Hitting the ball hard is very important in the modern game of baseball. It is no coincidence that almost all of the big contracts go to sluggers, while soft-hitting contact hitters have an increasingly hard time making it in today’s game.
There are many reasons for this. For one, sabermetrics have shown the value of slugging, even if the traditional batting line doesn’t look impressive. Additionally, pitchers have such nasty stuff that stringing together hits is difficult, so getting the big hit before your third out is crucial.
To analyze this type of hitter, I looked at aggregate data from 2017 to 2024, limiting my sample to hitters with at least 1,000 plate appearances. I further specified my criteria to hitters who never exceeded a maximum exit velocity (max EV) of 109 mph. I chose 109 because max EV is closely correlated with the ability to generate power. However, occasional outlier spikes occur, and setting a lower threshold would have resulted in too small a sample size. For example, Luis Arraez hit 108 mph once, but in other years, he was between 103 and 107 mph. As a result, most hitters in my dataset typically fall within the 105-107 mph range.
Performance of Low Max EV Hitters

Overall, this group of hitters did not perform well. I analyzed a CSV with python and got the following data for that group.

Figure 1: Statline of low max EV hitters

This group had an 85 wRC+, a .252 BA, a .318 OBP, and a .369 SLG with a .117 ISO. The latter two numbers are distinctly below average. Clearly, being a soft hitter puts you at a significant disadvantage. From 2017 to 2024, 486 different hitters recorded at least 1,000 plate appearances. Of those, only 51 hitters (10.5%) had a max EV of 109 mph or lower and reached 1,000 PAs. This means it is already difficult to accumulate meaningful playing time with this profile.
However, it gets even tougher: only 19% of those hitters—just 10 overall—achieved a wRC+ of 100 or higher.

Figure 2: Leaderboard of low max EV hitters sorted by wRC+

By comparison, 52% of all hitters with at least 1,000 PAs had a wRC+ of 100 or higher. What makes this number even more striking is that the low EV group is already pre-selected, as very few soft hitters even reach 1,000 PAs. This means that the ones who do must possess special skills.
Some of this is due to defense, but even on the hitting side, this group has some specific traits. The low EV group (Figure 4) has a lower chase rate (.271) than the overall group (Figure 3) at .281, a higher contact rate (.825 vs. .772), and a lower K rate (18% vs. 21.9%). Despite these advantages, they still performed significantly worse overall (86 wRC+ vs. 101 wRC+).

Figure 3: Overall group of hitters with 1000 PAs between 2017 and 2024

http://” alt=”https://i.postimg.cc/6qWR8h5P/IMG-4.png”
Figure 4: Low max EV group

What Makes the Best Low Max EV Hitters Successful?
Now that we’ve established that having a low max EV is a major disadvantage (which is no surprise), the more interesting question is: what makes the successful low EV hitters good? To explore this, I analyzed the aggregate statistics of the 15 best and 15 worst soft hitters.

Figure 5: Average stats of 15 lowest wRC+ hitters

Figure 6: Average stats of 15 highest wRC+ hitters

From these figures, we see that the better-hitting group has a lower K rate (15% vs. 21%). Their barrel rate is slightly higher, but not by much. Surprisingly, there is no significant difference in walk and chase rates. This doesn’t mean chase rate isn’t important, but it seems to be more of a prerequisite for reaching 1,000 PAs rather than a defining factor for success. Launch angle numbers are similar between both groups, but the better group has a slightly higher pull rate, which may contribute to their marginally better power numbers of the stronger group (16 HR overall vs. 12 in the weaker group).

Figure 7: Corelation of stats with wRC+
also examined the correlation of different stats with wRC+ (Figure 7). Apart from the slash line stats, K%, IFFB%, and hard-hit rate had the highest correlation with wRC+, while launch angle and spray profile had relatively low correlations. The lowest correlation was found in patience metrics, confirming what we saw earlier.
Traits of a Successful Soft-Hitting Prospect
Based on this analysis, here are the key traits I would look for in a young, soft-hitting prospect:
1. K rate below 16%
o Only 7 out of the top 20 wRC+ hitters had a K rate above 16%.
2. Infield Fly Ball (IFFB) rate below 8%
o 12 out of the top 20 wRC+ hitters were below 8%. Only 4 were above 10%.
3. ISO above .100
o Only 2 out of the top 20 hitters had an ISO below .100.
4. Above-average plate discipline
o This doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, as both the top and bottom groups had similar patience metrics. However, it appears to be a necessary trait for earning meaningful playing time. Only 4 out of the top 20 had a chase rate above 30%. While good plate discipline won’t guarantee better than an 85 wRC+, it may help prevent falling to a 60 wRC+ level (i.e., a Quad-A player).
Other traits, such as a good barrel rate and a balanced batted ball profile, obviously help, but among hitters with little power, they don’t seem to be the highest priority. What stands out is that most successful soft hitters have fairly average batted ball profiles—not extreme fly-ball and pull tendencies, nor extreme opposite-field ground-ball profiles.
A low-power hitter who doesn’t project to hit more than 8-12 homers has no margin for weaknesses. They must do all the “little” things well to add up to something decent. Plus contact ability is essential. A slightly above-average contact rate (18-20% K rate) is often not enough. Ideally, K rates should be below 15-16%, which likely translates to 12-13% in the minors.
Some sneaky pull-side lifting power is valuable, turning a 9-HR hitter into a 14-HR hitter. However, this must not come at the cost of too many pop-ups and weak fly balls, which could drive BABIP down to .270 and tank value by dragging down batting average.
Above-average plate discipline helps mitigate weak contact and swing-and-miss issues, but even the most disciplined 40-grade power hitters likely won’t post elite walk rates. Many of these hitters walk 12% in the minors but drop to around 8% in the majors because pitchers will challenge them more. This means a significant portion of their value relies on batting average, making both strikeouts and low BABIP critical concerns.
The latter will make it tough because hitting the ball softly will negatively affect BABIP. Thus, players who post high BABIPs despite low power will need an exceptional ability to avoid pop-ups and extremely weak grounders (i.e., having a high sweet spot percentage on Statcast). Luis Arraez is a good example. He actually chases quite a lot compared to others in the group, which seems to be an intentional decision, as he wasn’t doing that earlier in his career. While not ideal, he makes it work by being top 10 in the league in pop-up rate and sweet spot percentage.
Generally, this makes some of the soft-hitting, high-performing minor league hitters hard to project because the minors can boost their stats—leading to fewer strikeouts and, in some cases, enhanced power, particularly in PCL parks. Additionally, MLB defenses are better and more tailored to specific hitters, so BABIPs could suffer.
That means a hitter who posted a .300/.400/.450 line with 15 home runs in the PCL could quickly turn into a .250/.310/.350 hitter with eight home runs at the MLB level, even if his profile initially seemed safe. Because all non-power categories need to be maximized to compensate for the lack of power, even small deficiencies in contact, walks, power, or BABIP can add up quickly.
The same logic applies to other extreme profiles. For example, a high-strikeout hitter must excel in power, walks, or ideally both. A more balanced profile will always be safer than one missing key components.
Just for fun, I also created a machine learning model trained on K%, ISO, and IFFB% to predict BA and wRC+. The results were not particularly strong, but they did point in an interesting direction.

