“Always approach
the inside & top part of the baseball. This will keep your bat on the
correct swing plane and help you hit the baseball where it is supposed to be
hit… With this approach, you’ll hit a lot more line drives and ground balls.”
(BaseballCamps.com)
I took the above quote
from an organization that runs camps for kids that run anywhere from $79 to
$615. The main hitting concept preached is to hit the top of the ball and
make sure the defense has to make a play. If you think about it, a ground
ball requires a fielder to not only get to the ball, field it cleanly, and make
an accurate throw in order to retire the batter, but it also shows that the
batter can hit the top-inner part of the ball. Hard ground balls are what
boost your average, right? In order for this ideal swing to come to
fruition the hitter must have a nice downward
path to the ball. This will result in a more successful hitter.
“My son’s (high
school) coach wants everyone to hit down on the ball. He explains that
this is to cause backspin to get the ball to travel further.”
(community.hsbaseballweb.com)
So, in order to drive
the ball with power you must have backspin on the ball. What is the
definition of power in the baseball world? Hitting the ball far, right?
So, this would mean that good contact with backspin naturally creates more
power for a hitter. According to this theory, the best way to get
backspin on a baseball is to have a nice downward
path to the ball. This will result in a more successful hitter.
Wait… how could the
same swing path be the key to two completely different schools of thought on
what makes a successful hitter? Doesn’t it seem strange that two
different hitting coaches can try to teach the same swing and expect two
totally opposite results? Don't you begin to question if they know what
that swing is even supposed to do? If you brought your son to each of
these instructors, he’d be taught the same swing, yet his result could garner
contrary responses from each coach depending on who he was working with that
specific day. The kid would be doing the exact same thing and have no
idea what is supposed to result from it! His head would explode! (I’m not
sure how accurate that last part is). So which of the two is preaching
the correct swing?
Trick question.
Answer is neither.
Not only does this
swing pattern stir up vastly different expected results, but it’s also the
wrong bat path. Succeeding as a hitter is a rarity. Just by taking
a quick look at the past century of baseball, it’ll show that the best hitters
EVER failed right around 68% of the time… best EVER! The task of getting
a hit with nine guys trying to stop you is ridiculously hard. Now imagine
the likelihood of trying to beat those same nine guys while putting the barrel
of a round bat on a, high velocity, round ball, whilst both travel at varying
degrees of DOWNWARD motion. Why would a coach ever put that burden upon a
player!?
Taking the time to simply type in “slowmo swings” on Youtube will result in the best professional hitters taking swings that all have varying degrees of upward motion. Why? This is to combat the downward angle the pitcher is creating and to keep their barrel on plane with the trajectory of the pitched ball for as long as possible. Even those who have never stepped in the box can understand this simply by taking a look at that small hill in the middle of the infield that the pitcher throws DOWN FROM. This slightly upward angle the hitter sets while swinging provides them the greatest chance of not only squaring up the pitch, but getting the ball in the air. I know, I know, low line drives and ground balls are the best right? Not according to the numbers.
When considering
slugging percentage (SLG) during the 2013 MLB season, line drives resulted in
an .883 percentage, fly balls
were .621 SLG and ground balls
were .250 SLG. This
indicates the obvious, those hitting line drives are consistently and vastly
more effective than those who don’t, but if you are hoping for extra base hits
on a consistent basis it becomes apparent that you should error on the side of
getting more lift on the ball as opposed to on the ground. On-base Plus
Slugging (OPS), which is the sum of On-Base Percentage (OBP) and Slugging
Percentage (SLG) shows that line drives during the 2013 season, resulted in a
ridiculous 1.568 OPS. Fly ball OPS was .834 and ground balls were a just a little over
half that of a fly ball at .483. Those looking to disprove the
fact that putting the ball in the air results in better numbers will argue that
modern Sabermetrics have verified that slugging percentage, as well as batting
average and on base percentage are dated stats that don’t accurately show just
how effective a player can truly be. This is absolutely true; so let’s
take a look at more telling stats.
Isolated Power (ISO)
is a measure of a hitter’s raw power. Basically, it measures how good a
player is at hitting extra base hits. According to fangraphs, the average
ISO for a big league hitter is right around .145. With this in
mind, let’s take a look at how the three varying results of a batted ball
measure up. Liners were above the average at .193, grounders were
an expected lowly .018 and fly balls were a
whopping .403. ISO seems too obviously geared towards my ultimate
point, so the last data I'll show focuses solely on how effective a batter
truly is as an all-around hitter.
Arguably the most
telling of hitting stats is weighted on-base average (wOBA). As explained
on fangraphs.com, “wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one
metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their ACTUAL run value.
While batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage fall short
in accuracy and scope, wOBA measures and captures offensive value more accurately
and comprehensively” (fangraphs.com). wOBA has quickly become one of the
most important numbers that front offices look at when judging the success of a
hitter. The estimated average wOBA for a big league hitter is .320.
Line drives in 2013, naturally, scored incredibly high, more than doubling the
league average, at .681. Fly balls ranked at .346, still
above the average hitter, and grounders sat at .213, more than 100
points lower than the average Major League hitter.
By taking a look at the
numbers it becomes apparent that creating a bat angle that puts the hitter in
the best position to hit a line drive is obviously the ideal swing.
However, if you are going to miss your pitch by a fraction of an inch, it’s far
more productive to get just under the ball and put the ball in the air.
Setting a slight upward swing angle can ensure that a hitter will be on
plane with the pitch and can create natural lift. If a coach still cannot
come to grips with reality and the cut and dry numbers of baseball
productivity, let’s have him take a step out the box and onto the mound.
The Oakland A’s have
been masters of efficiency and making the most of their farm system. How
do they consistently groom successful young pitchers year after year?
According to multiple former A’s pitchers that I have been fortunate enough to
call teammates, they turn the plate. No, they don’t physically dig home
plates up and angle them to different degrees, but that’s how they picture
it. Envision the tip of the plate being turned towards the left or right
batter’s box 45 degrees. Then imagine trying to throw a pitch that
crosses either of those plates instead of the one right down the middle.
The best way to make this happen is by creating ball movement and depth.
Instead of a straight four-seam fastball, sinkers and cutters are the name of
the game. Pronating change-ups, sliders, etc. all drop low and in or low
and away from each hitter, effectively crossing these angled plates. Why
are such successful pitching coaches teaching this philosophy? Because
the downward depth of the pitch forces the batter to miss off the barrel by a
hair and induces far more ground balls. These successful pitchers are
begging for you to ground out! Don't you see!? They WANT that result!
Why do they want that result!? Because, more often than not, YOU’RE OUT!
The numbers showed us this! Why am I still yelling!?
Any player that shows
these numbers to their coach and the coach still demands to come down on the
ball with the chop swing; you let me know and I’ll officially hire Rasheed
Wallace to tell said coach that “NUMBERS don’t lie!!”.
I could go on about why setting proper hitting angles is essential to being successful but Rasheed and I have said enough. Instead, I'll leave you with this text I received from former Atlanta Brave Cory Aldridge who, just this past winter, scorched the Caribbean Classic with ridiculous numbers across the board and, after a mere twelve games in the Mexican League, sent me this text showing his current, absurd, stats (1st is his AVG, 2nd is his HR's, 3rd is RBI's). He meant to say, "hitting well". He then follows up my bad joke with his game plan at the plate...
This can also be found at
angledperformance.blogspot.com
Dan Hennigan
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