I still don't see where in that article Svuem says anything about abandoning small ball. It might be implied, but it seemed to me he was talking around the issue. This quote in particular seems to indicate he prefers small ball. "Teams that have done it in the past, it's a very difficult way to score runs. It's an easy way, don't get me wrong, with one swing of the bat you've scored a run. But, on the other hand, you get 600 plate appearances and a prolific home-run hitter only hits 35. That's 565 at-bats that they don't."