Figure 8: ML model trying to predict wRC+ and BA from ISO, K% and IFFB%

Figure 9: Successful 2024 sub 109 maxEV, sub .150 ISO hitters predicted stats

For example I entered the 4 best performing sub 109/sub.150 ISO hitters of 2024 into the model.The wRC+ values read higher because the run environment was down in 2024 but the BA and SLG values look pretty solid (Figure 9).

On the other hand here are the 4 east successful hitters with those criteria in 2024

Figure 10: unsuccesful hitters

Finally, I entered three well-known hitting prospects projected to be MLB-ready early in 2025. These players fit the soft-hitting, high-contact, high-minor-league-performance criteria. Particularly with Triantos and Durbin, you can see very high pop-up rates. These players are popular late-round fantasy baseball targets in deep or dynasty formats, but the model suggests exercising caution.

Figure 11: soft hitting prospects.

Overall, for these soft-hitting prospects to succeed, they must excel in multiple areas. They must have an elite K rate, some ability to hit for power, and a well-balanced approach—avoiding excessive opposite-field or grounder-focused hitting while prioritizing line drives and hard-hit ground balls. Some flaws may not be exposed in the minors as they will be in the majors, so it’s necessary to go beyond the stat line and dive deep into the underlying metrics.
Of course, machine learning models should be taken with a grain of salt and are not precise projections.

Implications for player development and scouting

For player development and scouting of course this means to train batspeed and get stronger as this will help Exit velocity and in game production. If you can turn a 107 max EV guy into a 110 max EV player that will help his production a lot.

However of course there will also be some players who already need to train very hard to get over 105 and that player might not be able to ever get into the 109 range. If you have such a player there has to be a very sensible approach to development. You do not want a too oppo slappy profile as that will kill even the little power the player has as you at least want to get above .100 ISO or so. That means this player needs to learn to pull some pitches hard into the air. However you also don’t want an extreme pull/flyball approach as this typically tends to supress BABIP which such a Batting average dependent hitter can’t afford. I would say that this hitter needs to selectively pull some pitches early in the count and lay off everything else. For this he needs to learn himself very well and know his hot zones as he can’t really afford to have too many rolled over grounders to the pull side. Later in the count and against good pitchers probably already mid count (1 strike) this hitter probebly should look to have a low line drive gap to gap approach.
Also like with all hitters it helps if he has good pitch selection as chasing increases swing and miss and weak contact.
And finally this hitter must have a great contact rate. He should work on batspeed but still probably have a compact and simple swing as he can’t have volatility but on the other hand the swing can’t get too weak and slappy either.
He definitely needs to avoid pop ups and soft high outfield fly balls. Unless he really has a natural knack for barreling up the high fastball with a flat swing it probably helps if he becomes a good low ball and breaking ball hitter as pitches in the lower third of the zone had a much lower pop up rate (4%) compared to pitches in the upper third of the zone (12%) last season.
Mechanically it can help to have a steeper Vertical bat angle (VBA). VBA is the angle of the bat to the ground at contact. This is achieved by creating side bend in the upper body, the actual bat path should be level to the shoulders but the side bent is tilting the tip of the bat down.

https://x.com/dominikkeul/status/1854614599020015685

This is especially helpful on low pitches where it prevents rolling over to the pull side and allows for hitting the ball straighter into the air. Also the steeper VBA usually creates more oppo flares rather than pop ups when you are late and under which helps the BABIP. The downside is that the steep VBA doesn’t always work as well against high pitches because here a more level bat can help so the steeper VBA works best in conjunction with a low ball approach.
An alternative could also be to work on having a variable level of side bend.

With my hitters for example I’m working on turning through different amounts of side bend with drills like this
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/B9mvq7UkQ34

and also work on level bat high pitch and forced side bend/VBA drills like those

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-g34eUx7KZo

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tafKfeG7E18

Not every hitter of course is able to adjust that much, especially against elite pitching velocity which makes it much harder and in that cases it might make sense to focus more on your strengths and match your approach with your strengths.

A general rule is the higher your zone contact rate is the more selective you can be inside the zone and the more you can wait for your pitch while with a little less elite contact ability you should try to of course limit your chase but also increase your zone coverage so that you have less called strikes.

Hosmer has been very inconsistent over the last years. But what can it be attributed to? His plate discipline is pretty fine as he is having a single digit K-BB% rate (league average 14%). Also his Max EV is above average at 112 as is his average EV.

The issue is obviously the angle he is hitting the balls at and  that is no secret of course. His average Launch angle is just 3.5 degrees while the league average is 12.5. But it doesn’t stop there, his LA actually gets worse when you look at low pitches (0) or pulled balls (-4) or the worst pulled and low (-6). That means he basically can’t effectively hit anything inside or anything low which is a huge problem for his power output.

Now obviously he could adjust by never swinging at anything low or inside and short term that is probably what he should do but long term that is not a viable strategy first because pitchers will adjust leading to a too high called strike percentage and second  and second because pulled balls tend to yield a higher power output.

So to get back on track with consistency and not just hope for some babip and HR/FB luck like he did in some of his good years he needs to cover the zone better and be able to drive the ball in the air in all 4 corners of the zone. He doesn’t have to be an extreme FB guy but he should be able to hit middle range line drive balls (15-20 degrees) all over the zone gap to gap. I wouldn’t try to make him a pull hitter but at least he must be able to hit high liners to the pull gap consistently.

 

Hosmer did state in interviews that he did try to work on stuff to increase his LA so of course he is aware however changes in that direction if they happened at all were only short lived.

 

So let’s look at his movements a little. IMO the issue he has is not a too bad attack angle. It is a bit on the flat side but it isn’t really negative and other guys do have success with flat-ish swings, for example Stanton, Vlad jr and soto who have flatter swings and still have decent launch angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlUB3b65x7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUM5oUT–KU

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1245842169291776001

 

yeah his AA probably should be a few degrees higher but it certainly is not explaining outrageously low launch angles.

 

There are two other really big issues that I see.

The first one is his posture on lower pitches.  If you compare him to trout trout has almost twice as much side bend on a pitch in the lower third as hosmer has

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1428785381680558085

 

trouts bat isn’t really pointing down either

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1296450735543136260

but is pretty parallel to the top of his shoulders but due to his side bend he has a much steeper vertical bat angle. This bat angle means that he is not topspinning low balls but staying through them and hitting them straight.

This posture issue leads to a too flat vertical bat angle on lower pitches and thus roll overs  which is explained here

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1115301449553076224

 

To work on side bend here are some drills

 

First work on isolating forward bend to side bend transition

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1114110415901003776

then do some thoracic flexibility work

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1171464177610702861

and some dry posture turns

https://twitter.com/Scheps5/status/1233456841075630087

Also this great progression by baseball rebellion

https://youtu.be/5Y0TldO77n0

and then  some drills to integrate into the swing

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1158329766174515201

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1376511141921296385

 

There are also devices like the “Quant tee” which can help to force a steeper VBA but I think first the posture issue should be fixed.

 

 

The second issue I see is some instability in both his lower and upper body.

https://www.coachseye.com/v/06fcfe12b7214d939d4cb529a3cd9a20

 

here you can see that his spine angle isn’t really super consistent and the legs aren’t super stable either. This can affect barrel accuracy and cause an inconsistent VBA through the zone.

