Would LOVE to see Xander learn from JDM and realize his power potential.Good stuff as always,Ian. I makes you wonder how many players are out there that, with better coaching and minor adjustments could make a significant leap.
Great points Dewey, I could not agree more!....................Changing the plane through which someone swings may be easier said than done, especially to make it repeatable, .................................. I wouldn't be surprised to see guys abandon the philosophy of the uppercut swing. I can see it causing more rather than fewer problems with hitting.
But rackets are flat and work differently than round bats. If you strike a round ball with a round bat and you don't square it up, you don't transfer all the power you could.Makes sense. In tennis you uppercut for topspinand hit down the ball for backspin.
Sorry, wasn't trying to. Just seemed an odd place for it. Was going to suggest a new thread, actually as I do agree it's an interesting topic.It's fine, it is an interesting discussion and no real need for Snodgrass to be play thread policeman.
For me, growing up in the Boston area in the 70's, it was Yaz who was the king of the different batting styles/stances. Your namesake, Dwight Evans, was another one who changed batting stances a bunch until he found the Hriniak method, at which time, his hitting took off.There's more than a little philosophy to baseball, to hitting, pitching, etc.
Wade Boggs always aimed for the top of the ball, as I recall, to generate topspin. There's a great archived SI article on the subject that I remember reading back in the day. Williams was completely against the philosophy of hitting that Hriniak/Lau preached and that Boggs/Brett/Mattingly followed. A "slight uppercut" makes a good hitter. There is plenty of evidence to show that no one way is the best for everybody.
No matter the style/philosophy used, it's all about adjusting to the adjustments and then readjusting to the readjustments.
As someone who grew up closest to Baltimore, seeing the many different batting stances of Cal Ripken Jr. was really telling in how even someone who played every single day had to be constantly making adjustments. Rip was such a streaky hitter that even his adjustments weren't always the right ones.
I look back to him whenever I think about the tweaking of a swing. In his case, the swing remained pretty consistent. The mechanics of triggering that swing are what he seemed to change the most.
Joey Bats is another player whose change in triggering mechanism to his swing seemed to transform him as a player.
On the flip side, Paul Molitor had next to no pre-pitch motion that indicated a timing mechanism to his swing. I don't think I ever saw him take an awkward swing.
Changing the plane through which someone swings may be easier said than done, especially to make it repeatable, but to be where they are today, these guys should be able to do it. The question remains whether or not they should change their swings. If we see early season troubles with swing mechanics, I wouldn't be surprised to see guys abandon the philosophy of the uppercut swing. I can see it causing more rather than fewer problems with hitting.
https://theathletic.com/307005/2018/04/10/mccaffrey-j-d-martinez-staying-calm-as-he-searches-for-this-years-swing/What does he think causes the early sluggishness?
“It’s definitely finding my routine for that season and finding my swings for that season. It’s tough,” Martinez said. “You’re up there and trying to find last year’s swing. I heard this thing, Dwight Evans said, and he heard [Carl] Yastrzemski say it to him, and it makes perfect sense. He pretty much said, ‘If you’re trying to find last year’s swing, good luck because you’re going to be in the cage all day. That was last year, you’ve got to find this year’s swing.' That’s kind of what it is, it seems like. I feel like I really don’t feel comfortable in the box until I get those good amount of at-bats underneath me and then it’s like ‘Oh OK, I kind of have an idea of what I’m doing out there now.'”