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 Submit he wished cutups of a number of the finest 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 facet by facet and seen that they took an identical stride, touchdown with the identical stiff entrance facet when their again foot left the bottom. Their hips, then bats, uncoiled in a blur.
“They’ve obtained that very same swing at contact level. Similar,” stated Schu, whose statement led to the newspaper publishing a chunk 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 quilt of Sports activities Illustrated at 16 as a result of he sprayed line drives across the area. 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 develop into the primary general decide in 2010, to develop into the NL MVP at age 22 in 2015, and it allowed him to reside 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, fairly, 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 quite a bit from someday to a different.”
What number of swings ought to a participant have?
How a lot coaching financial system needs to be used to develop one thing apart from making an attempt to launch a ball within the air to the pull facet? How usually ought to somebody like Harper be going away from that exquisitely ferocious swing?
However there’s a commerce off in having totally different approaches.
To be clear, Harper remains to be one of many recreation’s finest hitters. Nobody would argue that. However his prime house run season got here again in 2015 (42), which was additionally his finest marketing campaign when it comes to slugging (.649), pull proportion (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 12 months, it’s dipped to .267 this season, which is under his profession mark (.289).
His general contact fee is definitely under his profession common this 12 months 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 harm?
I posed the query to 2 vastly totally 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 due to his elite eye-hand abilities and exceptionally low strikeout fee. (He went on the IL with a fractured forearm on July 29).
He says his contact abilities had been honed by competing in opposition to his dad, former main league Jack Wilson, of their yard batting cage when he was a child.
“My dad would all the time attempt to strike me out,” Wilson stated. “He was very aggressive with me. Simply studying the way to hit that stuff after I was 10, 12 years previous helped me develop 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 brief to the ball. Try to foul off everybody’s finest 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 alternative 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 power that his batting helmet is commonly toppling from his head, exposing a mop of wavy hair.
His swing size (7.7 toes) is identical with two strikes as it’s when he’s forward within the depend (7.7 toes).
Two core hitting tenets at Driveline are enhancing bat velocity and bat path.
The larger the bat velocity, 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 is perhaps outlined as their ‘A swing.’
Stokey needs hitters to extend their margin for error. In spite of everything, it’s tough to be completely on time with each swing. Meaning it’s a profit to have a swing, or swing varieties, that may adapt in actual time and do harm to all elements of the sphere.
There are advantages to creating several types of ball flight in coaching, Stokey stated.
At Driveline, hitters are sometimes given quite a lot of batted-ball targets. They aren’t all the time centered on hitting the ball to the air to their pull facet.
“As a lot as we discuss bat velocity and pulling the ball within the air, you’d be fairly shocked what number of occasions we hit it laborious and low to the alternative area,” Stokey stated. “Backing up the purpose of contact, catching the ball deep, and sequencing effectively sufficient to have the ability to preserve posture and get the barrel on aircraft behind it … Onerous and low to the alternative area – it’s going to assist them reverse engineer a technique to have an excellent environment friendly path to after they catch the ball out in entrance.
“Numerous it comes again to methods to extend your margin for error as a hitter.”
Take into account 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 realized 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 making an attempt to present myself an extended window to get the ball within the air. The very best guys will get it within the air deep, or, out in entrance.”
And that included quite a lot of ball-flight targets.
The very best hitters will be productive even when their swings break down, when they’re caught out in entrance on a changeup, as an example, or defending with two-strikes in opposition to a slider that darts into the shadow zone.
And all swings break down. With two strikes, MLB common bat velocity declines 1.5 mph.
Take into account the case of Mookie Betts whom Stokey labored intently with in 2023. He wasn’t attending to his finest swing usually sufficient.
Bat velocity coaching was a spotlight that offseason main into the season, and Betts loved a two-mph spike in exit velocity that 12 months, 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 abilities are so good,’” Stokey stated. “Numerous occasions you see gamers with superb bat-to-ball abilities, they don’t wish to swing and miss. So, whereas Mookie didn’t have poor chase charges he would develop on the perimeters and swing on balls within the shadow zones and gradual himself down for the sake of placing the ball in play. He’d gradual himself down and make poor, unproductive contact.”
Even the perfect hitters within the recreation won’t have fairly the appropriate mindset concerning the place they belong on the power-contact spectrum.
“One of many issues that was actually necessary to his 2023 season was the strategy obtained actually easy,” Stokey stated.
They centered on crushing pitches inside, the place Betts excelled, and attending to his finest 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 abilities 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’ve gotten such a capability to affect the baseball, your ball putting is insane. …Dude, don’t gradual your self right 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 potential to slug and do harm and that confirmed in the course of the season.”
In 2023, Betts set a profession excessive in house runs (39), raised his batting common and raised his wRC+ to 165 from 144. He additionally reduce his strikeout charges. He completed second within the NL MVP voting.
Betts was already an ideal participant however attending to his driver extra usually, utilizing {the golfing} analogy, took him to a fair larger stage. Considered one of Betts’ strengths is curiosity. Nearly as good as he’s been, he’s all the time seeking to get higher.
Hitting is, after all, very individualized.
Giancarlo Stanton ought to fear much less about swinging and lacking than Luis Arraez due to the quantity of harm he can do when connecting, Stokey stated. Some hitters additionally maybe profit from having extra golf equipment of their bag.
However there isn’t a substitute for constructing a greater engine, and attending to an ‘A swing,’ as usually as doable.
