I think this team is frustrating, because it's a young team.
Everytime Kingery pulls an outside breaking ball, I want to scream at him to keep his hands back, then I remember it's taken a couple years to teach Franco this trick.
I hate it when a pitcher wastes a pitch on an obviously unhittable ball or yanks a ball way wide trying to overthrow.
I hate when young hitters go up to the plate looking for FBs when the book is they're a dead fastball hitter, then Hoskins stays back on a 3-2 curve and hits a 3 run HR.
Point is this isn't Rollins refusing to take walks but insisting he should bat at the top of the order with a .320 OBP as a 10 year veteran - what we're seeing are a lot of young players, with a new coaching staff, trying to figure out how to play the game in the new era. And patience is in order, they've overachieved but that shouldn't fool anyone, teams that stop rebuilding half-way through the process often land hard when reality sets in.
I think the game will speed up as pitchers realize that you can't nibble against teams that are patient, they'll learn to challenge hitters and get them out or be replaced by better pitchers. Hitters will learn how to work a count to get a pitch they can handle, then hit that pitch. Hitters who face drastic shifts will learn to use the opposite field (see Santana last night) on a regular basis until teams play them honest.
However, you can see the difference in one season, while Hernandez and Santana (and Hoskins) are by far the best at working a count, they're teaching by example. Nola is a great object lesson for any young pitcher, that you don't have to throw 95 on every pitch if you have movement and command of your FB and two secondary pitches you can throw for strikes.
