the, to the National League and talking to Bonds or maging those guys.

He said, take that fastball he has and hit it way foul.

So now he's going to lose confidence in throwing a fastball.

He's going to go to his secondary pitch.

Right.

So you know when you take into consideration like okay, an error, so you're, you hit the ball, you're running the first base but you can't be so tunnel visioned that you don't know what's going on.

So if a guy makes a bad throw or a guy bobbles the ball or whatever, you know.

Yeah, okay.

If you're not a speedy guy anyway, run through the base and do what you're supposed to do.

But if you're the kind of guy who might be able to turn and get more, you have to be aware of your coach.

Well, your coach, your coach got a list should be telling you, you know, around the bag.

Not.

Yeah, once again you concede in just to one bag.

Right.

But even guys who get a base hit, they're tried in the first base run hard.

As you remember, we ran hard through the bag because the guy made bob of the ball.

Yeah, exactly.

Ready to go.

The other thing is when you get, when he calls a strike, you know, check and see where that strike went.

Look, look behind you.

Make sure it's not on the ground.

Yeah, because you know you're ready to go and the ball comes in, strike.

And you just kind of.

Oh yeah, you just kind of walk away.

You don't look, you don't.

He may have dropped that ball and you.

Oh yeah, right, right.

But Pete Rose is a good example.

He watched the ball all the way into the catch because it may do something on the way.

So you evaluate the movement at that time.

Yeah.

The last thing you want is for the catcher to drop the ball and then the guys on the bench go run, run, run.

And then you decide to run.

Like that's a, that's not a good timing.

That's a good point that you talk about more information.

You're, you're.

If you're giving up the opportunity to observe more by looking the other, by looking the other direction.

The other thing is I always thought I'd have some coaches that would say you run on third strike no matter what, but nothing makes you feel dumber than taking one right down the middle and running anyway.

But if you watch it, if you watch it all the way in and you know he caught it, then it's like.

Exactly.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think one of the most interesting ones on this list is fielders choice because that, that involves runners.

It has to.

Yeah.

So that, that's where guys on base and your baserunners really it's important because you think about, I say a very common fielder's choice is maybe runner on roller too.

Well, runner on first, you get the guy at second and you're safe.

Okay.

But that doesn't happen if the guy on first doesn't, isn't, doesn't break up the double play.

And so.

Right.

That's a way that your fielders can kind of.

Or that your, your baserunners can kind of make the most of.

Right.

Maybe a less than ideal ball put in play.

How about that?

Yeah, but that's a, that this is going to be for defense.

The part I was going to say is like if you have a man on first base and Ellie hits the ball.

So.

And say you're leading like three runs or so maybe have throw the guy, throw Ellie out because I don't want him on base.

Right.

Even though that guy's on second base and he's in scoring position.

But with Ellie on first base is going to create chaos with the pitcher.

So you decide on.

Okay, which guy do I want?

Especially if it's last year Ellie and not this year when he actually stole bases.

Right.

Yeah, that's.

But that's a different issue.

So.

Yeah.

So then let's talk about.

Finally let's talk about hit by pitch.

Okay.

This is the.

So the two things that I think are, that young hitters are scared of most is striking out and getting hit by pitch.

I think it may be one or the other may be in first or second place depending on the Kid, depending on the situation, you know, if you don't have much meat on you, getting hit by a pitch can be really tough.

That's more of a physical one and last longer.

The striking out is more of a emotional, mental one.

But let's talk about this, though, George.

Like, so nowadays, they've got a much better handle on throwing at people on purpose.

But when you were playing, it was a regular thing, man.

Guys threw at people all the time inside.

And let you know, because I remember this guy, a rookie come up and he hits a home run the first time up, and the catcher saying to him, where you want to get hit?

So, you know you're going to get hit, but you have a choice.

You want to get hit in the leg, in the back, or the.

The guys think that.

Ah, you guys are kidding.

You know where you want to get hit.

So, okay, I get hit in the back or the Nat said, you, you.

If you want us to select which way you're going to get hit, we may hit you in the head.

Pedro or Bones.

Oh, Pedro.

Pedro.

He was my enforcer, my protector.

Yes.

I get you, judge.

I get him for you, Georgie.

Yeah, because, I mean, you listen to these, these.

These interviews on YouTube with these pictures, and they'll tell you, I mean, coaches flat up told him, hit the next guy.

I don't care who it is.

Yeah.

You know, I'm like this.

Yeah.

But Greg Maddox was one.

Yeah.

From the past that would do that.

He would brush the guy back.

