Slap Hitters

[LEsoftballdad]

To my knowledge, there has been one player in MLB history who had a swing that resembled that of a slapper. He was lightning fast, and he could beat out ground balls in the infield. The difference was in a HR hitting contest, he could win because he could hit line drives 350 feet all day long over the right field fence.

Of course, I'm talking about Ichiro. Why didn't other players go that route? Because defenses and pitching are too good for a slapper to succeed in MLB. Softball is becoming the same way. Unless you can drive one in the gap, I see the old style slapper disappearing.

 

[Nuwin]

Juan Pierre had some slapping influenced moves in his arsenal.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Juan Pierre had some slapping influenced moves in his arsenal.

Yes, but he couldn't hit the ball over the fence. He averaged one home run per year for his entire career.

 

[Nuwin]

Yes, but he couldn't hit the ball over the fence. He averaged one home run per year for his entire career.

Yep. The struggles of comparing eras. Could he have adapted to meet modern day elevate and celebrate demands? I remember him just being an absolute pain in the back side to lead off games. Valuing placement over pace. But that's what I remember being desired at leadoff at the time so there wasn't a reason to do it any differently.

To the OP my hypothesis is that as baseball analytics seeped into softball, they didn't know what to do with slappers and viewed them only as bunts?

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Yep. The struggles of comparing eras. Could he have adapted to meet modern day elevate and celebrate demands? I remember him just being an absolute pain in the back side to lead off games. Valuing placement over pace. But that's what I remember being desired at leadoff at the time so there wasn't a reason to do it any differently.

To the OP my hypothesis is that as baseball analytics seeped into softball, they didn't know what to do with slappers and viewed them only as bunts?

The crazy thing is he averaged 180 hits and 34 BB per season throughout his career, but he only averaged 87 runs scored. You'd think a guy with his speed would score more than half the time he got on base.

 

[daywalkerdad]

Slappers who can also drive the ball can be an ultimate weapon. Many scenarios happen where you really need an extra base hit or hit to the outfield so runners can advance more than 1 base.

 

[benjey]

To my knowledge, there has been one player in MLB history who had a swing that resembled that of a slapper. He was lightning fast, and he could beat out ground balls in the infield. The difference was in a HR hitting contest, he could win because he could hit line drives 350 feet all day long over the right field fence.

Of course, I'm talking about Ichiro. Why didn't other players go that route? Because defenses and pitching are too good for a slapper to succeed in MLB. Softball is becoming the same way. Unless you can drive one in the gap, I see the old style slapper disappearing.

Whether or not slapping disappears is certainly debatable but I would say the rule change had as much or more to do with its decline than the increased quality of defense and pitching in softball. The primary reasons slapping didn't work in the MLB even prior to the current analytics influenced HR era is 90 ft bases vs 60 ft bases.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Whether or not slapping disappears is certainly debatable but I would say the rule change had as much or more to do with its decline than the increased quality of defense and pitching in softball. The primary reasons slapping didn't work in the MLB even prior to the current analytics influenced HR era is 90 ft bases vs 60 ft bases.

Yes, the bases are significantly longer, but that also means the fielders are playing that much deeper. Thankfully, the days of the punch and Judy slappers is dead.

 

[CoachCeetar]

yeah, shorter bases but closer fielders. There's not a decade of highspeed statcast data for Softball but I think BABIP And run expectancy matrixes aren't terribly out of line with baseball, so it stands to reason some of the understanding that playing for singles isn't real helpful translates too. Juan Pierre only had two years where he was above average at run creation, and only barely. (And his best year was his best power year) 14% worse than an average player over his career.

Of course, less break on pitches due to the ball and distance of the circle, so contact/control is presumably slightly easier, but I think there's a big difference between a slapper and a hitter than can slap.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

so it stands to reason some of the understanding that playing for singles isn't real helpful translates too.

This is the answer. Even when the shift was legal there was little motivation to bunt/slap for a hit.

Doubles or better is the goal.