Hitting

Hey, I'm Joe Derive and this is sports.
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You know something about hitting. It's the only technology in today's world which guarantees huge pay for failure. Now before you get confused, let me explain.
When you look at baseball the first number a hitter projects is the average. Even the best hitters have terrible averages. If you hit an even .300 (for ease), that means that you have failed to get a hit 7 out of the last 10 times at bat. Yet we pay you millions to get three hits out of ten. It gets worse. When you have a big bat and bang out 30 home runs a year, that means you get 30 runs out of 162 games. With an average of 3 appearances that means 162 * 3 or 486 times and you get 30 home runs. That's 30/486 or .062 times in a season...and we hunger for those hits. It's crazy and yet that's our thinking.
So, with that in mind, you'll forgive me if I think hitting is weird. It's VERY weird. I mean its beyond comprehension for me. Take RBI's. That may be the only number that makes sense to me. You found a way to drive in a run. You get 100 RBI's and that's 100/486 times at bat or .21 times you get runs. Of course lots of them are double plays or fly balls to center field...but what do I know.
So what's my point? My point is this -- there is a reason why you only get 4 or so runs a game with maybe 11 hits. Hitting is brutally hard. You've got this bullet shotting at you and are expected to make a decision in less than a second. On top of that the ball changes speed and location. I mean sometimes its just dumb luck or just power. No matter how you look at it, hitting is a killer. Guys who can get 3 out of 10 times are miracles as far as I'm concerned. Jason Varitek was becoming an automatic out but everybody forgot how hard it is to hit that baseball. Pitching is very tough and guys that get 300 averages have medicre pitching to thank for it.
So the next time you see a guy struggling have mercy because in reality, hitting is the hardest thing to do in baseball. It really is which is why guys do steroids and everything else to get ahead because its just that hard. Now I'm not saying its right but I am saying its reality.

I'm Joe Derive.