Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

[Blzer]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

You've got to admit though that it is kind of ironic that the only two people defending Bonds here are Giants fans.

Bonds has been my favorite player since I could say his name. I was born and raised to like the guy, and I fell in love with his stance, swing, and overall swagger. I tend to follow in his footsteps of his five-tool days. Though I was encouraged to begin learning to bat left-handed by my Little League coach when I was 12 (more so for drag-bunting purposes), I was more inclined to because of Bonds, and because I wanted to just learn the art of his swing. I must say that I am doing very well in adapting to it, and I have learned, through teaching my little sister and her teammates the same swing, that his swing is the reason for his success, much more than his strength. I could delve into it, but I don't think you guys care.

I wouldn't care if Bonds went to the Yankees, Cubs, or Athletics (my three least favorite teams). I will defend his credibility as the best offensive baseball player of all time forever and ever, regardless of his potential guilty conviction of steroid use and abuse.

[Brandon13]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

I wouldn't care if Bonds went to the Yankees, Cubs, or Athletics (my three least favorite teams). I will defend his credibility as the best offensive baseball player of all time forever and ever, regardless of his potential guilty conviction of steroid use and abuse.

That's fine but, and you probably know this too, if you weren't a Bonds (Or Giants) fan you most likely wouldn't be defending him as vehemently as you are.

[Blzer]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

No doubt. But I am anti-Pujols, Rodriguez, and Sosa. I have no evidence to state that any of them ever have taken or are taking steroids, and I'm not going to accuse them of that. I will, however, accuse Sosa of having three consecutive lucky years. I told everyone here that if I were the Orioles manager, I would bench him until I'm fired (which would probably be the first day) because I knew he was a fluke and was eventually going to have a bad season. I believe it was .220 with 9 HR and 150+ strikeouts, and I guess the truth came out.

Anyway, I think what I would say though is that if Pujols or Rodriguez were ever later accused of steroids, I would only play devil's advocate not because I believe that they are juicing, but because I want to see if people on this message board actually say what they say because they are anti-Bonds.

Robinson. Out.

[Brandon13]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

It's possible to have three consecutive 60+ homer seasons by luck?

[Blzer]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

It's possible to have three consecutive 60+ homer seasons by luck?

Like I said, Bonds doesn't necessarily earn every one of his home runs by his incredible muscle mass. I have studied footage, photos, gifs, etc of Bonds' swings, and I have broken down every single aspect of his swing and approach, and I have learned it to a tee. Granted, I have not 100% acquired it, but I am definitely on the right track, and am working every day at making mine better. It's harder for me because I switch hit, so I have to divvy up the work load.

Anyway, from what I have seen with Sosa, almost everything about his swing is exactly what people do not want to idolize. Hands apart from the body, extension, bend upper-half, terrible timing mechanism, relax/tight grip pattern from rest to swing, door-knocking knuckles not lined up, back foot not beginning the swing, forcing lift, always looking middle-away and trying to pull it, not enough hip torque on contact, top-hand swinging (I could explain this more a little later if you need me to), and no exact pre-conceived notions of what he wants to do with every at bat and every pitch. You can see this, because every at bat is very random with what he swings at, wants to swing at, and will swing at, in any given situation. He has zero discipline taking sliders breaking off of the plate (much like Feliz), and doesn't ever seem to be satisfied with anything but the home run.

I'm saying that his techniques are perhaps the cliche home run guy's swing in one of those cheesy baseball movies (like that guy on the Mets in Rookie of the Year). That kind of swing is only supposed to work in Little League and work 75% of the time in JV Baseball, but in the pros, it should only work if making good contact off of a perfect middle-away fastball or hanging breaking ball. Sammy Sosa, as we all may know (or may not know), leads the world in active hitters with 2,200 career strikeouts in 8,400 career at bats, and is only behind Reggie Jackson. He strikes out more than a quarter of the time that he's up to the plate, and that's not by accident. I'm surprised it's not even larger (considering he probably has more two-strike counts than anybody else in baseball as well).

