INSIDE THE GAME

[Parker Hageman]

  Quote

“A lot of hitters, when they try to swing down, lead with their hands. They’re too steep into the zone. Other hitters, for whatever reason, think the same thing and do it properly...

 

 

I think this is where a lot people giving instruction and those swinging have major differences. Nobody (today, it seems) likes to hear someone say they are chopping at the ball or swinging down. As Zinter points out, there are some that do excel at being able to take their hands to the ball without having the steep path to the ball that creates the grounders/low launch angles.

 

Personally, I'm an elevate sort of guy but the idea that you can't have the swing down/stay inside the baseball mentality is silly. Both can co-exist. I really enjoyed the video of Ben Zobrist talking his process on preparing to hit:

 

[Parker Hageman]

ON BAT FLIPS AND CELLYS.

 

As a fan, I love bat flips. Pimp everything, I often hashtag on Twitter. Some of that mantra is definitely tongue in cheek but ultimately I love watching players enjoying the moment. Same goes for pitchers who fist pump after firing a bullet past a hitter during a pivotal at-bat during the game. Some view them as a disrespectful showing up of a pitcher or an opposing team (the "act like a professional" crowd) but, to me, the bat flips are a fun way to show emotion during a sport which is essentially glorified stickball. 

 

So that brings me to this...

 

Take this number from a University of South Carolina-Aiken hitter. The dude hammers a pitch in which the players on the field barely move. It's a tank shot grand slam. Big moment, big shot. The player decides to flip (launch?) the bat in the air, sending it spinning end over end. 

 

https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/844977913665634309

 

Frankly, to me, it's fun. To the coach of the USC Aiken team it was highly disrespectful: 

 

https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/845073358689579012

 

"We had a player do a stupid think last night after hitting a grand slam," USC-Aiken's coach Kenny Thomas wrote on his Facebook page. "I immediately took him out of the game and apologized to North Greenville Coach (sp). Those of you that know me know I DO NOT condone this type of actions or this type of disrespect for the game."

 

First, as was pointed out on Twitter, the language the coach used contains a lot of "I"s. That's a terrible attitude for an amateur coach to have at any level. Focus on the "we" not the "you". Second, lighten up. As was pointed out before, this is a glorified kids game. Third, this is Division 2 baseball. Most if not all players on the roster have very little likelihood of making the jump to professional baseball so this is as close as they will get. Let them enjoy the moment. 

 

We have just wrapped up the World Baseball Classic, which by any measure was a good display of how different cultures celebrate big moments. Not all players agreed with the flare that some of the Caribbean players showed during the tournament.

 

"I hope kids watching the W.B.C. can watch the way we play the game and appreciate the way we play the game as opposed to the way Puerto Rico plays or the Dominican plays," Kinsler told The New York Times. "That's not taking anything away from them. That just wasn't the way we were raised. They were raised differently and to show emotion and passion when you play. We do show emotion; we do show passion. But we just do it in a different way."

 

And Bert Blyleven, protector of the precious baseball code, chimed in. "There's a fine line between showing emotion & being 'a hot dog.' Some guys on PR were 'hot dogging'," he said recently on MLB Network radio. Twins Daily’s John Bonnes correctly pointed out that the line between the two is thick, the difference maker being which team you are on.

 

What constitutes “hot dogging”? Was the USC-Aiken kid “hot dogging”? Is this “hot dogging”?  

 

https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/841996433670733824

 

 

Yadier Molina has the Dominican’s Nelson Cruz out by a mile and Javier Baez, who is quite good at applying tags, converts a no-look, point-at-your-backstop catch and tag. It was equal parts impressive and fun.

 

The game of baseball has been accused of "dying" far too often. While MLB itself is still making a ton of money, the majority of the viewership has AARP cards. For various reasons, the youth have been tuning out in droves. In response, MLB has done asinine things like adding a pace of play clock, eliminating the pitches in the intentional walk, and trying to introduce slow-pitch softball rules to avoid extra inning play all while still choosing to broadcast their crown jewel international event’s championship game at 9 PM Eastern Time on a weeknight, ensuring that a vast amount of young kids will not stay up to watch the end of the game.

 

MLB doesn’t need to plod through this rules overhaul crusade it seems to be hell bent on conducting in order to recapture the youth market. People don’t want crisper pace of play or a quick end to a contest. They want fun. To that end, the game’s culture needs to embrace the flair and flips not discourage it.

 

I'm not suggesting this will solve all of the game's problems but it can't hurt.

 

Make baseball fun again. 

[Seth Stohs]

is the USC-Aiken player hot-dogging when he's flipping the bat 20 feet into the air? I mean, that is pretty much the definition of hot-dogging.

