It is maddening that this is the accepted practice to swing and miss and strikeout at an alarming rate. I would argue that Kent and Henseler also work counts deep and take walks vs just swinging at balls and striking out.

I'm certainly not an expert, but like you have watched every game, and it seems we're swinging under the ball, possibly in attempt to generate launch angle? If we connect correctly, we can blast. But we're not doing that right now and the result is a ton a weak pops or fly balls. Is this something Earley and the staff can fix during the season? Who knows.

So true. Look at Jace, isn't every one of his hits except for one a home run so far?

hitting philosophy has changed. the new way they are instructing kids to hit is wrong in my opinion. go watch pujols swing a bat if you want to see the right way to drive a ball. he isn't dipping and ripping. he is driving down on the ball to maximize backspin.

Very interesting discussion and much appreciated. Will be more observant in the future. Again, I enjoy the exchange.

The misses on the baseball are 1/2 inch or less. That makes the difference in a line drive or a fly ball. Any line drive, even if directly to a fielder, is still a good swing; even though it's an out.

Baseball players are often taught to go oppo - especially if you're struggling. It will keep your shoulder from flying open.

On Sunday we had 2 K's, whereas on Tuesday it was 10 or more. Sunday was a bunch of fly balls. Tuesday issues were a combo of us facing a large number of breaking pitches, fly balls, and a moving strike zone. Both teams had 10+ K's.

It's an approach and mindset,
1 old days 2 runners on nobody out most likely try to bunt runners over or hit and run.
2. Modern day this situation swing away
The old days change swing plane have level swing let ball come in and go to opposite field.
Both ways to get it done I'm just old school and liked moving runners over and bunting.

ultimately, it's up to Earley to make adjustments

if the modern approach is working

player by player

and situation by situation

phatty26 said:

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It's an approach and mindset,
1 old days 2 runners on nobody out most likely try to bunt runners over or hit and run.
2. Modern day this situation swing away
The old days change swing plane have level swing let ball come in and go to opposite field.
Both ways to get it done I'm just old school and liked moving runners over and bunting.

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I agree with you. Baseball was more interesting to me when teams had to work for every run. But that ship has sailed.

A couple of years ago I was watching an Astros game and Altuve executed a perfect hit and run. I remember being mildly shocked, and realizing that I should savor it because I probably wouldn't see another one for a long time.

Chris98 said:

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I miss the days of Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs.

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Ichiro is the most recent.

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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hitting philosophy has changed. the new way they are instructing kids to hit is wrong in my opinion. go watch pujols swing a bat if you want to see the right way to drive a ball. he isn't dipping and ripping. he is driving down on the ball to maximize backspin.

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I need to watch more of Pujols swing mechanics.

And not sure I agree with the comment that this team has been swinging like this for the last 2 seasons. Pitch selection has been pretty bad, especially for Jace who is not currently helping his draft selection. We have had a mix of smashers and also players who put the ball in play. What I have seen so far is 8 out of 9 players who are swinging purely for dingers.

But I do absolutely agree that the season is very "earley" and they have time to work out the kinks. Cause if they do not figure out how to be a top 5 hitting team in the SEC....might be a long season as our pitching appears to be a weakness. This team needs to score runs.

Let's see if they get at least 10 HRs this coming weekend.

Gig Em!

Go read Ted Williams "The Science of Hitting", nothing being taught today is much different from what he wrote in 1971 (and practiced in the 1940s). The main difference being that Williams preferred a balanced approach between power and average where today power seems to take precedence.

At 12u, coach them to hit line drives. Home runs should come when they get under one.

And teach hitting oppo, for many reasons. One of which is that by high school pitchers will be pounding the outside of the plate, and they need to know how to hit it.

I am certainly not an expert on this topic, but in one of my kids' baseball journeys, I've picked up a few learnings on the science/art of hitting over the years.

As has been said many times, this is the most difficult thing to do in nearly all of sports. Augie Garrido (5 national championships) once said he liked small ball because hitting the baseball was so dang low percentage.

