More baseball talk: there’s a nice interview with John Gizzi over on Athletics Nation, where they discuss, among other things, Mark Kotsay.

I have been envying the A’s AL West rivals in recent years, watching Mike Cameron and Darin Erstad turn so many A’s doubles into outs. It’s great to see Kotsay do similar work out there for my team. Not since the last time Dwayne Murphy’s hat fell off have the A’s had center field patrolled so well.

Kotsay got on my good side right away, as I was in Phoenix for his first spring training at-bat. Kotsay drew a leadoff 13-pitch walk off Bartolo Colon, and the A’s went on to win 26-3. Colon reached his pitch limit before the first inning was over.

Mark Kotsay’s approach at the plate is easy to explain; it makes him an ideal batter to show little leaguers how to approach an at-bat. If it’s in the strike zone, he nearly always swings. He’s not waiting for the perfect pitch early in the count, like a lot of batters do. But if the ball is out of the strike zone, he nearly always takes. Swing at strikes, don’t swing at balls. Sounds simple, but I’ve never seen anyone who approaches that ideal so often.

It’s fun style to watch. And the results have been pretty good, too.