And didn't the guy look out there like, is this allowed?

But in today's game, I think they discourage someone throwing inside, so the umpires don't call that inside.

Strike.

Yeah.

So you're throwing it down the middle or outside.

But I've seen guys, if he hit a home run or hit a ball, home run, distance, foul, the next one's up by your chin.

Well, yeah, and you got, you know, it depends on who you got throwing at you, too.

I mean, none of these guys throw slowly, Right.

But some of these guys, you know, I can't imagine.

You know, it's one thing to have somebody like Greg Maddox throw at you.

It's another thing maybe to have somebody like NOLAN Ryan throw 20 miles an hour.

That's a whole different ball game right there.

So you have Brad Leslie in the game.

Then you know, Ryan.

Brad strikes him with a.

And Nolan did the same thing.

He said, okay, Nolan, you do whatever you want.

So.

All right, so then.

Hold on.

I got.

I got two more things.

Go ahead.

One thing Is we have, we have a lot more protection than we did back when.

You have gladiator up there now?

Yeah.

You could have any number of.

Any combination of shin and elbow and hand.

I'm waiting for them to be able to have that full shin guard to go up.

Might just go up there and.

Catcher's gear, right?

Might as well.

That's what I was gonna say a second ago, which is.

That's what I was gonna say, which is if you're scared of getting hit by the.

If this getting hit by the pitch is freaking you out, then, you know, wear as much protection as is pertinent.

Okay.

If that's what you want to do.

But don't let it stop you from going up there and swinging the bat.

Like you gotta, you gotta work that out in your head.

Well, you gotta be brave.

The other thing is knowing how to get hit by a pitch.

I, I see so many times a ball's coming at and you do this kind of sidestep, they don't know how you roll.

You wear it off the back or off the butt.

And that right there reduces the issue by at least 50%.

It still hurts, but you're not breaking fingers.

Right.

Think about this.

Take a baseball the same place you would take a shot.

Yeah.

I mean, just where there's meat on your body.

You know what I do with the younger guys?

I throw wiffle balls or tennis balls at them.

Right?

I tell you.

Yeah.

And get on the roll because a.

Lot of them don't know how to get out of the way.

They chop it out of the way and get hit in the face.

The other option is to just hit it, I guess.

You know, you talk about stepping out and hitting.

I have this problem when I play blitz ball.

Those, those balls come in so fast and they almost always right hander, it almost always tails inside.

So I'm like self, it's literally like self defense of they're hitting, fouling pitches off.

That would hit me.

So I mean, that's less doable in baseball.

But.

But yeah.

And then as far as striking out, here's my best advice.

This is what I call the brain surgeon principle.

Okay.

There are some things in life that you don't want to do by trial and error.

Okay.

You don't want your brain surgeon not being afraid to make mistakes and learning from them.

Okay?

But if you're not a brain surgeon, most things in life, you learn by making mistakes.

And don't be afraid to make them.

Don't be afraid to be wrong.

Don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to strike out.

This is how you learn.

And it's.

It's not the end of the world.

And if you.

If you have adults in your life, life who lose their mind because you did that, I'm sorry, that's unfortunate.

But understand that striking out is not the worst thing that can happen to you up there.

The worst thing that can happen to you up there is that you wasted an opportunity to help your team.

But when a parent come to me and said, well, my kid, he been up 100 times, hadn't struck out, oh, no, the kid's not aggressive.

But it's not really striking out.

It's when you strike it out.

So you.

Nobody's on base, you end up striking out, but men in scoring position put the ball in play, and it's not necessarily translating to a hit, but put it in play, things will happen.

And nothing, nothing drives me crazier.

As a.

As a fan watching, say, the Reds, and you're up and you're.

It's late in the game, you need some.

Some runs.

You got guys on base and they're standing there taking pitches and wasting it bass.

And that drives me bananas.

You ought to be up there like, you know, like a caveman, swinging that thing.

You ought to be look, you know, swinging for anything you can find that's hittable.

Yeah.

Because it doesn't matter what you do.

A dribbler, a ground, put something in play.

Because you and I, Greg and I had talked about it before, because the other day when the Reds lost, they lost three to nothing.

Yeah, but two runs, they left two.

It should have been closer because two times, two, two innings in a row, they left a man on third base with no outs.

No outs.

So it's predictable.

Okay, what is this?

This guy's going to strike out.

This guy's going to pop up.

This guy gonna hit the ground.

Well, it's over.

Nobody.

I don't want to be in that situation, Coach.

Put somebody else up there for me.

