Why SO MUCH HR Hype?

[NewellHartbaseball]

Ok, so I hear and see A LOT of talk about homeruns and people wanting to know who the homerun leader is so far.....blah blah blah......To me I'd rather see a consistant base hit player. Why all the hype if the batting average is low and the strike outs are high?

 

Why don't we focus more on the "5 tool" man............ hitting for power, hitting for average, running speed, arm strength, and defensive ability?????

[Rico]

"chicks dig the long ball"

[snoball5278]

"when neil armstong first set foot on the moon, he and all the space scientists were puzzled by an unidentifiable white object. i knew immediately what it was. that was a home run ball hit off me in 1973 by jimmie foxx.”

-lefty gomez-

[Cascade10]

Ok, so I hear and see A LOT of talk about homeruns and people wanting to know who the homerun leader is so far.....blah blah blah......To me I'd rather see a consistant base hit player. Why all the hype if the batting average is low and the strike outs are high?

 

Why don't we focus more on the "5 tool" man............ hitting for power, hitting for average, running speed, arm strength, and defensive ability?????

Awsome Post!! Agree 100 %

[banksco96]

Not so much HR but hard line drives. Hits out of the reach of hungry infielders. Infielders should stop the majority of hard grounders coming their way. Line drives and homers are tough outs.

[quikstik33]

Ok terrible post. I agree negative 100%. NewellHartbaseball the only reason you made this post was cuz either you cant hit a homerun or your son cant hit a homerun:):):):):):):)

[chsbaseball]

Good point. Homeruns in high school are a really misleading stat. Some high school fields are 340 in center. Some are 410. Think that makes a difference? Then you have Single A and Triple A baseball. The quality and especially the depth of pitching really skews those numbers. Home run totals are really irrelevant to me, but fun for some to talk about.

[NewellHartbaseball]

Ok terrible post. I agree negative 100%. NewellHartbaseball the only reason you made this post was cuz either you cant hit a homerun or your son cant hit a homerun:):):):):):):)

 

I hesitate to even respond to your childish post; however, I must say first of all.....I am a 41 year old woman and NO I COULD NOT hit a homerun if my life depended on it.......I was in band (color guard) in High School. Second of all, my son gets his athletic ability from his daddy. Yes, he can and has hit the long ball; although that's not what he's known for.

 

***by the way...that's isn't why I made the post....I just hear "daddys" and "players" talk a lot about homeruns, but I am curious as to what others thought.

[ksgovols]

Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969. Lefty Gomez probably served up that tater to Jimmie Foxx in 1933.

 

I agree with NewellHartBaseball. A 5 tool player is much more valuable to his team than a kid that just hits the long ball. The thing to remember about coacht is that all of these "who's done this or that" posts or "who's the best left handed shortstop" type posts are generated by kids who think they might be in the lead.

 

Homerun totals are relative to the distance to the fence and the strength of pitching faced. Most kids can hit a baseball 300-330 ft. with the bats they have these days if they get a hold of one.

 

Here's some 'best of' Lefty Gomez quotes:

 

"A lot of things run through your head when you're going in to relieve in a tight spot. One of them was, "Should I spike myself?"

 

"He (Jimmie Foxx) has muscles in his hair."

 

"heck, Lou (Gehrig) it took fifteen years to get you out of a game. Sometimes I'm out in fifteen minutes."

 

"I'd rather be lucky than good."

 

"I'm the guy that made Joe DiMaggio famous."

 

"I'm throwing as hard as I ever did, but the ball is just not getting there as fast."

 

"I talked to the ball a lot of times in my career. I yelled, "Go foul. Go foul."

 

"I've got a new invention. It's a revolving bowl for tired goldfish."

 

"I want to thank all my teammates who scored so many runs and Joe DiMaggio, who ran down so many of my mistakes."

 

"I was the worst hitter ever. I never even broke a bat until last year when I was backing out of the garage."

 

"No one hit home runs the way Babe (Ruth) did. They were something special. They were like homing pigeons. The ball would leave the bat, pause briefly, suddenly gain its bearings, then take off for the stands."

 

"One rule I had was make your best pitch and back up third base. That relay might get away and you've got another shot at him." Source: Baseball Digest (August 1961)

 

"The secret of my success was clean living and a fast outfield."

 

"When Neil Armstong first set foot on the moon, he and all the space scientists were puzzled by an unidentifiable white object. I knew immediately what it was. That was a home run ball hit off me in 1933 by Jimmie Foxx."

[SFWidcats101]

I would much rather have a kid hit around .500-.700 than have a kid hit 10 bombs with a .150 average. To me if all you can do is it the long ball 1 out of every 10 at bats you are hurting the team more than helping them.

[volsainge09]

Hmmm.. I'd say 99% of the time (in high school), if you're good enough to hit multiple home runs and you're able to get on the HR leaderboard, you have a very high average.. and probably one of the highest, if not the highest, average on the team. This is far different from college or the pros.. where EVERYBODY has the power to do it.. when you're able to hit 10+ HRs on the high school level, if your average is below .300 then it's probably a misprint.

 

Just sayin.. I believe it is an extremely important stat if you bring into consideration your teams opponents and field measurements (excellent points made above), but there are not many, if any, mendoza line home runs hitters at the high school level.

[ksgovols]

I would agree with the above. Still, not a 5 tool player necessarily. Hit for average, hit for power, speed on the basepaths, good glove, good arm. Most guys that hit a lot of bombs at the high school level probably have a pretty decent average too.

 

There are some short porches out there where homerun totals are very inflated. If you're not 320-330 down the lines and 360' or better in straight away center, your totals are inflated. There's a ton of balls that get caught within 20 ft of the fence that would be homeruns in other parks. It's all relative.