I would recommend here some work on decel and anti rotation like for example stop swings

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1141282689582010368

half swings which is basically swinging the arms to extension after contact that then swing the extended arms about a foot or two without rolling over (arms can re-flex a little but should stay mostly extended)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ron5g1UT_Q

med ball Decel (first drill in video)

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1394677614904754178

 

and for the front leg this drill

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1442839180938260485

Those stability and posture issues should  already help him on the inside pitch too because it helps him to create space but additionally he could also do the good old cano drill and work on hitting inside pitches in the air with that drill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5hQdQ2UtJQ&t=6s

and maybe as a movement preparation this drill

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1443198298203074570

 

Those are only a few suggestions and there is more stuff you can do but I think I could outline why it probably wasn’t so easy for him to make a change and just hit the ball higher. Some people in the media questioned his willingness to change but I seriously doubt that someone in 2021 is not knowing the value of proper launch angle after thousands of statcast batted ball events and every mlb team having an analytics department. But I think with a few changes to his movement with very focused training in the offseason he can make the change and become a productive MLB hitter for the next years.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about baseball having a strikeout problem. Not everyone agrees with that but strikeout rate in MLB is at an all-time high.

Increased K rate didn’t really lead to reduced scoring though since increasing power did offset the reduction in contact. For example in the last 3 years the runs scored average 4.6 runs per game which is  less than the super high scoring around the year 2000 but higher than most years of the 70s to mid 90s before the steroid era kicked in.

This can be attributed to some ball changes but also player development maximizing output per ball in play with optimizing swing path, often called the launch angle or fly ball revolution https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-ryan-zimmerman-became-a-slugger-again-on-the-fly-1494873943 and also players got stronger, bigger and lifted more weights increasing raw power as well are modern tools like overload and underload training which is an adoption of the weighted balls driveline has introduced https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2017/01/training-hitters-overload-underload-implements/ 

Those things did help to keep scoring up however it now also starts to reach limits, you only can raise your launch angle so much and get so much stronger. For example league ISO peaked in 2019 and while the recent reduction is probably related to the attempted deadening of the ball it still seems a limit of power output has been reached or at least close to that.

That means to keep scoring up players will either to increase walks or halt the rising of strikeouts. While there are now tools like VR technology to increase plate discipline like this one https://gamesensesports.com/ and this can help pitchers are offsetting that with concepts like tunneling which will make pitch recognition harder. Since walk rate has essentially been constant the last 30 years at 8 to 9% it seems that is an area where you can gain a little but not a huge amount.

While walks didn’t really change in the last 30 years K% certainly did and went up from 15% in the early 90s to 24% this year.

So when power is close to maxed out and walks hardly ever change the thing to attack obviously is strikeout rate and we actually did see that in the last 2-3 years. For example the 2017 WS champion Astros and 2018 champions Boston had the lowest K rate in the league, the 2019 Nats were 5th lowest and the 2020 Dodgers were 3rd lowest. Now this is no guarantee and we still see some bad teams near the top of those low K leaderboards like the 2019 pirates but generally lowering Ks while keeping power at a good level seems to be a good recipe. We did see that with individual players too where good hit tool guys with mediocre power increased some launch angle and got a little stronger and put up good power numbers despite modest maximum Exit velocities (Bregman, Altuve, Murphy even Betts).

The question now is how can we reduce a players strikeout rate. One theory is that swinging for higher launch angles increases strikeouts but I only found a mild negative effect of launch angle on contact https://community.fangraphs.com/is-launch-angle-having-a-contact-cost/

It seems that contact rate to some degree is an innate skill that is not super easy to change. There is some stuff you can do like shortening up the swing or also practicing against high velo machines but there are limits to that. You also can try to reduce chase rate with tools like the mentioned VR tools since outside the zone contact is around 20-25 percentage points lower than inside the zone contact.

However a really interesting stat that has been recently discussed a lot is called strikes%+swinging strikes% (CSW%). This stat basically adds swinging strikes and called strikes and has a pretty good correlation with pitching success, for example last year the leader was Jacob deGrom with 34%. That makes sense because both a called strike and a swinging strike leads you to fall behind in the count and in tune to more strikeouts.

However this still needed to be verified with hitters since with hitters different factors than just contact play a role, especially power.

I looked at the top and bottom quartile of hitters in ISO, wRC+, K% and OBP.

https://ibb.co/v13GbgP

The strongest effect seen was unsurprisingly in K%. The top Quartile of hitters from 2018-2021 to date had a 24.3% CSW% vs 29.1% for the bottom one. Overall the Pearson correlation between CSW% and K% was a strong 0.79. In OBP and wRC+ the effect was weaker but still in favor of the lower CSW% players while in ISO actually the higher CSW% guys had more power. This might be a selection effect as only powerful players with a high CSW% can survice but also maybe related to players being more selective inside the zone and thus improving their batted ball quality as middle pitches tend to be hit harder than pitches toward the edges of the zone. https://twitter.com/tangotiger/status/1066511998433796097?lang=de

This leads to an interesting conclusion for player development. In my opinion players with a high CSW% (only 2 of the top30 in wRC+ where above the critical 30% and only 7 above the league average of around 28%) should work on their plate coverage so they can drive more pitches within the zone well and also work on their pitch speed coverage, especially the ability to hit badly located “get me over” breaking balls early in the count when you are usually looking fastball as a hitter. This will reduce the batted ball quality a little but if you have the swing to cover different zones and speeds well this effect can be kept in  check.

Simultaneously that player should also work on pitch recognition to not increase his chase rate too much as he is more aggressive within the zone. A good example of this is Nick Castellanos. He does have a high swinging strike rate (16% last two years while league average is around 11%) but he has a low called strike percentage (around 11% the last years with league average being 16%). This gives him a respectable 23% career strikeout rate despite his big swing and miss issue and his swing is good enough in covering the zone that his batted ball quality didn’t suffer too much (.332 BABIP and .203 ISO for his career). Typically players who have a swinging strike rate of 16% will strike out more like 30% or even more.

On the other hand players with a low swinging strike rate can afford to be a little more selective within the zone and only hit balls in their  hot zones to increase their batted ball quality. Mike Trout is the prime example of this. His swinging strike rate is very low at 6.7% and he is famously good at low pitches and just OK (formerly very bad) on high pitches so he can afford to take a lot of high pitches and target low pitches for a high 20% called strike rate. This means his K rate is slightly higher than it could be if he covered more of the zone but really since his swinging strike rate is so low he doesn’t have to and rather has about an average strikeout rate with off the charts batted ball quality because he only swings at the pitches he can really crush (slightly below the zone up to middle).

He can only afford that though because his swinging strike rate is so low, if he whiffed at a league average rate his approach likely would lead to a 30+% strikeout rate.

Elite contact players with limited power like Madrigal actually should be more selective within the zone since their contact quality is not great to begin with and by focusing on the heart of the zone they can improve that a little zone heart wOBA is better than edge wOBA and they can afford to give up a few more strikes as their contact skill is so great.

CSW% is always composed of swinging and called strikes, so the less swinging strikes you have the more selective you can be within the zone and the more you whiff the more you  should cover the zone to keep strikeouts in check. A CSW% of more than 30% is always a big red flag for a hitter or a hitting prospect and the low hanging fruit (well kinda low hanging since you need to keep chase rate in check) is to cover more of the zone and give the pitcher less “free” strikes if you have a whiff problem.

