Within the spring of 2013, former Washington Nationals hitting coordinator Rick Schu was accumulating iconic swings from DVDs of Ken Burns’s “Baseball” collection, a Christmas present from his spouse. He defined to The Washington Put up he needed cutups of a few of the greatest swings of all time, and a dozen years in the past, this was one of many extra environment friendly methods to collect them.
And as he watched the grainy, black-and-white movies he was struck by one thing: did Bryce Harper have the identical swing as Babe Ruth?
He organized clips of Ruth and Harper aspect by aspect and observed that they took an analogous stride, touchdown with the identical stiff entrance aspect when their again foot left the bottom. Their hips, then bats, uncoiled in a blur.
“They’ve acquired that very same swing at contact level. An identical,” stated Schu, whose remark led to the newspaper publishing a piece titled “A Swing of Magnificence” based mostly upon Harper’s “exquisitely ferocious swing” as described by author Adam Kilgore.
Harper didn’t land on the duvet of Sports activities Illustrated at 16 as a result of he sprayed line drives across the subject. He grew to become arguably probably the most hyped prospect of the twenty first century as a result of he hit nukes. That swing led him to turn into the primary total decide in 2010, to turn into the NL MVP at age 22 in 2015, and it allowed him to stay as much as unbelievable expectations.
A number of weeks in the past, I requested Harper how his swing has modified from his early professional profession. Harper stated it’s not a lot that his max-power swing, his ‘A’ swing modified, somewhat, it’s that he now possesses a number of swings.
“I feel for me it’s I’ve extra golf equipment within the bag,” Harper stated. “There are occasions after I do a toe faucet, occasions the place I do a leg kick, and occasions the place I do a two-strike strategy. So, I’ve these golf equipment in my bag, proper? Similar to a golfer has a seven iron, or a pitching wedge, or a driver. I’m one of many ones within the recreation who modifications their swing rather a lot from someday to a different.”
What number of swings ought to a participant have?
How a lot coaching economic system must be used to develop one thing apart from attempting to launch a ball within the air to the pull aspect? How usually ought to somebody like Harper be going away from that exquisitely ferocious swing?
However there’s a commerce off in having completely different approaches.
To be clear, Harper remains to be one of many recreation’s greatest hitters. Nobody would argue that. However his prime residence run season got here again in 2015 (42), which was additionally his greatest marketing campaign by way of slugging (.649), pull share (45.4%) and wRC+ (192). He’s had extra seasons with fewer than 25 homers (7), than exceeding that threshold (6).
Maybe Harper ought to make use of his driver extra usually.
Whereas his two-strike wOBA improved from .239 in 2023 to .307 final yr, it’s dipped to .267 this season, which is under his profession mark (.289).
His total contact charge is definitely under his profession common this yr after a spike final season.
When, if ever, ought to hitters go away from their ‘A’ swings? How usually ought to they go away from an intent to do injury?
I posed the query to 2 vastly completely different however wonderful hitters within the A’s clubhouse this season: Jacob Wilson and Nick Kurtz.
Wilson possesses one of many shortest swings within the majors and has been at or close to the highest of the hits leaderboard all season because of his elite eye-hand expertise and exceptionally low strikeout charge. (He went on the IL with a fractured forearm on July 29).
He says his contact expertise have been honed by competing towards his dad, former main league Jack Wilson, of their yard batting cage when he was a child.
“My dad would at all times attempt to strike me out,” Wilson stated. “He was very aggressive with me. Simply studying tips on how to hit that stuff after I was 10, 12 years previous helped me turn into the hitter I’m right this moment.”
Wilson stated he has two swings: his common swing and his two-strike strategy.
“There are two golf equipment within the bag,” Wilson stated. “With two strikes, I simply keep quick to the ball. Try to foul off everybody’s greatest pitch and keep within the battle.”
Wilson has one of many shortest swings within the leagues. It’s even shorter with two strikes (5.9 toes) than different counts (6.1 toes).
On the other finish of the uncooked energy spectrum is Kurtz, who grew to become the twentieth main leaguer to slug 4 homers in a recreation on July 25, and since June 1 leads the majors in wRC+ (223). He’s solely performed 71 video games coming into play Saturday and is tied for the MLB lead amongst first basemen with 23 homers.
Kurtz says he has one membership: his driver.
He swings with such drive that his batting helmet is commonly toppling from his head, exposing a mop of wavy hair.
His swing size (7.7 toes) is similar with two strikes as it’s when he’s forward within the depend (7.7 toes).
