The Myth of Power Hitting

If you ask a typical baseball fan, they will tell you the Twins need more power hitters. Why? For the simple reason they don't have anybody that can hit a lot of homeruns.

But is there a reason a team HAS TO hit a lot of homeruns?

No, not really.

Recent history has shown major league ball clubs (who understand metrics) that getting on base ANYWAY YOU CAN, and MORE OFTEN is far more important than having people who can hit homeruns. Need a good recent example? Kansas City was the only team in baseball last year to hit less than 100 home runs (they had 95) and yet they came thisclose to winning the World Series last year. Madison Bumgarner's dominance in three starts foiled their chances, not their lack of power.

So, what about the Twins? The Twins led the league in scoring in April and May last year. They repeated that feat in August and September, and finished 7th in all of baseball for runs scored last season. They accomplished that feat in the easiest way possible. They drew walks. Lots and lots of walks. They had almost 550 of them last year, second to only the Oakland A's (Billy Bean's money ball team which understands metrics better than anyone.)

Bruno as hitting coach has convinced the Twins lineup that patience is the best way to get on base, and the only person who did not understand that for the Twins last season was Joe Mauer, which is strange, because Mauer is usually the poster boy for on base percentage and going for walks. For some odd reason he walked way too little last season while striking out way too much.

If you really watched the Twins last year you saw the magic of walks and what they could do. There were some games where we had 6, 7, 8 walks a game. There was a couple innings last year where we had eight walks AN INNING! It looked like an old Bugs Bunny cartoon as we conga-lined around the bases, scoring run after run.

Walks get bullpens tired, require more opposing teams pitching changes, and rest your ball club. And it's like getting an extra four hits a game for FREE. And defenses go to sleep when their pitchers start walking people so that when you finally do hit the ball you have a better chance of getting on base,

All these things happen because you're willing to take the walk.

The Twins didn't win last year because of lack of power hitting. They lost because their starting rotation and defensive range, especially for outfielders, was abysmal. They MAY be better this year with pitching, but stats seem to indicate that their defense is going to be worse.

Walks can only get so you far. Home runs will only get you so far. The best teams have speed and reaction time on defense and good starting pitching. If you lose, you have to look at those two main culprits.