Obviously this isn’t that easy, as I already said it needs to be accompanied by working on pitch recognition to keep chase rate in check and also working on a clean bat path to all corners of the zone so you can drive the ball straight and not roll over and yank it into the shift.

So to summarize here is what I suggest for hitters with swing and miss issues to reduce their CSW% and strike out less:

1. Working on plate coverage to be able to hit a wide array of pitches to give pitchers less free strikes while keeping batted ball quality up
2. Working on pitch recognition to keep chase rate in check
3. Practice against a wide array of speeds and spins to be able to handle modern pitchers stuff.

There is still value of patience within the zone and not getting yourself out on a pitchers pitch, especially if you have great contact ability and the pitcher is not good but the old sit on your pitch type and location until two strikes might not do so well against modern top pitchers who can throw any pitch in any count. You need to at least be able to cover one thing (big zone one pitch type or small zone two pitch types) because just sitting FB in a certain location means you are not guessing right often enough, especially since you will foul off some of them too.  Exception from that might be 0-0 or 3-0 when you don’t plan to swing much anyway.

 

Measure either batspeed or EV or ideally both before program and then again at the end of each week or if you can’t just at the end again. Day 1 can be any day of the week so you don’t have to start on Monday. Read program and watch videos so you can see the drills. Also do you own lifting program and sprinting and throwing as often as you want.

The drills

1. OL UL swings

You need a game bat, a bat about 6-7 oz lighter than that  and one 6-7 heavier. For the lighter one a youth bat works, for the heavier one you can tape some pennies or other stuff to a wood bat, preferably around the balance point of the bat to not change balance. Swing max effort, tee, live pitch or machine work

 

 

 

 

2. Step back turn drill

Use this drill as dry swing at max effort after warm up to work on separation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxbLlRlJ2R8

 

3. Hook em drill

Driveline drill that I think originally was a pitching drill. Promotes weight shift

https://twitter.com/jasonochart/status/887496605221376000

 

 

 

4. Med ball progression

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZQ3ilpk_5Q

Part  2 https://youtu.be/DWAQ0sPvIGc

1. Step back shot put 2. Elbows out rotational 3. Reverse overhead 4. Overhead 5. Decel 6. Vertical upward thrust 7. Reverse throw

 

Mechanics stuff for warm up

 

1 . one arm drills

-top hand ball clamp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNWcvOQNBhg

-bottom hand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqzm9zcNXuU (make sure front elbow works up before bat starts to go back and down

 

2. stop swings

https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1141283457047420928

 

3. front arm clamp drill (use connection ball or volleyball, see about 4:50 in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAxV83nlLU

 

4 Cano drill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5hQdQ2UtJQ&t=133s

 

5. 45 degree open stance oppo hitting drill

Teaches swing direction for outside pitch. Stand about 45 degrees open (feet line turned to 3b man for RHB) and still hit ball oppo

 

 

 

6. 4 corners drill

Place tee on all 4 corners and hit 3 good balls on each location. Non ideal contact swing is repeated

 

 

 

Program

 

Hitting Warm up

1. One hand swings 5 reps each arm
2. Stop swings 5 reps each
3. Front arm clamp drill 6 reps
4. Hook em drill 6 reps
5. Cano drill 6 reps
6. Open stance oppo 6 reps
7. 4 corners drill

 

Week 1

 

Day 1: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 6 reps

Day 2: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*4 reps c) ol ul 2*6 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 3: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 6 reps

Day 4: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*4 reps c) ol ul 2*6 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 5: off

Day 6: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*4 reps c) ol ul 2*6 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 7: off

 

Week 2

 

Day 1: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 8 reps

Day 2: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*8 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 3: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 8 reps

Day 4: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*8 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 5: off

Day 6: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*8 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 7: off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3

 

Day 1: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 10 reps

Day 2: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*10 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 3: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 10 reps

Day 4: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*10 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 5: off

Day 6: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*10 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 7: off

 

Week 4

 

Day 1: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 12 reps

Day 2: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*12 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 3: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 12 reps

Day 4: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*12 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 5: off

Day 6: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*5 reps c) ol ul 2*12 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 7: off

 

Week 5

 

Day 1: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 6 reps

Day 2: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*4 reps c) ol ul 2*6 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 3: Med ball drills each drill 2 sets of 6 reps

Day 4: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*4 reps c) ol ul 2*6 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 5: off

Day 6: hitting a) warm up b) step back turn drill 2*4 reps c) ol ul 2*6 reps of each game, ol and ul bat

Day 7: off

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m proposing a system designed to integrate new players whether it is college or minors better into the organisation. Traditionally players often would play games right away but I’m suggesting you can use those first months better.

If changes have to be made, why not make them right away? First be realistic what changes are possible. In a team setting you can make changes but compared to a private instructor who works several hours a week with just one hitter of course it is limited, so make sure you only change things that really need a change and leave the other stuff alone, don’t waste “change potential” on unimportant style things.

After that is established you need a series of markers that you think do correlate with success and can be changed.

An easy and cheap way to get some markers is getting some swing sensors like blast. Important markers can be for example attack angle, vertical barrel angle, batspeed and maybe one of the compound scores like on plane percentage. Barrel path is very important and a bad path means you waste some potential. Here is an article about swing sensors. https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2018/05/using-swing-plane-coach-hitters-deeper-look/

Another marker you can use is measuring the kinetic chain and acceleration and deceleration of the segments using for example kvest. https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/k-vest/

Additionally you also can use a small amount of video markers from defined angles and of course also use tech to evaluate launch angles, spray angles and exit velo.

Also evaluate some physical markers like strength and mobility, for example using the on baseU screening because that can affect mechanics.

Of course there are many more ways to evaluate, most important is that you pick some markers that are important and most importantly that you can change, so be realistic about that and don’t do to much.

After you have done that I’m suggesting doing like a 6-7 weeks mechanics and movement block.  First you evaluate what the hitters already do well, so in a team setting you can leave that alone. Second you evaluate what the hitters are lacking and you put them on an indivudual contraint drill and movement plan. You can group similar hitters together using similar excercises but also have some competely personal excercises.

For example here I have a list of contraint drills but of course you can come up with many more.

http://batspeedfitness.com/?p=133

For example the quant tee is a nice device to work on VBA https://hittingtech.com/product/quant-tee/

Also do mobility and strength drills to work on specific weaknesses.

After that phase I suggest starting to work on batspeed using overload/underload training and also doing a blocked variability training working on coverage of specific locations (up, down, in out) and speeds. I’m suggesting blocked here because that way you can coach more hands on the mechanics for those locations and speeds and fine tune them.

I’m suggesting going blocked here for about 4 weeks and at the same time you continue the constraint drills from the first phase and start overload underload. Measure EV and LA off different locations to find weaknesses and improve them as the goal should be to cover most of the zone if not all of it as that makes you tougher to pitch to.

Here I have articles to work on hitting the outside pitch and also the important topic of hitting pulled balls into the air which helps power.

http://batspeedfitness.com/?p=153

http://batspeedfitness.com/?p=122

After that phase you start random variability training, hitting game speed and spin in variable location. You continue the constraint drills, overload underload and a small amount of blocked variability training (especially on your weaknesses).

Also start to bring the hitters together with the pitchers and do live at bats. That way you can get more reps than in games and also come back and coach between those ABs more closely. You are also doing some work on fielding specific to the positions of course as well as athleticism training and throwing.