Two core hitting tenets at Driveline are bettering bat pace and bat path.
The higher the bat pace, and the extra optimum the bat path, the higher the offensive efficiency.
However that doesn’t imply batters ought to solely prepare to hit the ball within the air to their pull sides, or what may be outlined as their ‘A swing.’
Stokey desires hitters to extend their margin for error. In any case, it’s tough to be completely on time with each swing. Which means it’s a profit to have a swing, or swing varieties, that may adapt in actual time and do injury to all elements of the sector.
There are advantages to creating various kinds of ball flight in coaching, Stokey stated.
At Driveline, hitters are sometimes given a wide range of batted-ball targets. They aren’t at all times centered on hitting the ball to the air to their pull aspect.
“As a lot as we speak about bat pace and pulling the ball within the air, you’d be fairly stunned what number of occasions we hit it laborious and low to the other subject,” Stokey stated. “Backing up the purpose of contact, catching the ball deep, and sequencing effectively sufficient to have the ability to keep posture and get the barrel on airplane behind it … Arduous and low to the other subject – it’s going to assist them reverse engineer a strategy to have a superb environment friendly path to once they catch the ball out in entrance.
“Numerous it comes again to methods to extend your margin for error as a hitter.”
Think about the case of Rockies outfielder Jordan Beck, who labored with Driveline final offseason. He was curious, he stated, to “find out about different avenues that I don’t know effectively, or don’t perceive.” What he discovered was that his bat path was too steep coming into the zone.
“It was like I had a shorter window to get the ball within the air,” Beck stated. “We labored on attempting to provide myself an extended window to get the ball within the air. One of the best guys will get it within the air deep, or, out in entrance.”
And that included a wide range of ball-flight targets.
One of the best hitters will be productive even when their swings break down, when they’re caught out in entrance on a changeup, as an illustration, or defending with two-strikes towards a slider that darts into the shadow zone.
And all swings break down. With two strikes, MLB common bat pace declines 1.5 mph.
Think about the case of Mookie Betts whom Stokey labored intently with in 2023. He wasn’t attending to his greatest swing usually sufficient.
Bat pace coaching was a spotlight that offseason main into the season, and Betts loved a two-mph spike in exit velocity that yr, a key to his success.
However with Betts there was additionally an necessary mindset change.
“The factor with him was ‘Man, your bat-to-ball expertise are so good,’” Stokey stated. “Numerous occasions you see gamers with excellent bat-to-ball expertise, they don’t need to swing and miss. So, whereas Mookie didn’t have poor chase charges he would broaden on the perimeters and swing on balls within the shadow zones and sluggish himself down for the sake of placing the ball in play. He’d sluggish himself down and make poor, unproductive contact.”
Even one of the best hitters within the recreation may not have fairly the appropriate mindset relating to the place they belong on the power-contact spectrum.
“One of many issues that was actually necessary to his 2023 season was the strategy acquired actually easy,” Stokey stated.
They centered on crushing pitches inside, the place Betts excelled, and attending to his greatest swing as usually as doable. Energy over contact.
“‘Don’t be afraid to swing and miss. As a result of because the depend will get deeper, your bat-to-ball expertise are so good you aren’t going to get out-stuffed,’” Stokey recalled of the dialog. “‘Get your ‘A swing’ off as usually as doable, as a result of you could have such a capability to impression the baseball, your ball hanging is insane. …Dude, don’t sluggish your self all the way down to put the ball in play earlier than two strikes.’
“That shift in mindset over the course of a season makes an enormous distinction in efficiency. An enormous distinction within the means to slug and do injury and that confirmed in the course of the season.”
In 2023, Betts set a profession excessive in residence runs (39), raised his batting common and raised his wRC+ to 165 from 144. He additionally minimize his strikeout charges. He completed second within the NL MVP voting.
Betts was already an awesome participant however attending to his driver extra usually, utilizing {the golfing} analogy, took him to a fair higher stage. Considered one of Betts’ strengths is curiosity. Pretty much as good as he’s been, he’s at all times trying to get higher.
Hitting is, in fact, very individualized.
Giancarlo Stanton ought to fear much less about swinging and lacking than Luis Arraez due to the quantity of injury he can do when connecting, Stokey stated. Some hitters additionally maybe profit from having extra golf equipment of their bag.
However there is no such thing as a substitute for constructing a greater engine, and attending to an ‘A swing,’ as usually as doable.
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