Sports Illustrated recently had an article on MLB hitting.
With run production well down because of a new era in quality pitching, several teams including the Mariners, are taking a second look at hitting instruction.
The Mariners' winter camp program was “Control
the Zone.” The Mariners' instructors talked about concepts such as
“getting into good counts,” “being selective but aggressive” and “being
in a good position to hit” with “separation on the back side” wrote Tom Verducci.
But the
syllabus also included the key acknowledgement that modern baseball has
changed so much that hitters have to learn how to make contact with two
strikes. The two-strike approach, which disappeared for a generation, is
not just back, but is also once again a fundamental part of winning
baseball.
“They heard a lot about a two-strike approach and the
value of putting the ball in play,” said first-year Seattle general
manager Jerry Dipoto. “This may or not be factually accurate, but I think it’s
harder to draw a walk in today’s game than it’s ever been,” Dipoto
said. “There’s been a debate among people for years that there are
players that have the walk ‘skill’—it is something they possess. The one
thing we do know you can affect as a hitter is reducing the number of
strikeouts. As long as you are able to control the zone in that way with
two strikes and put the ball in play good things can happen.
I recall many stories of how Greg Maddux would sit in the Cubs dugout and "call" the game to whomever was sitting next to him, before the pitcher threw a pitch. Maddux was a student of the game. He knew before he went to the mound his pitch selection sequence and how each batter would be looking to hit. Maddux used his knowledge to freeze batters with a two seam fastball that would tail back over the plate.
Great pitching is part talent and part scouting your opponent.
The same is true with great hitting. Great hitters know their pitching opponents strengths and weaknesses. I recall Darryl Ward telling young Cub hitters during a game what to look for when you faced this pitcher. Ward was an excellent contact hitter; he could foul off a dozen pitches until he found one he could turn on.
Ward knew what the pitcher threw, but he also had a great grasp of the strike zone. If you have a comfort level of being able to consistently reach all four corners of the zone, then you can get the pitch you want to hit.
Most major leaguers "sit" on a fastball. But then during a count of off-speed, breaking pitches for strikes, they get nervous. They start looking for a slider and get caught looking at an inside fastball.
Some batters have the mindset that they will only wait for a pitch in the zone, at the perfect swing plane, so they will not swing at all. In essence, they are waiting for a pitcher to make a mistake over the plate. This is a game of chicken. More and more pitchers fall into this game by trying to nibble at the corners to avoid contact, when in fact, they lose sight that only one in four batters will actually get a hit off him. The odds increase if a pitcher gets behind in the count.
This new revival of the "two-strike" approach to hitting is really a return to basic baseball fundamentals. And that is a welcome change.
