The Reds' Hitting Approach

[EZ Living]

Does anyone on here have any insight into what the Red's real hitting approach is? I would love to sit in on a meeting with Jacoby and the players when they discuss how they will approach different pitchers. While Hammertime showed us some good stats on how the Red's batters fare when they swing at the first pitch, is this their approach early in the game, every game, or only against certain pitchers?? Do they change their strategy later in the game or against other pitchers? I would really like to hear Jacoby explain this so we wouldn't have to form our own opinions on their approach to hitting. I have always thought that good pitchers would prefer to get ahead in the count because it always favors the pitcher when that happens. That clearly means that the first pitch you see may be the best you will see in the at bat and would usually be fastball. Time and time again I sit at a game and watch the pitch count for both pitchers and see that in most games it seems like the Red's pitcher is building a high pitch count early in the game and the opposing pitcher is throwing 10-15 pitchers per inning. Now I will agree that if the Red's hitting strategy is to swing at a lot of first pitches early in the game that would play heavily into this, but is their pitching strategy different because I don't see the Red's pitchers getting ahead as much as the opposing pitchers. Maybe it has to do with the youth that we have on the mound but I guess that's another thread. I also notice that later in the game it seems like Red's hitters take a lot of strikes, several and I won't mention names because we all know who they are, will take 3 strikes and have a seat. Is that the hitting strategy later in a game? I was always under the philosophy that a great leadoff hitter was one that could look at pitches and help the other guys see what the pitcher has but I guess we don't really have a true leadoff hitter. Oh well if anybody has any insider information I would truly love to hear it but until then I guess we are left to hash this out on our own.