Within those live ABs you use hittrax or another system to track the batter’s profiles.  In this article I defined the ranges players should be in.

http://batspeedfitness.com/?p=185

If you hit those ranges like about a 15 degree average LA, sub 40% GB rate and 40-45% pull rate with at least 30% air ball pull rate you often maximize your potential that way. Hitting those ranges is no guarantee to be great but it maximizes your output. Players who are off on one of the markers are doing specific drills to get closer to the correct ranges.

That way you optimize your hitters and you avoid having Eric Hosmer types who are talented but limited through their batted ball profile.

You can also work on stuff like vision and plate discipline training with different softwares that are available as well as on field drills.

Here is a collection of methods

http://batspeedfitness.com/?p=140

 

It is important that all coaches are pulling the same direction. The goal is not creating cloned hitters but hitters who hit the important checkpoints and have some pop, discipline and can cover the whole plate.

Ideally IMO those players shouldn’t play games the first 3 months or at least two if possible. Oprimize their movement, barrel path and batted ball profile first before putting them in games and then give them some homework to do for the offseason so they can continue to work on that. That way you should be able to create big improvement and a great development system.

Data driven player development is getting bigger and bigger. Of course data isn’t everything and you still have to actually get to those things but having controllable target ranges is an important thing in all quality control systems, as they don’t guarantee success but they are showing you whether you are on the right track or moving in the wrong direction.

If you control for those variables and make sure that the values are in the correct range early in the minors you are making sure that you don’t have issues like Eric Hosmer where you have a talented hitter with his potential held back by a less than ideal batted ball profile.

So if I was a hitting coordinator of an MLB org I would first make sure I have the correct target ranges for my hitters because there a lot of ideas about what is are good ranges and some of them are even influenced by data and science but the best way to judge that is probably to look what the best hitters in the world actually do.

Now the question is what sample do you use. One option would be to look at the very best guys. Old school youth coaches used to say “that MLB hitter is a physical freak, don’t copy him” but I think that take is very bad, in the last years we have learned a lot of players have the potential to hit 25+ homers for example and this is partially due to the ball but also more hitters using a fly ball geared approach for power. However still it is probably good to look at a larger sample to correct for outliers in the profile.

I have chosen to look at the top33 hitters. There isn’t a super scientific reason for this except those are all above a 130 wRC+ and you create nice thirds from that number to set bottom and top of the range. What I did was looking at the top 33 hitters. I used wOBA though and not wRC+ since that is offered by statcast too and I was too lazy to import it in SQL and write a join, so I just used wOBA even if it has a disadvantage due to not accounting for park factors. Realistically this doesn’t really matter anyway as the correct ranges aren’t a matter of a couple tenths, i.e. it is totally irrelevant whether your GB% is 38% or 38.6%, what matters is that you are about in the right range.

To set the bottom and the top I have looked at the average of the bottom 11 and the top 11, with top and bottom not meaning the best and worst hitters but all values existing in that population sorted from top to bottom. Later I looked also if there is a trend within those top 33 to make a recommendation whether players should strive more for the lower or upper boundary.

Values I have looked at are the more outcome based metrics wOBA, AVG, OBP, SLG, HR and ISO, plate discipline numbers K, BB and K-BB% (could have used contact and o-swing% but didn’t because that isn’t available for every level). And finally I looked at batted ball data: GB%, avg LA, avg EV, max EV, Pull%, Cent%, and Air ball pull%.

So let’s go through most of those values starting with the basic outcome ones.

https://s17.directupload.net/images/190926/4c9wbvi7.jpg

The top 33 hitters averaged 34 homers. The lower third averaged 26 while the upper third averaged 43. Power is clearly a need to be a top hitter in the modern game. Sorted by wOBA the top guys averaged 38 vs 31 for the bottom third, so more power is clearly a performance factor even within the top guys.

With ISO the average was .267 with a high end of .312 and a low end of .227. Again here we are seeing a performance trend with the top wOBA guys having a .296 ISO vs .244 for the bottom range, not unsurprisingly the better guys have more power again.

With OBP the average is .383 with  a bottom of the range at .361 and a top of .408. Again we clearly see a performance trend with .406 and .366 as the upper and lower ranges sorted by wOBA basically matching the OBP rankings.

Batting average is a controversial topic in baseball. Traditional fans think it is the holy grail while some sabermetrics fans say that it doesn’t matter. It is true that BA is a bad stat for judging hitters and high walk and power low AVG guys are better than many no power .300 hitters. However if you look at the top 33 hitters the average was .296 with the best 11 being at .318 and the worst 11 being at .276. By wOBA you still see some positive effect of BA with the top11 being at .305 vs .289 for the bottom but the effect unsurprisingly isn’t nearly as strong as with OBP which simply is a better indicator. Still only 3 guys in the top 33 were below .270 so if you want to be an elite hitter you better have at least a 55 hit tool (.270) and if you want to be an MVP caliber hitter you better have a 65+ hit tool. Yes it is true that BA alone is a bad measurement but it also isn’t true that .260 hitters with patience and power are dominating baseball like some traditionalists rant because the top guys have power AND hit for average. The hit tool isn’t everything but it still is probably the pivotal tool in player development because OBP and slugging are also hinging on it.

The next controversial subject is K rate. We don’t really see a strong correlation with K rate and performance across MLB because there is a selection bias, i.e. low power guys that strike out are weeded out in the minors. With the top 33 however we don’t see super low Ks but the 19% is clearly below the league average of 23%. Here the top of the range is 13.8% vs. 24.8% for the bottom. Sorted by wOBA here we are seeing a performance trend with the top 11 being at 17% vs 20% for the bottom. Here now we see the correlation because the top33 all have power and when you have power lower Ks is better, it is just not worth to sacrifice power for contact. In this article I stated already that lowering Ks while keeping the power is an untapped reserve for player development https://community.fangraphs.com/are-players-learning-to-cut-their-strikeout-rate/

With walks the average of 11% is clearly above the league average of 9%. This is partially due to plate discipline but also fear of the pitchers as the top 33 have both a lower chase rate (29.2% vs 31.6%) and zone rate (40.3% vs 41.6%) than the league average. Here the top range is 14.8% vs 7.7% at the bottom. We are also seeing a performance trend with the top being at 13% and the bottom at 10%, you can be elite without walking a lot (9 guys in the top 33 are sub average) still above average plate discipline is to be preferred especially since it also helps other metrics.

Another stat I like is K-BB%. It is used for pitchers but I like it for hitters too as high walk with low walks hitters are a risk (albeit not always a fail as we saw with Acuna and Tatis jr who both had very bad K-BB rates in the minors). Here the average was 7.9 which is way lower than the league average of around 14%. Here the lower range is 3.4 and the upper range 10.6 and there is again a strong performance effect with the top being at 4.2 vs 10.9 for the bottom. Having an elite (sub 5%) K-BB% is an extremely strong foundation for success in hitting whether it is 20/18 like Trout or 10/7 like Altuve type hitters.

Now we are getting to the more interesting part if you made it this far in the article. Those are values that can’t just be maximized but optimized making it more complicated for player development because it is possible to shoot past the target.

https://s17.directupload.net/images/190926/bhllkfg9.jpg

Let’s start with exit velo. Here of course again more is better. The top 33 average 90.3 MPH which is above the MLB average of 88.7. The top 11 are at 92.5 while the bottom are basically league average at 88.5. No performance effect is seen though in wOBA however the only one clearly below average was Jose Altuve at 85.7. For player development this means you need to avoid being clearly below average as guys like Billy Hamilton and Dee Gordon are at the bottom of those boards every year.

