Red Sox front office assistant Tony La Russa joined Ordway, Merloni & Fauria on Thursday to give his assessment on baseball's current style of play.
"I like it if you're playing against it because it's easier to beat," he said. "The game, for 100 years we were very traditional and change came slowly, and now it's really exploding."
La Russa elaborated on his impression of swinging for the fences, the type of approach at the plate that has taken the league by storm. He acknowledged the challenge in finding the most effective formula at the plate while at the same time going by the metrics.
"There's a lot of trouble with guys putting in coaches, staffs and organizations put their arm around what's the right balance," La Russa said. "There's definitely a place for the metrics in the preparation but swing for your buck three times is not winning baseball."
La Russa brought up Wednesday's contributions of Eduardo Nunez and Brock Holt in the Red Sox' 6-4 win over the Blue Jays, with both instances being by way of a single to keep rallies alive.
"We need every bit of those runs," he explained. "I think now there's a misperception, I feel like hitting coaches have a really difficult job because now [it's about] launch angle and exit speed off the bat, and there's a right way to get the ball in the air and a wrong way. One of the things that's happened is there's been a lot of conversations about, 'the strikeout is not a bad play,' and 'don't try to manufacture runs with bunts or stolen bases.'"
According to the former Cardinals manager, hitters can approach the plate hunting for the extra-base hit, but need to know when to shorten their swing, something he believes the Red Sox have done an admirable job with this season.
"If you look at the baseball game being played and you have a situation like a runner on third with less than two outs, a strikeout gives you nothing so I think the thing you want to teach, and they teach it really well with the Red Sox, is take real aggressive swings, hopefully you have good strikeout discipline, but when you get to two strikes, putting the ball in play is the winning championship play and that's the only way you're going to win against really good pitching, especially late in the season," he said.
