So it really depends on the player, and having those conversations to say, ‘Is this comfortable? Are you able to do that?’ That’s whether it’s a mental adjustment with two strikes, or a physical adjustment where maybe they choke up the bat a little bit to have more bat control. They feel like they need a little more control of the bat head. We have other guys where maybe they turn down the dial a little bit and the contact goes up. We have a few guys on the team where that 100% swing still plays for line drives, and still allows them to make contact. To the extent that that’s true, should more hitters take a less aggressive swing?įuller: “It depends on the hitter. Laurila: A hitter recently told me that with a good swing, you’d be surprised at how hard and far you can hit a ball without much effort. You want to have swings in your toolbox where you can say, ‘OK, I’m going to be more geared toward contact here.’ I think that’s super important.” “So, we talk about doing damage, but also the trade-offs in different situations. OK, is this a situation that lends itself to going all out for damage, or is this one where we turn it back a little bit and play a little line-drive pepper around the field to score with that runner in scoring position? How can we have a little more contact here? Maybe we turn down the dial on the effort level, especially with two strikes. How do you approach that?įuller: “We want that A-swing, especially before two strikes, whenever you pull the trigger on balls over the zone that you could do damage on. Laurila: I’ve talked to a lot of hitters about A-swings, and having different swings for different pitches and situations. It wasn’t this one perfect swing, but rather many swings that cover different problems that the pitchers are throwing at hitters.” “When I was at UConn, we would look at George Springer’s swing like, ‘Man, how is he so good? He hits everything.’ You’d see the barrel… instead of staying very vertical, and steep in the contact… all of the great players have the ability to turn it behind them, get on plane with the pitch, and have the ability to cover the top half, middle, and bottom.
We just didn’t have his ideas come into play until a little too late. “Looking at it now, reading Ted Williams’ book, they had it figured out ahead of time. Those are things that didn’t really click in my head until the end of my playing career, unfortunately. It wasn’t until I was in college and a couple of guys like Josh Donaldson, when he was working with Bobby Tewksbary up in New Hampshire… I mean, all I knew about hitting was trying to be really direct - which we still want to be - but instead of pushing your hands, losing space, being able to turn the barrel, get behind it and work it up through the pitch plane. Even so, were you taught hitting in an “old school” manner?įuller: “I was.
It comes back around to really focusing on balls and strikes, controlling the zone, hard contact. But yes, what they were preaching back in the day is largely what works today. We just have more research, more tools, more data points to back it up now. If they leave a mistake over the heart of the plate, you’re going to hit it hard. All of the things we are teaching have been synonymous with success since the game began. Laurila: That said, hitters have always understood that pitches on the black are hard to handle, and cookies down the middle can be crushed…įuller: “It’s very intuitive. This is something I should be focusing on.’” I think we have every resource available to the coaches, and then are able to take it to the players and have them go, ‘Man, this is really important.
Laurila: If this were 1960, and not 2022, would those principles be all that different?įuller: “It’s very objective - everything we do here - whereas in 1960 you didn’t have the data to say, ‘If you swing in this zone, your numbers will skyrocket.’ You can be objective, given the visuals, being able to give them heat maps… whatever they need to have it connect. We want to make sure they understand that the values we’re teaching them as an organization matters to each guy individually, as well.”
#Giant players vs tiny player addon how to#
But really, it comes down to meeting the players where they are - having different tools in the toolbox - of how to connect with them. “From there, how do we teach it? Obviously, we have educational sessions.
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