 

Do I enjoy watching it? Sure. 

 

Not sure you can bash the coach for his "I" speak, when the "hot-dogging" is completely a look-at-me thing. 

 

I have no problem with the coach pulling the player... he likely would have been hurt had he come up to bat again, something I also have no problem with, unless it's close to the head. 

[Parker Hageman]

  Quote

Not sure you can bash the coach for his "I" speak, when the "hot-dogging" is completely a look-at-me thing.

 

 

Baseball is about the player, not the coach. 

[Willihammer]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/nelson-cruz-wasnt-exactly-out-by-a-mile/

[Parker Hageman]

 

  On 3/24/2017 at 1:53 PM, Willihammer said:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/nelson-cruz-wasnt-exactly-out-by-a-mile/

 

Not literally, but when Baez caught the ball Cruz wasn't even in his slide yet. 

[Willihammer]

http://m.mlb.com/video/v1243857383/nedpur-molina-finds-profar-too-far-off-bag-at-first

[Mike Sixel]

 

  On 3/24/2017 at 1:48 PM, Seth Stohs said:

is the USC-Aiken player hot-dogging when he's flipping the bat 20 feet into the air? I mean, that is pretty much the definition of hot-dogging.

 

Do I enjoy watching it? Sure. 

 

Not sure you can bash the coach for his "I" speak, when the "hot-dogging" is completely a look-at-me thing. 

 

I have no problem with the coach pulling the player... he likely would have been hurt had he come up to bat again, something I also have no problem with, unless it's close to the head. 

 

violence in the face of something that hurt no one other than those that decide to be hurt. Nice. That's a terrible way to live life.

 

should you hit someone's car if they cut you off? No one is hurt, after all, but they did hurt your feelings.

[Mr. Brooks]

I'm picturing Seth throwing a chunky soup can at the guy cutting in line at the supermarket- as long as he isn't aiming for his head, of course.

 

Hey kids, violence is the correct response when someone does something that you don't agree with!

Great lesson guys.

[Seth Stohs]

 

  On 3/24/2017 at 5:21 PM, Mr. Brooks said:

I'm picturing Seth throwing a chunky soup can at the guy cutting in line at the supermarket- as long as he isn't aiming for his head, of course.

Hey kids, violence is the correct response when someone does something that you don't agree with!
Great lesson guys.

 

Never know... maybe it's happened. I prefer Progresso soup... new england clam chowder!

 

Also, pitching inside is an important key to being successful in baseball. 

[Mike Sixel]

 

  On 3/24/2017 at 6:39 PM, Seth Stohs said:

Never know... maybe it's happened. I prefer Progresso soup... new england clam chowder!

 

Also, pitching inside is an important key to being successful in baseball. 

 

Pitching inside =/= intentionally throwing at someone in retaliation for having hurt feelings.

[Parker Hageman]

 

  On 3/24/2017 at 7:44 PM, Mike Sixel said:

Pitching inside =/= intentionally throwing at someone in retaliation for having hurt feelings.

 

I don't think Seth is advocating throwing at a player (maybe he is) but that is the reality of the situation. I think there is definitely the possibility that this player or his teammate gets his tower buzzed or dotted between his shoulders the next time up. It's sad, really. A pitcher doesn't execute his pitch and gets tanked. Instead of just moving on, some pitchers gets butthurt and try to seek their pound of flesh. 

 

In other cultures, like Korea, the batflip is just a part of the game. Pitchers over there don't see it as an attempt to show them up: http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/17668845/korean-bat-flip

 

I think we should all start embracing that mentality too. 

[Mike Sixel]

 

  On 3/26/2017 at 2:10 PM, Parker Hageman said:

I don't think Seth is advocating throwing at a player (maybe he is) but that is the reality of the situation. I think there is definitely the possibility that this player or his teammate gets his tower buzzed or dotted between his shoulders the next time up. It's sad, really. A pitcher doesn't execute his pitch and gets tanked. Instead of just moving on, some pitchers gets butthurt and try to seek their pound of flesh. 

 

In other cultures, like Korea, the batflip is just a part of the game. Pitchers over there don't see it as an attempt to show them up: http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/17668845/korean-bat-flip

 

I think we should all start embracing that mentality too. 

 

this part from Seth seems pretty clear:

 

I have no problem with the coach pulling the player... he likely would have been hurt had he come up to bat again, something I also have no problem with, unless it's close to the head.

[Parker Hageman]

YOU BE THE SCOUT

 

I posted this on my Twitter account yesterday. It's two swings from two different prospects shortly before they were drafted out of high school. Both players went to a short-season rookie ball league. One hit seven home runs that season. The other hit none. 