Even more interesting for player development is probably peak exit velocity. Here the top 33 average 112.6 MPH with the upper range being at 116 and the lower range at 109. There isn’t an effect on performance within the top 33 but those 110 are a baseline that you should be able to hit if you want to be an elite hitter, only 8 of the 33 weren’t able to hit 110 MPH this year. Even a better indicator would probably be an average of the top 10 hardest hit balls but that isn’t as easily available and like throwing 100 you can’t really fake hitting a ball 110 because the pitch speed only adds about 15 MPH to exit velo vs a stationary ball so the majority of the impact is batspeed and not redirecting pitch velo.

Now we must of course talk about launch angle as this is often called the flyball revolution. For GB rate the average is 39% which is below the league average of around 42. Lower  range here is 33 and upper range 45%. There is some performance impact as the best guys have a 37% GB rate vs 41% for the top. This means you should probably strive for a sub 40% GB rate albeit the very low GB rate guys around 30% tend to have low-ish BABIPs, so a mid to high 30s in most cases is probably better.

With LA the top 33 are again ahead of the league. League average has climbed steadily but average is around 12% still and the 33 are at 14%. Top range here is 18 and bottom 10. Even within the top 33 there is some performance effect of a higher LA with the top being at 15.2 vs 13.4. It seems like indeed the best average LA is around 15 degrees like I estimated a couple years ago https://community.fangraphs.com/why-launch-angle-can-only-be-optimized-not-maximized/

Higher Las above 18 degrees aren’t always ideal either as they can create lower BABIPs. Now Trout has a 22 degree LA this year and he is the best hitter but even his BABIP is down some compared to normally when he is around 15-16 degree LA, so that is probably the sweet spot for most. The biggest thing is to avoid super low Las under 10 degrees. JD Martinez for example was at around 10 degrees last year and raked but it shouldn’t get lower than that. Between 12 and 18 the difference is probably not huge but single digit LAs can limit your potential severely, only 3 guys in the top 33 averaged under  10 (Lemahieu at the bottom at 6.7). Player dev should really look to get average LA above 10 and really above 12 too, but above 19-20 is probably not good either (just 5 where above 19 among the 33). 12-18 is probably a good range here.

The next thing that is currently often discussed is pull rate. Pulling helps power but it hurts BABIP https://community.fangraphs.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-pulling-the-ball-bouncy-ball-edition/

The 33 here are at 43 which is slightly above the league average of 40.7% so the power benefit probably outweighs the BABIP hit. Here the top range is 47.6% and the bottom at 39%. Within the 33 there is no effect, the top 11 pull slightly less (42.4) than the bottom 11 (43.1). However what we see is that guys with a sub 35% pull rate lack power. Only Lemahieu is an extremely low pull guy under 38% out of the 33 and he is helped by Yankee stadium right field. I would advice to look at prospects not having a pull rate below 38% with the ideal probably being in the low 40s. Above 45% usually isn’t ideal either and leads to low BABIPs and shift susceptibility albeit some still make this work like for example Jose Bautista in his prime.

Last I looked at air ball pull rate because there are some hitters who hit air balls (LD+FB) only oppo and pull only grounders which is related to mechanical issues in the swing and is very bad. Here the 33 average 32% which is above the league average of 29%. High end here is 37 and low end around 27%. Low values below 25% are a concern and if you look at the names you find familiar Names like Lemahieu (who was dead last in MLB in pulled air balls at just 12%) and Hosmer and also guys who had a power collapse like Posey. Not being able to pull the ball in the air is a big red flag both mechanically or just declining batspeed. I would recommend here a range of 30-35% probably and definitely it must be above 25%. Above 40% is probably not ideal either, 18 guys in MLB pulled more than 40% of their FBs last year and only Suarez was in the top 33 in wOBA, quite a few low BABIP guys among those.

Now how you coach that is a different question of course. I wrote two articles if you are interested  in further reading about training http://batspeedfitness.com/?p=140 and Mechanics http://batspeedfitness.com/?p=133  but this isn’t really the topic of this post. Those ranges do give you a baseline that you can work towards. Anyone who wants to develope players should at least occasionally control if their players are developing in the right direction. Especially those batted ball data like Pull%, air ball pull% and GB% are really low hanging fruit that can be optimized not guaranteeing success but at least give you a chance to not waste potential. There are also other data like batted ball spin and of course swing sensor metrics like attack angle, batspeed and vertical barrel angle that should be monitored but unfortunately those data are only available in a training setting and not in games, at least not publically.

There have been similar articles https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-pulling-the-baseball/ about the advantages of pulling but I wanted to do a new research because the ball has changed as well as player developement did.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion among hitting coaches about pulling the ball. Traditionally batting coaches usually suggested going gap to gap, which means basically hitting where the ball is pitched and mostly trying to stay in the middle of the field between the middle infielders however recently this has changed and more and more sabermetrically leaning coaches suggest focusing on pulling the ball because they think that this will create more power.

So let us look at some pros and cons of pulling using 2019 MLB data. I am starting with the cons

Cons of pulling the ball

The first con of pulling the ball is that BABIP is negatively correlated with pull%. In 2019 hitters with a sub 35% pull rate have a ..322 BABIP.35-40% it is .309, 40-45 it is .301 and 45=.285.

Now this is partially because the shift eats up grounders, so let us test a common suggestion of the modern coaches: “Hit over the shift” because avoiding grounders means mostly avoiding the shift. To test if that works for BABIP (Spoiler, in the pros of pulling we will look at the effect of this on other stats) I was looking at hitters with a 45% pull rate and a GB rate of lower than 38%.

Surprisingly the BABIP of this pulled flyball group is even lower at .277. Granted the sample size of this group was very small with but historical data show the same pattern for this, extreme pull flyball hitters have low BABIPs which is hurting the on base percentage of those players, albeit they still can be elite hitters with the best example of this probably being Jose Bautista which always had BABIPs around 270 but still was an elite hitter due to above average contact skill and elite power and batting eye.

The other con of pulling is that it is harder to lift pulled balls. The league launch angle for pulled balls is like 5 degrees vs about 20 for oppo as you are more likely to roll over and top it if you hit it more out front.

https://community.fangraphs.com/the-effect-of-batted-ball-direction-on-launch-angle/

However this can be influenced by the hitters mechanics and pitch selection. As the above cited article shows certain pitch locations can be pulled better in the air. First of course as every little league coach knows inside, can be pulled better than outside but also high can be pulled better than low, high middle and even outside pitches can easily be pulled while pulling low outside pitches leads to topped roll overs.

The ability to pull low pitches in the air strongly depends on batting mechanics.

https://community.fangraphs.com/finding-keys-to-elevate-the-ball-more/

Specifically achieving and maintaining a good vertical barrel angle helps with pulling low pitches in the air as this avoids roll overs.

See this post to explain the mechanics behind that.

Why does a flat bat and dropped hands lead to rollovers on low pitches but not high ones? See this video. On high pitch the bat can extend straight to center field even with a flat barrel. pic.twitter.com/0XTmoMe8Uw

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) April 8, 2019

So the pull hitter cannot really overcome the BABIP penalty but he can overcome the launch angle issue by the right pitch selection and hitting mechanics.

