The official CONTROL THE ZONE (CTZ) thread

[cezero]

Devoting this thread to whether or not the M's hitters and pitchers have success with the CTZ philosophy as drilled into the M's by Dipoto/Servais.

At a minimum, I'll be posting the k/bb ratio after games. But anybody can and should contribute to any discussion devoted to plate discipline from hitters and pitch select/location from pitchers.

 

[cezero]

-4 is the current k/bb differential

it's ever so slightly early to pay much attention to it, of course.

 

[cezero]

and magic mike just came in, struck out the side, and got it down to -1

 

[cezero]

Yes, yesterday we went up against a tough Hamels, but there's lots of room for improvement if controlling the zone is the goal.

• Our lineup struck out 11 times yesterday, and drew 3 walks.
• Our pitchers struck out 10, but gave up 6 BBs.

Right now we're at -4. Let's see if we can get that up to a positive number by the end of the serries.

 

[EVille3]

Yes, yesterday we went up against a tough Hamels, but there's lots of room for improvement if controlling the zone is the goal.

• Our lineup struck out 11 times yesterday, and drew 3 walks.
• Our pitchers struck out 10, but gave up 6 BBs.

Right now we're at -4. Let's see if we can get that up to a positive number by the end of the serries.

Do productive outs factored into this control the zone goal? Or are just looking at K/BBs?

 

[cezero]

Do productive outs factored into this control the zone goal? Or are just looking at K/BBs?

k/bb isn't the only thing, no.

i hope you and others will chime in here talking about anything and everything regarding plate discipline and pitch selection.

i just want to make sure to bring up the k/bb on a daily basis because it's a very strong barometer of season success.

 

[cezero]

Marte has looked completely lost.

Good stuff tonight overall in terms of CTZ, though.

Up to +2 on the k/bb ratio after two games.

For those wondering, the team finished last year at -66. And the M's have only finished over .500 one time in the past 40 years with a negative k/bb.

 

[Podunkparte]

I don't get to watch all the games live, but I'll be watching closely for situational at bats. Guy on 2nd, no outs...guy on 3rd, less than 2 outs. I know they worked on this in Spring, and it's been an infuriating aspect to Mariners baseball over the last few years, so to me that will be a sign that this team is playing to win games intelligently.

 

[cezero]

Plate discipline today was outstanding.

And even though Miley made that big mistake, he didn't issue a single BB. The pitching staff only gave up 2 BBs in total today.

+9 is the k/bb as of right now.

 

[cezero]

Walker very much a subscriber to CTZ.

After an (understandably) shaky first inning, he ended up walking 1, and K'd 4 in his 6 innings of work.

Got up to 100 pitches and still looked strong when his work was finished.

I'll update the season total for k/bb at the end of the game.

 

[cezero]

Pitching was outstanding overall last night. Only 1 BB given up in 9 innings, and the A's K'd 7 times.

The M's bats were pretty sad last night, though. Not a lot of K's, so there's that.

+13 is the team's current k/bb for the season.

 

[cezero]

2 nights in a row where M's bats have been ice cold.

only 3 BB's issued in total tonight by both teams combined.

k/bb is still at +13 for the season because the A's also K'd a lot tonight.

 

[PolarVortex]

Brand new team, same ole problem. Can't win at home. Until this team gets and maintains a homefield advantage, they aren't going to compete.

Cano and Cruz going for the fence on every pitch now. They get a lot of praise but, in truth, they are not setting a good example.

 

[cezero]

Thanks to a dominating performance by Felix, the k/bb actually improved today despite the loss.

Only so much benefit to striking out the other team and not walking them a lot if your own bats can't score more than 1 run.

+20 is where we are right now. over the long run, it'll even out. i still think this team is capable of .500 ball.

 

[cezero]

Again, the biggest part of the CTZ philosophy for servais/dipoto involves both our hitting and our pitching, and revolves around BB's vs. K's.

As bad as the bats have been for us, the pitching has been good as far as strikeouts go and walks issued. And we've actually walked more than our opponents in this 4 loss streak as well.

over the last 4 games:

• - M's batters have struck out 34 times
• - Our opponents have struck out 41 times

• - M's batters have drawn 11 walks
• - Our opponents have drawn 7 walks

We went +2 last night, so the k/bb for the season is now +22

Typically, a positive k/bb means at least a winning season. The M's are good at being exceptions to pretty much everything, though. But the less cynical side of me thinks these numbers will work themselves out over the course of a larger sample size. It's just really tough.

 

[AceKeptic]

^ I'll bet those numbers dropped for us BIG TIME after that 8-0 humiliation. Four hits, nothing else...

Eight games in, and they've quit already. Is that discipline?

 

[cezero]

^ I'll bet those numbers dropped for us BIG TIME after that 8-0 humiliation. Four hits, nothing else...

Eight games in, and they've quit already. Is that discipline?

Hard to believe, but we drew 1 more walk than them tonight, and struck out 4 fewer times.

Went from +22 to +27

Our pitching staff has averaged over 10 K's per game in this losing streak. Doesn't matter a bit if we can't hit.

Mike Hampton is our pen coach, and he could hit better than this. It's freakish.

 

[cezero]

M's went +4 tonight (4/16), and +10 on Wed in terms of k/bb.

So +41 is the number right now for k/bb, believe it or not. (for reference, by the end of last year, we were -66 by the end of the season)

I still think M's offensive numbers thus far are magnified by a tiny sample size. Lind and most of the others would have to have 1000% (not exaggerating) worse seasons with bats than they've ever had in their lives to stay where they are. We've consistently been striking out less and walking more than our opponents, which is all that k/bb considers.

 

[cezero]

M's went -11 in yesterday's win, and then -10 in today's loss.

We managed to draw 1 walk in 18 innings, and struck out 25 times.

+20 is our total k/bb for the season now.

 

[unlvmariners]

M's went -11 in yesterday's win, and then -10 in today's loss.

We managed to draw 1 walk in 18 innings, and struck out 25 times.

+20 is our total k/bb for the season now.

That Yankee bullpen is a strikeout machine.