 

Based on this view of the swing, can you tell which player had home run capabilities and which one did not? 

 

https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/938977484229500928

 

[NOTE: The answer is posted on my Twitter account but put your scout hat and polo on and see if you can make the call.]

[ashbury]

 

  On 12/9/2017 at 1:30 AM, Parker Hageman said:

YOU BE THE SCOUT

 

I posted this on my Twitter account yesterday. It's two swings from two different prospects shortly before they were drafted out of high school. Both players went to a short-season rookie ball league. One hit seven home runs that season. The other hit none. 

 

Based on this view of the swing, can you tell which player had home run capabilities and which one did not?

Trick question, they are both pitchers just screwing around in the batting cage?

 

I assume the real, underlying, point is that short-season ball numbers just don't tell you much about a young power hitting prospect.

 

Unless, one genuinely had "no power" in his scouting reports coming out of high school, in which case I confess to having "not a scout" on own my scouting report.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Excellent topic and illustrations and discussions. Thanks Parker for getting this most interesting concept rolling and keeping the conversation going with your participation in the discussions.

[Parker Hageman]

 

  On 12/9/2017 at 1:36 PM, ashburyjohn said:

Trick question, they are both pitchers just screwing around in the batting cage?

 

I assume the real, underlying, point is that short-season ball numbers just don't tell you much about a young power hitting prospect.

 

Unless, one genuinely had "no power" in his scouting reports coming out of high school, in which case I confess to having "not a scout" on own my scouting report.

 

There's an actual difference between the two swings that should be telling to this. Gonna need to reach down deep and tap into your inner ball guy.

[ashbury]

  On 12/9/2017 at 2:55 PM, Parker Hageman said:

There's an actual difference between the two swings that should be telling to this. Gonna need to reach down deep and tap into your inner ball guy.

My inner ball guy topped out at truly bad rec-league slow-pitch teams, with an ugly inside out swing that mainly assured getting to third base on occasional doubles near the RFer just because of the level of play.

 

Any differences I spot (more pronounced backswing? hand flying off the bat sooner at the end of the swing? slightly funky head movement?) would be random in my mind, where, if you told me you were kidding and you had switched the identities of the two hitters, I would be picking the wrong one as "good" versus "bad".

 

I'll hang up and listen (in awe at those who can spot these things).

[Parker Hageman]

 

  On 12/9/2017 at 3:21 PM, ashburyjohn said:

My inner ball guy topped out at truly bad rec-league slow-pitch teams, with an ugly inside out swing that mainly assured getting to third base on occasional doubles near the RFer just because of the level of play.

 

Any differences I spot (more pronounced backswing? hand flying off the bat sooner at the end of the swing? slightly funky head movement?) would be random in my mind, where, if you told me you were kidding and you had switched the identities of the two hitters, I would be picking the wrong one as "good" versus "bad".

 

I'll hang up and listen (in awe at those who can spot these things).

 

The difference between the two is all in the swing plane. The top (recently added Jacob Pearson) has a more level swing plane than the bottom (Alex Kirilloff). The easiest way to spot the difference is based on how they finish. Pearson finishes his swing at the middle of his body while Kirilloff finishes up. 

 

Kirilloff's swing operates more like this...

 

 

That uppercut motion will lead to more fly balls. If you look at the swings of the top 50 HR hitters in baseball today, their swing plans will follow closer to the example above.

 

Pearson, on the other hand, has a more line drive oriented swing. This doesn't mean he *can't* hit home runs, it just means that when he does, it will likely be more of the line drive type whereas Kirilloff will have a higher percentage of fly balls. When you see this, you realize why Pearson, while almost the exact same size as Kirilloff (an inch shorter and ten pounds lighters according to their HS Perfect Game profiles) is considered to have "modest power potential" by Baseball America.

 

It's entirely possible that Pearson tweaks his swing plane and adds more lift. It is also entirely possible that he stays the same, adds strength and deposits a few more liners than expected. 

 

 

 

 

[ashbury]

That's definitely a meaningful distinction.

 

At one time, I thought that an uppercut was kind of looked down upon, as prone to popups if you get under it and unlikely to give line drives if you miss in the other direction. But trends change, and I agree that lately the all-or-nothing approach is more favored and probably rightly so in careful analytic terms.

 

BTW I'm disappointed that your fine quiz didn't generate more/better discussion than the weak tea I was able to serve you.

[biggentleben]

I left it alone for people to chime in, but swing plane is one of the things that I really enjoy discussing, especially with the guys at Driveline. They have tremendous research into the makeup of the ideal swing and it's absolutely fascinating to listen to them break down a swing step by step.

