I agree that as you get older, you get slower, you lose power, you lose velocity, you lose your range and you lose your batting eye. Basically, you lose your physical abilities.

You don't get stupider. Base running should not deteriorate with age.
9/17/2013 2:21 PM
Yea, if anything you get smarter, right?
9/17/2013 2:26 PM
death knows you get stupider as you age.    
9/17/2013 2:50 PM
Unless you are in denial & aren't willing to face the fact that you aren't as speedy as you once were.

Many big leaguers thought they could play another season or two, and just embarrassed themselves.

They weren't stupider, they just couldn't admit they were done...
9/18/2013 9:26 AM
I suppose the same argument can be made with batting eye.
9/18/2013 9:46 AM
Posted by tecwrg on 9/18/2013 9:46:00 AM (view original):
I suppose the same argument can be made with batting eye.
Right, good point.
Pitch Calling, the 3rd one.
9/18/2013 10:07 AM
I'll re-phrase(mostly because I was being a smartass the first time).

You don't process what you see as quickly when you age.    Batting eye and baserunning should both go down because they are split second decisions.   Pitch calling, not so much.
9/18/2013 10:10 AM
Disagree somewhat with eye, more certainly with base running.

You learn base running, and the more experience you have reading a pitcher, they better you are at it. The "processing" part is speed, not the ability to read a pitcher.

Eye, it's a toss up. Again, the more pitches you see, the better you are at recognizing a pitch and what it's going to do. The physical skill needed to process that, is it eye, or contact?
9/18/2013 10:16 AM
Baserunning isn't just stealing.  It's taking the extra base.   You see a ball hit to right, you think "I can take three", you take a second peak just before hitting 2nd and the RF has already released his throw.  You processed it wrong.

It's eye.   You only have a split second to decide to swing.   It's what you see not what you do after you've started your swing.   Unless, of course, you want to argue check-swings.
9/18/2013 10:19 AM
I'm a smart base runner.
My skills are declining.
I'm not thinking "I can take three" because I'm smart, and I know my speed is declining.

You are crossing physical skills into mental skills.
9/18/2013 10:50 AM
I have a good eye.
I have a split second to decide it's a strike. I recognize it, but can't catch up because my power and contact (physical skills) are declining. So I strike out.
If it was a ball, I recognize that and get the walk.

I've decided that you are fundamentally wrong.
9/18/2013 10:54 AM
You've probably never picked up a bat so I've decided you don't know ****.    
Not taking third when you could is bad baserunning.
Not swinging in time to catch up is poor pitch recognition.    I'm old as hell but, if you tell me you're flinging a 108 MPH fastball over the meat of the plate, I catch up to it because I already know what's coming.  However, when younger, I'd have been able to recognize the pitch and location before I started to swing.  Pitch recognition in action. 

THREAD CLOSED!!!!!
9/18/2013 11:14 AM
THREAD REOPENED!!!!!

I'll argue that "swinging in time" is going to be a function of contact (putting the bat on the ball) rather than batting eye.  I've always assumed that, within the context of this game, that batting eye is the ability to tell the difference between a ball (i.e. the ability to draw walks) and a strike (swinging or not swinging at a ball in the strike zone, i.e. called strike threes).

Now if you want to argue that batting eye factors into the split second decision of "swing or not" when the ball leaves the pitchers hand, that's a different story.  I'd say that kind of visual degredation is minimal for players as they progress from their prime (late 20's/early 30's) to their decline (mid 30's and later).  Experience more than offsets the degredation.  It's the physical skills (not being able to catch up to the fastball) that declines, and that's a function of contact, not batting eye.
9/18/2013 12:08 PM
2 against 1. Make it so WIFS!
9/18/2013 12:44 PM
Someone that has "80" baserunning has that until the day they die. When they hit the age of 98, their speed is -4, and they say "my God, I made it to first. Someone get a gawdamn pinch runner for me"

Nothing should degrade that except dementia. CASE CLOSED!!!!
9/18/2013 12:47 PM
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