It's like, let me.

Let me have it.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I got upset.

When I base is loaded, I only get a base hit.

I want a Grand slam.

That's four RBIs right there.

Yeah.

Level swing, let it travel.

Wait for your pitch.

Be aggressive out there.

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Apply at George Foster baseball.com okay, so let's look at what are some things that players can do to increase their chances of getting on base.

You go up there, you're in, you're in a game situation, you need a base runners your, your team has.

Maybe you're behind by just this much or maybe you're just ahead by this much and you need some insurance runs.

What, what can you do to increase your likelihood of getting on base?

Well, it's, I call it manufacturing run knowing the situation, the situation going to dictate what you need to do.

And I said many times before a man on second base, no outs.

I give you one chance to drive that guy in but after that I want you to get that guy and do what you need to do is sacrifice yourself to get the guy over to third base.

Now you got third base with one out.

You have a better chance in scoring him.

But not swing from the heels from one strike to three to two strikes.

Because I want you to be able to hit the ball to the right side to get the guy over.

Always, always talk about individually and with a team.

Work on situational hitting with these guys, man.

And the more they do that, the more they'll come up to the plate with some confidence evidence and the more you again situational hitting knowing that every, every count starts.

Oh oh, and by, by situational hitting.

Let me, let me clarify a little bit in case you're new to the podcast because we use this term a lot.

What Rick is talking about is putting parameters on your batting practice so I'm not just throwing to a kid, I'm throwing to a kid and I'm saying, okay, you've got a 22 count, you've got a 21 count, you've got a 30 count, you've got a whatever and I'm throwing or you got this count.

There's this many guys on base, there's this year, whatever.

And I'm giving you a situation so that it's not just repetitive motion over and over and over again.

There's a time for repetitive motion, there's a time for trying to learn muscle memory.

But BP is also an excellent time to put those parameters on.

This is also why we encourage coaches.

If you're doing this in practice and you're, you're throwing bp, put runners on base, make things happen, make your fielders react to runners, make your batters react to runners, and, and make situations happen.

So when we say about situational hitting, situational play, we're talking about is creating those manufactured situations to, to make your players have to think about what they're doing.

So what you practice, you want to carry over to a game situation, not just swing the bat, have, have a purpose where you have batting practice have a purpose.

I see a lot of when I'm out on the field, I see a lot of feel good batting practices.

I posted that on Empty Knot Facebook page.

You got to have more than feel good baseball practice.

Everything is not going to be a fastball down the middle.

I mean we're hunting that, you know, when you're ahead of account and there's going to be times where you foul a good pitch off.

Now you're owe one what you're going to do then, what's your approach going to be?

You know, so I look at, that's why I love golf or tennis because it's strategy involved.

Yes.

So primary in golf.

Well, you're, you're driving for going five five, par four, par.

So it's a, it's the fact that you want, you're using your driver, you're going for power, but as you get closer to the hole now you're going for touch.

So the first time, first strike, you may look and drive it out of Yellowstone.

But after that you, you go from left field over towards right field because it's changing your approach.

Yes, but a lot of guys, they don't, a lot of guys don't do it because they don't know how to do it.

Exactly.

And then they, in the, they think that if I swing hard, I Will make contact.

But most of these guys, they don't watch.

I tell them, you may not see it, but watch the bat hit the ball.

But at least you have same.

Have an idea.

But most of the guys will.

Look, your eyes are out now.

Yes.

And they're missing the ball by.

Yes, a little bit.

But either above or below it.

They don't track the ball like.

Right, that's the word.

Trying to let the ball come and track it all the way down to the pitcher.

And there's a great drill to do that.

That's why I love to coach.

Why are we bunny?

Why are we bunny.

You got to see the ball hit the bat.

Yeah, you can't.

Training.

You can't.

Yeah, there were times that was one of the.

One of the things when Ethan was first learning to hit, he was just little and he was first learning to hit.

And we would go to the cages.

So he's what, 8, 9 years old.

And we're going to the cages and.

And he's having a hard time making contact with anything.

I said, stick your bat out there and wait for the ball to come and then just let it pop off your bat and then just kind of just find the ball with your bat more than once.

And so then when you.

Okay, so now we're gonna.

Now we're gonna swing at it because you found it, you know, kind of where it is.

I like that.

Yeah.

And then, then now come at it and swing at it.

But until you learn to.

Until you learn to see it, because you have to watch it all the way in in order to do that.

You know, it's kind of like.

Kind of like volleying without swinging.

You're just kind of letting it bounce off the bat.