The fact that he gives himself this risk/reward swing makes him not good, but rather lucky, and probably even more so selfish. All for himself, that's what I believe. He's like Stan Ross on Mr. 3000: he's not coming back to the league to help the Rangers win the AL West (as a matter of fact, it is my belief that he will hurt them in playing); he is coming back to become the fifth man in baseball history to reach 600 home runs. So, what is it that you think he is trying to do every at bat? I suppose I could have you guess, but if you don't know it by now, you have some research to do.


Bonds is not looking to homer every at bat, but he is looking to ****ing obliterate the ball wherever it's pitched when he's looking for that pitch. A fastball, slider, changeup, knuckleball... or anything else even one millimeter off of the plate, he will take, because he is a good hitter. He earns the pitches that he hits out of the ballpark, and even then they're still not trying to pitch to him. He can turn on a Gagne 102 MPH inside corner fastball into McCovey Cove, and he can take a ball the other way 440 feet out of Rogers Center with a low and away change up. He's done it all, not because of luck (and not necessarily because of muscle, either).

I told some people in the Giants thread, but I took his techniques, broke them down into literally dozens of drills, and work on them for myself and my little sister's A-ball team. Last year, we worked 5 days a week and had tournaments on the weekends, working on a lot of individual hitting (I was the selected hitting coach). We took third place in the entire state of California for 12U fastpitch softball, with the highest OPS in the state. This was not by accident, this was not by luck. If I taught them to swing like Sammy Sosa, we wouldn't be sniffing any tournament medals.




That is what I mean.

[Hootiefish]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

Like I said, Bonds doesn't necessarily earn every one of his home runs by his incredible muscle mass. I have studied footage, photos, gifs, etc of Bonds' swings, and I have broken down every single aspect of his swing and approach, and I have learned it to a tee. Granted, I have not 100% acquired it, but I am definitely on the right track, and am working every day at making mine better. It's harder for me because I switch hit, so I have to divvy up the work load.

Anyway, from what I have seen with Sosa, almost everything about his swing is exactly what people do not want to idolize. Hands apart from the body, extension, bend upper-half, terrible timing mechanism, relax/tight grip pattern from rest to swing, door-knocking knuckles not lined up, back foot not beginning the swing, forcing lift, always looking middle-away and trying to pull it, not enough hip torque on contact, top-hand swinging (I could explain this more a little later if you need me to), and no exact pre-conceived notions of what he wants to do with every at bat and every pitch. You can see this, because every at bat is very random with what he swings at, wants to swing at, and will swing at, in any given situation. He has zero discipline taking sliders breaking off of the plate (much like Feliz), and doesn't ever seem to be satisfied with anything but the home run.

I'm saying that his techniques are perhaps the cliche home run guy's swing in one of those cheesy baseball movies (like that guy on the Mets in Rookie of the Year). That kind of swing is only supposed to work in Little League and work 75% of the time in JV Baseball, but in the pros, it should only work if making good contact off of a perfect middle-away fastball or hanging breaking ball. Sammy Sosa, as we all may know (or may not know), leads the world in active hitters with 2,200 career strikeouts in 8,400 career at bats, and is only behind Reggie Jackson. He strikes out more than a quarter of the time that he's up to the plate, and that's not by accident. I'm surprised it's not even larger (considering he probably has more two-strike counts than anybody else in baseball as well).

The fact that he gives himself this risk/reward swing makes him not good, but rather lucky, and probably even more so selfish. All for himself, that's what I believe. He's like Stan Ross on Mr. 3000: he's not coming back to the league to help the Rangers win the AL West (as a matter of fact, it is my belief that he will hurt them in playing); he is coming back to become the fifth man in baseball history to reach 600 home runs. So, what is it that you think he is trying to do every at bat? I suppose I could have you guess, but if you don't know it by now, you have some research to do.