The pros of pulling

A big pro ist that pull rate is positively correlated with power. League ISO for under 35% pull rate is just .131 while between 35-40 and 40-45 it is around .184 and finally .212 for 45+.

wRC+ is at 103 under 35% and then slightly raises from 110 (35-40) to 116 (45+).

So there is a positive effect of wRC+ by pulling more. This effect is dependent on the hitters power. Conventional coaching wisdom says low powered hitters should spray the ball and power hitters should go for the pull bomb but the data actually show otherwise.

The hitters with a sub .150 ISO benefit a lot from pulling more while .230+ ISO guys actually lose a little bit of production (see the table). Keep in mind that the 166 for elite power under 35% pull rate is only one data point albeit a spectacular one in Yelich.

The explanation for this is probably pretty easy. Low powered hitters are gaining a lot from a few feet more flyball distance and also shorter fences.

The average pulled FB between 20 and 45 degrees this year flew 342 feet, to center it was slightly less at 333 and oppo a lot less at 303.

With high powered guys that does not matter as much because they have power to all parts of the field albeit even they should avoid straight oppo because between zero degrees and 15 degrees oppo the FB distance was still a solid 321 but the extreme oppo balls of 15-45 degrees are just 286 feet so they will not go out often. The elite power guys like Trout, JD martinez, Yelich thus can cash in on the BABIP bonus of all field hitting while still hitting 35 bombs, while the lower powered guys need to pull the ball.

Definitely pulling fly balls is a skill needed at the highest level and the top20 hitters average about 42% pull rate which means pulling a lot is not special a trait of elite hitters (just above league average) but a healthy pull rate is needed to succeed at the highest level, you need to be able to turn on some pitches with authority.

How much you pull the ball depends on your power. Fringy power guy should pull a bit more except when they have zero power while great power guys should stay between oppo gap and pull line for power and BABIP.

So the approach I am suggesting to hitters as a compromise between all field hitting and pulling is a “oppo gap to pull line”

approach in which outside pitches are hit middle to like 15 degrees oppo and middle in pitches are pulled and you can also occasionally pull an elevated outside pitch.

Spray patterns explained. Many coaches say gap to gap (grey) which is essentially 2b to SS. Most elite hitters however have this gap to gap but slightly turned to pull side so they pull the inside pitch a little more than they hit away oppo (orange). Pink shows pull hitter. pic.twitter.com/bMoEs2FGCd

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) June 11, 2019

A common goal in modern hitting is to stay on plane longer. On plane means that the attack angle is matching with the pitch plane for a long time. We all have seen the famous Ted williams graphic.

https://images.app.goo.gl/iHEFKr2VTGFXmGGHA

 

However it is a bit more complicated than that. First of all a really consistent AA can only be achieved at the high pitch when you have basically zero vertical barrel angle. Once you add vertical barrel angle, and you should do that depending on the  height of the pitch (too flat barrel causes roll overs on low pitches) the swing plane will become more tangential, i.e. the AA is flatter deeper in the zone and steeper more out front which makes timing harder.

And second there is also a side  to side component of swing plane, which is often called “swing direction”. This means even if the AA matches you are not on plane long when the bat turns to the left too early (for a RHB) which often happens.

But let’s first start with what is needed to achieve the different components of on plane efficiency.

First it helps to get on plane deep in the zone. Too deep isn’t good either as this can make the swing too long when you just lay the bat back but as a rule of thumb the bat should be on plane behind the back hip.

To achieve that the bat gets turned down behind you using the “elbow seesaw” and some supination  of the rear hand.

Here is a drill for the seesaw

The load and "entry" to the zone is very important. In the load the back elbow goes back and up and the front elbow also slides back. In the entry the rear elbow lowers and the front elbow goes up. pic.twitter.com/VwQ0AZ2Biu

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) May 21, 2019

Here is a detailed description of the hand movements

Not quite a "high level" discussion but for kids having trouble with a good hand and bat path I have developed this little progression using the cue of a karate chop w the hands.

Step 1: pull back arm and lower back shoulder and elbow

1/ pic.twitter.com/mq7F1lnQaE

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) May 14, 2019

This drill with turning over a cup can also help to get this action.

Back arm Action/load Drill

Step 1: Pull back arm back and kinda spill a tea cup forward (internal rotation) pic.twitter.com/TgJyLUIgW9

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) August 5, 2019

I also use one armed drills like this rear arm ones with a ball clamped in

Back arm drill stop variety (for people w roll over problems) and full swing.
Checkpoints:
-back shoulder starts to drop before back elbow (no early adduction before swing starts
-elbow gets in slot and ball releases when arm starts to extend just before contact. pic.twitter.com/LrT1wt6Mmv

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) June 19, 2019

And front arm one

Execution of some drills. Front arm drill. Checkpoints:
-elbow away from body
-front elbow goes up and forward before barrel starts to work down
-finish up and through from behind the ball on a line with hand higher than shoulder and bat higher than hand pic.twitter.com/DyQOFWzmia

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) June 19, 2019

And this drill to get on plane

Lag position should be slightly inside of the hands to allow large final turn
3/ pic.twitter.com/0VB5ZHlApJ

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) July 20, 2019

For staying on plane in the vertical direction it is important to keep the tangential component as small as possible. Yes the AA will get steeper more out front but good hitters keep  the barrel below the hands as long a possible and thus reducing a rising off the plane.

See JDM here, his AA does increase some out front but his bat doesn’t flip up but stays under the hands as the top hand shoots past the bottom hander under  it and vertical barrel angle is maintained.

A drill to feel that is this board slide drill. In reality path won’t be quite as straight but the feeling should be to stay on the board.

A positive AA is important but make sure doesn't get too steep out front and raises off the plane by too much roll or flip. Bat tip stays down as the bat overtakes the hands in extension after contact while the hands extend slightly up. Bat stays below hands as long as possible. pic.twitter.com/0OIyarLAI9

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) July 25, 2019

Top Hand shoots through under the bottom hand while front elbow stays up pic.twitter.com/M5o9dwxLFN

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) August 14, 2019

Make sure the front elbow doesn’t roll down too early with this drill

Thread: a thing that can hurt swing plane is rolling down the elbow too early during extension. This can cause the bat to rise off the plane. pic.twitter.com/rrlv4GzVKI

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) August 13, 2019

As I said before it is also important to  have a good side to side swing direction.

To achieve that there are some factors that help with that.

One is maintaining the vertical barrel angle. This means keeping the bat pointed angled down and not getting flatter or rolling over as you swing. Also maintaining posture and not rotating late and starting to decelerate before impact helps with achieving a straighter direction.

Keys to maintain swing direction:

-maintain shoulder angle through turn
-maintain VBA
-good path direction (hands stay on the inside batters box line as long as possible on middle pitch) pic.twitter.com/2qVFHaQYU1

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) August 14, 2019

You can also use a device like this

First time hitting with the @QuantTee. Excited for our girls to get back to campus and implement it into our hitting sessions. #SwingPathWork pic.twitter.com/phXAjvgCnT

— Evan Ruechel (@evanruechel) August 13, 2019

Or this drill to prevent swinging too much across

Bad execution:hit netting flush and below your shoulders pic.twitter.com/EQ6aLmp18f

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) June 21, 2019

A great drill for direction are also stop swings like this one.

