Baseball is undergoing an unplanned experiment in 2021.
Take players away from competitive game action for 20 months. Find out what happens when they return to the field.
Early in the minor league season, the answer appears to be plenty of poor play. Too many walks. Too many strikeouts. Too many defensive miscues.
Across the country, the return of minor league baseball has been eagerly anticipated. Communities that were left without baseball for the entire 2020 season packed the stands— as much as was allowed with coronavirus restrictions—to watch players return to action.
In the first few weeks of the 2021 season, what they saw is a reminder that baseball is a sport that requires repetitions to master. Lots of them.
Just as a golfer can’t ready his or herself for a major tournament entirely by hitting drives on a practice range, some patience is going to be required for minor league players to get back into the swing of things.
Scouts watching games at all levels of the minors were quickly taken aback by the low quality of play, especially when it came to defense, quality of at-bats and pitcher’s command and control.
Unprompted, a number of them reached out over the first week of the season just to note how subpar the standard of play had been, whether they were watching Class A, Double-A or Triple-A.
“It’s god-awful,” one pro scout said. “Tons of strikeouts, bad at-bats, bad defense. Sloppy play in general and lots of plodding games. It’s hard to watch.”
It’s not that players didn’t work during their extra-long layoff during the pandemic. It’s just that with baseball, there are aspects that can easily be worked on alone, such as increasing strength, velocity, bat speed or power. Others aspects can’t easily be replicated without getting on the field and into game situations.
“I know what minor league guys did for 18 months. They trained to increase velocity and spin, and they trained to increase exit velocity. That’s it. No one picked up a glove,” a second pro scout said.
Even if a player did pick up a glove, there was no easy way to work on the timing required to know whether to try to throw to second base or third on a ground ball or take the easier out at first base.
A catcher can catch some bullpens, but that doesn’t replicate the experience of managing a game. And not every catcher has had pitchers around to practice receiving low-90s sliders.
“We grade tools. A lot of things about playing the game are skills. Skills require practice,” a third scout said. “Baseball is a game sport, not a practice sport.
“The pandemic has exposed a lot of things. One thing it has exposed is the limits of just the lab. You have to play games to get a feel for the game.”
Hitters were working to get their timing back. Pitchers were struggling with command and control issues.
As of mid May, 40% of all plate appearances in the minors had resulted in a walk or a strikeout. The corresponding rate in the major leagues, where strikeout and walk rates continue to climb, was 33%.
Both the 12% walk rate and 28% strikeout rate were far beyond any corresponding rates seen at any ti...
Take players away from competitive game action for 20 months. Find out what happens when they return to the field.
Early in the minor league season, the answer appears to be plenty of poor play. Too many walks. Too many strikeouts. Too many defensive miscues.
Across the country, the return of minor league baseball has been eagerly anticipated. Communities that were left without baseball for the entire 2020 season packed the stands— as much as was allowed with coronavirus restrictions—to watch players return to action.
In the first few weeks of the 2021 season, what they saw is a reminder that baseball is a sport that requires repetitions to master. Lots of them.
Just as a golfer can’t ready his or herself for a major tournament entirely by hitting drives on a practice range, some patience is going to be required for minor league players to get back into the swing of things.
Scouts watching games at all levels of the minors were quickly taken aback by the low quality of play, especially when it came to defense, quality of at-bats and pitcher’s command and control.
Unprompted, a number of them reached out over the first week of the season just to note how subpar the standard of play had been, whether they were watching Class A, Double-A or Triple-A.
“It’s god-awful,” one pro scout said. “Tons of strikeouts, bad at-bats, bad defense. Sloppy play in general and lots of plodding games. It’s hard to watch.”
It’s not that players didn’t work during their extra-long layoff during the pandemic. It’s just that with baseball, there are aspects that can easily be worked on alone, such as increasing strength, velocity, bat speed or power. Others aspects can’t easily be replicated without getting on the field and into game situations.
“I know what minor league guys did for 18 months. They trained to increase velocity and spin, and they trained to increase exit velocity. That’s it. No one picked up a glove,” a second pro scout said.
Even if a player did pick up a glove, there was no easy way to work on the timing required to know whether to try to throw to second base or third on a ground ball or take the easier out at first base.
A catcher can catch some bullpens, but that doesn’t replicate the experience of managing a game. And not every catcher has had pitchers around to practice receiving low-90s sliders.
“We grade tools. A lot of things about playing the game are skills. Skills require practice,” a third scout said. “Baseball is a game sport, not a practice sport.
“The pandemic has exposed a lot of things. One thing it has exposed is the limits of just the lab. You have to play games to get a feel for the game.”
Hitters were working to get their timing back. Pitchers were struggling with command and control issues.
As of mid May, 40% of all plate appearances in the minors had resulted in a walk or a strikeout. The corresponding rate in the major leagues, where strikeout and walk rates continue to climb, was 33%.
Both the 12% walk rate and 28% strikeout rate were far beyond any corresponding rates seen at any ti...
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Baseball America (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2021