First off, Michael Earley is an absolute guru on the science of hitting. He is one of the best of the best. So if there is anyone that can maximize offensive production and figure this thing out, he's the guy. He will also say (and has said so in interviews) that elite pitching is always going to win the day.

You can get super crazy technical on the swing mechanics… the approach, the load, the open or closed stance, the hand position, the launch angle, and on and on and on… When my son was at the youth level, one of my good friends who played in the Marlins organization (his Dad was a long term scout with the Giants) gave my son the best advice. He advised to focus on ONE singular thing at the plate - bat path. That was the perfect advice at the youth level… focus on the Nike swoosh, compact bat path. See also TW "The Science of Hitting" - referenced in some posts above.

My son was at the Stanford camp recently. David Esquer gave a talk there that was one of the best discussions on hitting I have ever heard. He described that at Stanford a lot of their guys like to go into the cage, work off the tee and perfect their swings. He said that they spend hours doing this, but that he was not a big fan of that practice approach. Instead, he favored competitive drills where the repeatability of success was low, where their guys were pushed out of their comfort level to the wall of failure and to hone in on pushing past that. He described that at some level, it's a one on one competition between you and the pitcher. And, that pitcher may be an All American, but you just need to beat him on ONE pitch. You don't have time to think about your load or your hand position or all the hundreds of technical bits. It's just a one on one competition at that point. As further background, he talked about their approach was to figure out how to be effective as a hitter WITHOUT having to be perfect in the swing mechanics. I think the biggest takeaway was that the mental, competitive aspect is maybe as important to this hitting puzzle as even the technicals.

I used to think Stanford baseball was the luckiest program in history - that they somehow benefited from a disproportionate number of lucky bounces. I walked away from his talks thinking their success over the years had very little to do with luck in fact.

Incredibly helpful post. Informed opinion at its finest.

BBAg74 said:

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Third Deck, I think you are absolutely on the right track. As background, I grew up hitting with a wooden bat (old I know), only used aluminum my Sr. year at A&M, averaged .370 over my 4 years (2 in JUCO, 2 at A&M), and did my Masters Thesis on a computer analysis of the mechanical components on baseball hitting. Also coached in JUCO for 21 years. That being said, all my experiences brought me to the realization that successful hitting is a mixture of assumptions and realities.

Assumptions:
- You are balanced throughout the swing
- You know what "your pitch" is
- You only swing at that pitch when the count favors you
- You can accept that failing 6-7 times out of 10 makes you a successful hiltter
- You accept that you can do everything right, smoke a ball, and still fail

Realities:
-- If your eyes ever leave the flight of the ball, you will fail
- You won't ever hit for average if your approach doesn't change with 2 strikes
- The triangulation between your eyes, hands, and bat head is absolutely critical
Your eyes tell the hands what the ball is doing
Your hands tell the bat head (sweet spot) where to go
The bat head tells the ball where it will go
- You cannot think of anything mechanical while at the plate in games. Mickey Mantle and
Ernie Banks made a record about hitting. Beyond getting a good pitch to hit and
staying balanced their advice was to "see ball, hit ball."

Bottom line: We grew up playing loads of "Pepper." You never see that anymore. Pepper reinforces
the above triangulation and teaches a hitter that: if you're seeing it, and you can reach
it, you can get the barrel to it. We'd spend large amounts to time learning the relationship
between eyes, hands, and barrel. That's how a good hitter can hit behind the runner on a
hit and run or with a runner on second and no outs. The more a hitter has only one offensive
approach, the easier he is to pitch to. Just because ML hitters seem to be more "all or
nothing" doesn't mean that translates perfectly to college. They have 162 games and get
paid millions based on production, whether their team wins or loses. Colleges have 56 games,
so hitters need to be able to maximize the impact they have on their team's success.

I know, TLDR, but I love to talk hitting. And, as always, just my two cents.

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I had to read that twice because I enjoyed it that much. Thanks for sharing!

Great stuff we are old school and enjoy the art of hitting not just launch angles and exit velocity.

Great post!