I have these kids that come out to the field all the time and these two brothers, I call them the Blonde Bombers.

And they throw the ball up, up, and they just by themselves and just hit.

Fungo.

Yeah.

And they.

They can hit from both sides of the plate.

They don't even play baseball, man.

They're being guys.

So I talked to them about the baritone.

Sorry about that.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So they're band players, but they come out to the.

To the field.

Both of them, once in the ninth, one's in the seventh, throw the ball up and hit shots.

Guess what?

They're using a softball bat when they're doing it.

And I said, you guys don't play on a team?

Nope.

So that's a good drill.

Yes, the self talk drill.

Tossing it to the person.

No, it's like room service.

It is right there.

But learn to toss it yourself.

The same as intent is when you toss and to serve.

So you gotta be able to judge your timing.

The timing.

Talking about hand eye coordination.

Well, it's really more than hand eye.

It's.

It's bat eye coordination.

Loading.

Learning how to right low from the feet on the.

Yes.

If you're in.

If you.

If you put money in the thing and you're standing in the cages and those balls are coming and you wasting.

Wasting money watching balls go by.

Okay.

Stick the bat out there.

Like, let's say you're halfway through a set of.

A set of pitches and you've just lost it.

Like, you can't make contact with anything.

Right.

Stop.

Hold the ball out until you can get it to bounce off or hold the bat out until you can get it to bounce the ball off.

Then you've got a better.

You've kind of put yourself back in the zone.

Now go back and hit again.

And that will keep you from wasting batting tokens.

I had to do that when I.

When I would go batting cages because.

Frustrated.

Well, we were kids.

We had to mow.

We had to mow yards to get money to go to the batting cages.

And you only had so much and you didn't want to waste them watching them go by.

So.

Yes.

You figured out how to make contact anyway.

That.

Well, the other one is that I have the kid go up to the plate and he has his glove on so that now he's putting the glove, catching the ball.

Yeah.

So, okay, you catching it here in a sense think that the gloves on the bat, you're catching it there.

And that's a big Barry Bonds thing.

I think he gets a little more exaggerated than maybe he's.

He could really handle.

But he says he could hit, you know, any speed of pitch.

Heard that.

But anyway.

Anyway.

Probably could.

How it comes into play that he says, well, if a guy behind the plate can catch it.

He said, I'm just a little bit closer, I should be able to catch it too.

And so he talks about trying to catch the ball with the bat, with the barrel.

Yeah.

When he was on it was he.

It's like a dance.

There's the rhythm, the timing.

Always thought like, man, he was such a. Bobby must have taught him pretty well.

Or he just had Bobby.

Natural talent.

Bobby and Willie.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a.

That's a great set of coaches right there.

So in reality, when we look at hitting and you think about Bobby and Willie and then they got Barry coming up.

That's, you know, after George, I would say, you know, because he was in the 80s, the 90s through 90s, through their approach to hitting really never changed, though.

You understand what I'm saying?

Yeah.

But they had a foundation.

Yes.

So you think about the foundation now because everyone is doing this and that baseball and from what I see is still played the same.

Only thing is different is I think some approaches.

Yeah.

You know, you have so many very important ways.

Right.

Philosophy philosophies and things like that that kind of get mistrud a little bit.

But I always say too many voices, too many choices.

Yes.

So you think it all, all of it is you got to take what's going to help.

Yeah.

Well, and when, when it comes to what you, what you can do to improve your ability to get a base, it's.

It's your approach and your ability to hit the ball.

Because walk, you don't control a walk other than deciding not to swing.

Right.

And so if, if you work on your approach, then you just join the party.

You just, you just walked up to the at bat and introduced yourself.

Because.

Because if you're not there, you know, a walk theoretically happens whether you're standing there or not.

So.

So when it comes to your ability to get on base, it's not about walking and that kind of stuff.

It's about overall being able to hit.

And that correlates to, to getting bass.

A guy with good speed, you know, he's like Billy Hamilton.

At one time, he was hitting more balls in the air than Bob was hit.

Yes.

So it's, I want you to hit the ball on the ground.

And with McLean, you know, he goes up there and yeah, it's a deep fly ball to the left, warning track, he's out.

Hit the ball on the ground, you have a chance to beat it out.

I think in youth baseball, and I'm just going by youth, I know we're getting out of time.

I think parents are comparing their kid to other kids.

And I was like, man, like my son Ricky, I can't have him hit like Matt Malloy.

Matt a power hitter, man, he drives ball.

Rick is a different type of hitter.

