Boston's Bat Speed Program?

[MongoLikeSox]

I was just reading an article this morning on Kristian Campbell being a finalist for Minor League Hitting Prospect of the Year award. From the article: "Campbell benefited from Boston's bat speed program,..."

This is on the heals of Youk's suggestion that everyone's chasing a new bat speed statistic on Baseball Savant.

Combine above with Management's go for hard contact mantra, I can't see anything but the high-K offense we've seen. Wasn't it just 18 months ago that it seemed they worked in some emphasis on contact? Did that go away? I would love to see some traditional baseball common sense mixed in there sooner than later. Statcastball can get boring at times.

[longgame]

I think what happened is first when they tanked coming out of the ASB and the pitching couldn't keep teams under 6 or 7 runs per game they got frustrated and started swinging for the fences to fight their way out.  Then the young guy all watch Raffy do just that, of course he got injured and his game went in the tank, but they follow the leader.  By the time the starting pitching at least settled down, they were still losing games from the bullpen, so again, up to the plate looking for the big fly that will get them back in the game. 

You'd think that the coaching staff could address this, but for whatever reasons, they didn't.  A lot of these guys look like they did fresh out of spring training and just guessing at pitches and hope they get the one they thought may becoming. 

[MongoLikeSox]

I hear ya. Same story, different year.

You'd think that young guys hoping to have bigger roles next season might show how professional they can be at the plate. Guys like Valdez comes to mind, but it's anyone.

Well, hopefully they come up with something or someway to get their plate appearances under control.