Casey Blake and his Inability to First Pitch Swing...

[Alex]

Casey Blake continues to get behind in the count 1-2. 90 times this year Casey has hit the ball in play on a 1-2 count, and like all players who fall behind 1-2, his 1-2 batting average is poor.

Casey is batting .380 when he first pitch swings and puts the ball in play. lol, the problem is Casey has only first pitch swung and hit the ball in play 29 times all season long.

Taking the first pitch in key situations just to take the pitch is pointless if the first pitch is the best pitch Casey will see. An ump may favor the pitcher on a close call later in the count if they recall the batter not swinging at ball that was down the middle of the plate earlier in the at bat. The pitcher risked grooving the ball, so Casey shouldn't expect to get a close call on the corners later on in the count.

Casey should study Mr. Cabrera's approach to hitting. Besides the home run Mr. Cabrera hit in yesterdays game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Mr. Cabrera also had another at bat in which he swung and missed twice, fouled off a pitch, took a pitch, and then hit a hard shot past the third baseman for a double.

The key was Mr. Cabrera swung early in the count and even though he swung and missed at two pitches in a row, Mr. Cabrera perfected his timing on those two swings and misses.

Staring at strike one all the time is hurting Casey Blake.
Casey has the most 1-2 counts on the team by almost 20 and the fewest first pitch swings in which he puts the ball in play. Casey is letting the opposing pitcher get one up on him practically every time he comes to the plate.

Casey is a potential three hundred hitter too caught up in pitch counts and not enough in putting fear into the opposing pitcher who all know that Casey will not first pitch swing even when the pitch is down the center of the plate.

[Alex]

In the past week or so Casey has been swinging at balls earlier in the count. Every now and then I go, hmmm, maybe he shouldn't have swung at the first pitch and popped it up to the second base.

Then Casey will sit on some early pitches and lo and behold, he's behind 0-2, 1-2 in the count. During Casey's hitting streak, Casey seemed like he was in a zone. Casey would battle even after getting two strikes.

This is really an important time for Casey. If Casey stabilizes at 260 for the next 5 weeks but continues with his poor RISP, I think it may be time to move on from the Casey experiment and not re-sign him for next season.