His game is to get on base.

He can hit gap shots because he hit a lot of doubles and triples.

He still bases, but that's his game.

His game is not like Matt's game.

But you have somebody can't tell the kid what his game is.

And I think explaining the parents, because at a young age, man, you've got kids that are still growing into their bodies.

Man, you're getting him.

Help them to get to the next level.

A guy has good speed.

I want him to learn, have tools to get on base.

I don't want you to hit fly.

Balls, but Georgia said tools, right, Right.

So let me.

Let me kind of bring this around here a little bit.

So one of the things I think we're saying is, as a hitter, if you want to increase your likelihood of getting on base, be aware of all seven ways that you can get there and develop a plate approach that helps you to do that by doing things like minding your count, watching the ball all the way to the catcher to see if he drops it, even when they call strikes.

You know, really being tuned into your coaches as to whether there might be a fielder's choice or there might be.

There might be an error, there might be whatever, like that.

So knowing that there are lots of different ways to get on base, don't be afraid of.

Of being hit by the pitch.

Learn how to.

Learn how to take that in a.

Way that's not good.

Yeah, that's not going to cause you serious damage.

And, yeah, you're going to get a lump.

You're going to get a bruise.

It's part of playing baseball.

Just character, you know, be thankful you're not playing football and they're not rubbing your face in the turf every other time, every other play.

Okay.

So, you know, you can take up.

You can take a ball now and again.

Don't be afraid of that.

Also, don't be afraid of striking out.

You know, there are times when it.

You got to go up there and you got to be swinging.

Remember that hits are the most productive way to get on base.

That is the preferred way to get on base.

But there are other things that can happen to help get you there.

So rather than.

It's what I call a broader mind approach.

So if I'm going up to the.

To the plate and all I'm doing is going, man, I hope I can.

I hope I can get.

Hope I can.

Okay, all right, here we go.

Here we go.

I just don't want to strike out.

Maybe I can get.

Okay.

And you hit something and you're just hoping something happens.

Okay, you got to.

You got to reduce the amount.

When you're really young, you're swinging, hoping something happens.

As you get older, you got to reduce the amount of hoping something happens and increase the amount of trying to make certain things happen.

And we're going to talk about that, that next week when we talk about moving runners, we're going to talk about how to become a hitter with options.

And there are, the key is ways to do that.

Going from a batter to a hitter.

Sure, absolutely.

These are the things that a hitter.

Yeah, become a hitter.

Because sometimes I tell someone, said you have to be a better hitter, said no, helped you become a hitter.

Right.

So that now you have that confidence up there.

You knowing that things.

Yeah.

There's a chance you may get hit, but learn how to get out of the way of it.

But you become a hitter compared to a batter.

A batter is being controlled by the guy on the mound, the hitter you control in this situation.

And out of these seven ways to get on base, several of them are mistakes made by the other team.

So we've also talked about, especially in youth baseball, games are usually won by the team who makes the fewest mistakes.

Right.

And that only happens if the other team capitalizes on those mistakes.

And so you gotta give them a chance.

Yeah.

You have to be in a situation where when they make mistakes, you can make them pay for it.

Right.

And so you have to be aware of that.

So, you know, make sure you're making your, you're making sure all the way in that that catcher is catching that strike.

Make sure that there's not some way you could take off, run and you could get there, whatever.

So these are ways of maybe increasing your chances of getting on base.

Because getting on base is the first, is the first objective.

Offensively, we want to be able to get there.

Because you can't get home until you get on base.

Well, unless you just.

Unless you're like George and you just start from home and you end there.

Oh, thank you.

I didn't have to repeat that.

But yeah, that's, that's kind of what we're after now.

Next week we're going to talk about moving runners.

We're talking about becoming a hitter with options.

We're going to talk about how to learn to put the ball in certain places at certain times for certain reasons, to try and move runners.

And that's going to be a fun conversation about hitting.

But I hope you've enjoyed our conversation today.

I hope you've had a good time talking about on base percentage.

If you have any other questions, things you want to know, wherever you hear the, the, the show or watch it, especially if you're watching on YouTube, that's the easiest way for me to find comments.

If you want to leave a comment or ask a question of the fellows.

You're more than welcome to do that and we'll share that on our next broadcast.

But up until now, I hope that you would check them out at mdaiacademy.com George Foster, baseball.com glovedhound.com or completegame podcast.com or any place that you listen to podcasts.

Listen, tell a friend we could use all the help we can get.

We appreciate it and God bless you all and we'll see you on the next one.

Thank you.

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