Made it out to the game yesterday. For Stanford, the pitching was great, the hitting was solid, and the defense was also great. Texas was not as good in any area. It's tough to draw many conclusions in baseball from seeing one game, but Stanford looks like a very competitive team this year.
As for the criticism of Stanford for coaching their hitters to shorten up their swings with two strikes, it is one of the silliest things I have ever read. It is absolutely fundamental baseball to shorten up and try to go to the right or up the middle with two strikes. The idea that it doesn't work in the pros is beyond stupid. There are power hitters in the pros who can't seem to shorten their swings, so they keep swinging away. Their strikeouts go up, their on base percentage goes down, but they may get a few more power hits. If you can teach them to use their power when the percentages favor the use of that power and hit for higher average when the percentages favor it, then you have the greates odds for success. A co-worker of mine is married to a pro scout and he confirmed that Stanford focuses on traditional fundamentals in hitting and that it does not in any way hamper their development for the pros. I couldn't read the insider article, so I can't comment on the author's beef with Stanford. I can say he is wrong in his analysis as relayed by others.
Cheers,
Pete F/