Stop swing side view
Checkpoints
-arms still slightly bent in finish
-bat below hands pic.twitter.com/wAKyT7ZR6b

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) June 19, 2019

A great device to measure this are bat sensors like the blast sensor. Those sensors measure AA, VBA and sometimes even have a compound score for plane efficiency. With those devices you can see where you are at and track improvements.

But as always a good evaluation by a good coach is key, you cannot just throw drills at a player and see what sticks but a very precise evaluation has to come first so you can create solutions for a specific problem.

Hitting the outside pitch is very important at higher levels. It isn’t as extreme as it was in the 2000s when the go to approach of every mlb pitcher was going low and away because as an adaptation to the power hitters with a positive attack angle pitchers are now going more up and also in but still a lot of pitches are thrown outside especially at the college and HS level but even by some mlb teams.

The danger of the outside pitch is rolling over and hitting a weak grounder if you try to pull it.  This is especially true for flat vertical barrel angle guys which were more common 15-20 years ago.

Because of this the common wisdom is to hit the outside pitch the other way. In this fangraphs article https://community.fangraphs.com/fine-tuning-the-swing-based-upon-statcast-data/

I showed how this works. It shows that the launch angle goes down if you pull the outside pitch but moreso the low pitch. The high outside pitch can be hit with a good LA to center and in some cases even pulled (see the table in the article for data).

The tough part in hitting the outside pitch is that the rotational momentum goes to the left  (for a RHB) but you need a direction to the oppo gap because for optimal force production the swing direction and horizontal spray angle need to match.

What many hitters with a pull swing direction do is just hit the outside pitch just later and with the barrel inside but with the same right to left direction.  This creates a flyball to the outfield with a ton of backspin but not a lot of force so it hangs up a long time for the outfielder to catch it unless you are stanton strong and you can slice fly balls into the oppo stands.

Now the question is how you achieve a better force direction despite the rotational nature of the body.

An important function is deceleration of rotation. In a good baseball swing the trunk rotation peaks around 50 ms before contact  and the hips peak like 10 ms before that (Forthenbaugh 2011). At contact the rotational velocity slows down to about 50-60% of the max. Eugene Bleeker talks a lot about this in his book old school vs new school. During the acceleration of rotation the hands basically travel in an arc around the spine. You don’t need to force that and trying to be more direct might help some hitters but that arc happens nonetheless.  When the shoulders decelerate the direction goes a little straighter.

You want to achieve a direction slightly towards the other batters box, not a lot the other way but a little bit has to happen.

To achieve that you need to decelerate the body a little earlier so the hands can go a little more away from the arc.

A popular way to achieve deceleration is the kick back or scissor like Miggy does.

#SpringTraining2019 Cada swing silencia más las dudas que giran a su alrededor. Todo indica que Miguel Cabrera está listo para la temporada y en el juego entre los Tigres de Detroit ante los Azulejos de Toronto lo demostró nuevamente. pic.twitter.com/LCpj3AhBxO

— Sportsvenezuela.com (@SportsVZLA2) March 24, 2019

However you can also achieve that without such an anchor by tightening up the core enough.

Here is a decel drill I created. You stop that bat when pointing to the oppo gap.

Anti rotation work is big right now but I would also do actual stopping work like this. I wouldn't do that with 9u players who don't finish the swing anyway but with advanced players it can be good. pic.twitter.com/Shx4zDdfS4

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) May 9, 2019

One of my favourite drills is the oppo stop swing. You place the tee outside and stop the bat about one foot past contact (kinda like a late check swing). The bat should stay  over that tee line (slightly to oppo) and below the hands. The ball should fly slightly to oppo.

 

Rear view checkpoints:
Tree branch marks pitcher catcher line.
-bat tip stays over that line at finish
-bat below hands and still slightly pointing to oppo field (almost to pitcher but not quite, more to oppo gap as this is a drill for the outside pitch) pic.twitter.com/QJ5ZVqnXKq

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) June 19, 2019

Snap/direction drill for low outside. For kids that pull off the outside pitch. Turn the barrel, stop, then swing to extension position with direction to other field. Make sure the barrel still is slightly below the hands and points slightly to other batters box, not roll over. pic.twitter.com/u7FFf6ywML

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) May 16, 2018

Another drill that might help is from a controversial hitting camp which has a history of internet fights but I think still can be usefull is the flashlight drill from teacherman (gotta give credit). Basically you imagine the knob has a flashlight and you shine it diagonally from the catchers feet to the outside front edge of the plate as you initiate the swing (you can use an actual flashlight to see the shine traveling over the ground), this can improve the path.

Here I tried to show how to hit the outside pitch. The knob “shines” diagonally outward (only mild outward angle)  and bat is turned behind the ball. Body decelerates earlier to allow direction to keep going that way.

Hitting outside pitch. Earlier decel of turn and hands move a little earlier off the turn slightly towards oppo. Make hand path only go outside at a mild angle, no extreme in to out. pic.twitter.com/ifb5L724mA

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) July 6, 2019

Another thing that helps with direction is a steeper vertical barrel angle. A flat bat will have more tendency to go across and a steeper bat turn (25 to 45 degrees VBA) allows for a more centered barrel direction and to hit the ball straighter with less spin and thus harder.  Dk Willardson explained that in his book quantitative hitting. Also from that book I learned that great hitters don’t hit that much oppo. Coaches teach hitting gap to gap but Willardson states that elite hitters hit the outside pitch like just 10 degrees oppo while they pull the inside pitch 20+ degrees (45 would be down the line).

This means you shouldn’t go foul line to foul line but more oppo gap to pull field which makes the job a little easier to hit balls hard.

Spray patterns explained. Many coaches say gap to gap (grey) which is essentially 2b to SS. Most elite hitters however have this gap to gap but slightly turned to pull side so they pull the inside pitch a little more than they hit away oppo (orange). Pink shows pull hitter. pic.twitter.com/bMoEs2FGCd

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) June 11, 2019

In summary try to hit the outside pitch hard with little spin in the air slightly more oppo than the middle and you will be fine. To achieve this you need a good decel pattern and a good barrel turn slightly to the oppo gap. Practice hitting outside pitches and even pitches an inch or two (but not more) off the plate.

A dril to practice this I like is the 4 corner drill where you hit off the tee or flips off all 4 corners.  Also like this stop swing 4 corner drill for plate coverage.

Drill for path variability and barrel control. 4 corner stop swing drill. Mark 4 corners on fence and lightly touch each corner with the bat tip. Stand slightly closed to account for contact depth difference and start with hips slightly open and upper body closed (heel plant) pic.twitter.com/MrgUPpAFiq

— dominikk85 (@dominikkeul) June 26, 2019

What can also help is hitting driveline plyo balls outside because that will expose slicing even more.

Also read my other article on the inside pitch

http://batspeedfitness.com/?p=122

It is important you cover all 4 corners. Practice hitting balls up to an inch off the plate off all corners. In games you want to do the opposite and give the outer two inches of the plate to the pitcher (take strikes there like this  ) https://twitter.com/dominikkeul/status/1099932594853027841?s=19

to force him over the middle but practicing that excess plate coverage will transfer to hitting the middle in and middle away pitches while players who only practice down the pipe will even struggle with those hittable pitches. Vary speed and location in practice.