Bonds is not looking to homer every at bat, but he is looking to ****ing obliterate the ball wherever it's pitched when he's looking for that pitch. A fastball, slider, changeup, knuckleball... or anything else even one millimeter off of the plate, he will take, because he is a good hitter. He earns the pitches that he hits out of the ballpark, and even then they're still not trying to pitch to him. He can turn on a Gagne 102 MPH inside corner fastball into McCovey Cove, and he can take a ball the other way 440 feet out of Rogers Center with a low and away change up. He's done it all, not because of luck (and not necessarily because of muscle, either).

I told some people in the Giants thread, but I took his techniques, broke them down into literally dozens of drills, and work on them for myself and my little sister's A-ball team. Last year, we worked 5 days a week and had tournaments on the weekends, working on a lot of individual hitting (I was the selected hitting coach). We took third place in the entire state of California for 12U fastpitch softball, with the highest OPS in the state. This was not by accident, this was not by luck. If I taught them to swing like Sammy Sosa, we wouldn't be sniffing any tournament medals.




That is what I mean.

Blzer, I appreciate your dedication to the game, I really do. But man, I think you need a girlfriend.








Just busting your balls.

You made several very good points about Sammy. The other thing with Sammy, and where the steroid allegations come in with him, is that during his hey-day he was strong enough and quick enough to get hits on balls that he may not have struck very well with his homerun swing. I think it is more than just coincidence that Sammy bottomed out the same year steroid testing went public.

[Brandon13]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

Good post Blzer and I see what you are saying. I don't think anyone who knows anything about baseball would compare Sammy Sosa as a hitter to Bonds. I don't think you meant Sammy was "lucky" per se in his big home run years, just that he was doing a lot of things incorrectly with his swing and, theoretically, he should not have produced the numbers he did. Correct?

[Blzer]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

Good post Blzer and I see what you are saying. I don't think anyone who knows anything about baseball would compare Sammy Sosa as a hitter to Bonds. I don't think you meant Sammy was "lucky" per se in his big home run years, just that he was doing a lot of things incorrectly with his swing and, theoretically, he should not have produced the numbers he did. Correct?

I guess more of what I'm saying is, in 1998, he had 66 good hits. In 2001, Bonds had about 130 good hits, not 73.

But yeah, like I posted a long time ago... if I were Mazzoni when he was Baltimore's manager, I would have benched Sosa when we first got him. I mean, of course, if my job was at stake, I'm really not sure if I would have done it. But, theoretically speaking, he was more cancerous than the other bench outfielders that year. I predicted his year would have been an abysmal, and I didn't once attribute it to steroids. I just figured that there was going to be a time when the real Sosa would come out. Fortunately, people got to see it. He wasn't as "lucky" in 2005.

[Alliball]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

Your head hasn't got bigger since high school, mine did? Mostly because I put on 60 pounds since then. Look at people that get fat or put on muscle their heads gets bigger! Nice try though!

Are you out of your mind? I've never heard of skull fat or skull muscle.

[Sabercatsfan]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

Have to say, major kudos for Hank saying what he said. I wouldn't want to see my record broken by Bonds either.

[Blzer]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

Truth be told, Bonds might not even break the record. I mean, his health is always of concern, and he only plays about 130 games a year anyway. Granted, he hit 26 home runs last year, but if he can't homer off of those mistake pitches over the plate like he used to all of the time, he might not even reach it this year. I mean, I have like... zero doubt that he'll reach it, health not being a factor. But I'm just saying.

[SoMiss2000]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

This thread's about Aaron and Bonds, not politics.

-Skerik

[jim416]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

This thread's about Aaron and Bonds, not politics.

-Skerik

[RoyalBoyle78]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

The funny thing about that is they better stay healthy and play until they are 40 and continue to hit about 40HR's a year. I don't see that happening, but you never know.

A-Rod could do it, I mean Bonds has missed games and still hit the long Ball, Albet.P can do it to.....It will be done...

[Scottdau]

Re: Hank Aaron won't witness Bonds break the record

A-Rod could do it, I mean Bonds has missed games and still hit the long Ball, Albet.P can do it to.....It will be done...

They are going to have to want to break it. If it is important too them then they will probably give it won. But you have to see if they keep up that pace when they get older. Most players when they get older lose it fast, so if they don't they have a great chance.