[Parker Hageman]

At first glance this might appear to be a big old nothingburger of a tweet but this is actually an indication of change within the surface of the organization.

 

 

For most familiar with the game, j-bands and other resistance bands are commonplace. Visit any number of youth complexes and you will often see all players warming up with these rubber tubes along the fence line. Go to an area baseball facility and you'll likely see pitchers using these in a conditioning program for arm care. 

 

Prior to this, the Twins did have some generic tubes and some instructions/programs, but Alan Jaeger's combination of j-band workouts and long toss regimens has been controversial in many organizations. Some orgs only want pitchers throwing up to 120 feet in distance while Jaeger's program often has pitchers throwing from over 300 feet. The Twins, I'm told, were on the conservative side of the long toss programs.

 

The Twins organization also had pitching coaches and instructors that were resistant to newer training methods like weighted ball programs. After one pitcher was hurt last year in spring training, some coaches blamed the injury on the weighted ball program that pitcher embraced during the offseason. Other coaches have banned the weighted balls in the bullpen as well, never mind this was a staple of Mariano Rivera's warm-up routine. 

 

In discussing pitching development with Derek Falvey last year, it was clear he was open to all and any programs that pitchers felt like they could benefit from. After all, the Indians were one organization at the front of some of these methods. Falvey did not say it in so many words but one of the major reasons the Twins hired multiple coaches out of the college ranks is because they have been more receptive to using new training methods. 

 

Most amatuer pitchers today have tried or have been exposed to these programs and training methods. It is somewhat backwards to tell a pitcher who is brought into the system they have to stop doing their preferred training and warm-up methods because someone doesn't approve for unscientific reasons. 

 

In the end, each pitcher is an individual and they should be allowed the freedom to develop in certain ways. 

[Parker Hageman]

GET SOME SLEEP!

 

All you high school and college players reading this, do yourself a favor and get more sleep. Student-athletes can be run ragged during the school year, with early classes and pre-school workouts, but make sure you get a solid seven-to-eight hours a night.

 

 

One of the hotter topics coming out of camps this spring has been teams altering their workout schedules in order to optimize the recovery times and improve learning retention. And the data behind it shows it can do 

 

The Cardinals are one such example highlighted at MLB.com:

 

  Quote

The Cardinals conducted a sleep-efficiency study on their players last spring and decided to push both the earliest optional and mandatory report times back an hour as a result. Players aren't allowed in the clubhouse before 7 a.m., and they can arrive as late as 10:30 a.m.

 

"As we went through our sleep trackers last year, we found our guys were getting less than seven good hours of sleep a night," Cards manager Mike Matheny said. "That's just not enough for what we're asking them. ... For us to get that information and not do something with it -- and not do something proactive -- I think is a misuse of the information."

 

 

The Kansas City Royals were another such club to introduce a later start time to their camp. The science behind it is to be able to retain things learned and help commit it to muscle memory more efficiently. 

 

  Quote

One of those areas is sports science, the application of scientific literature to practice and training methods. The Royals sought to explore the discipline last season, hiring Austin Driggers, a minor-league strength coach with a background in sports science, to be the club’s first ever sports science coordinator.

 

 

{snip}

 

 

The benefits are basic, yet substantial. In athletes, additional sleep is connected to memory consolidation, Driggers said, the ability to both remember concepts and techniques taught during a workout and the physical muscle memory needed to master something like a baseball swing. Driggers compares the process to downloading information onto a computer hard drive. To be sleep deprived is the equivalent of turning off your computer without saving a document.

 

 

While additional sleep can help the body recover quicker, sleep has also been shown to help in other areas on the field.

 

One such 2013 study theorized that the reason hitters tended to chase more pitches outside of the strike zone as the season progressed was that they would be getting less and less sleep due to the rigorous schedule. More sleep would give a player an improved comprehension of the strike zone.  

 

Along the same line, a 2017 study found that players who received one additional hour of sleep per night for a five-night cycle have a better reaction time.

 

Results show that after five nights of sleep extension, professional baseball players from an MLB organization demonstrated a 13-percent improvement on a cognitive processing speed test by reacting 122 milliseconds faster. They also responded 66 milliseconds faster on a test of selective attention when confronted with distractors. According to the authors, a fastball takes approximately 400 milliseconds to travel from the pitcher to the hitter, requiring batters to have optimal visual search strategies to distinguish and react to different types of pitches.

 

Think about that. It's a built-in advantage for you at the plate to have a split-second more time to react to a pitch. It's one of the easiest and cheapest performance-enhancing drug out there. 

 

Yet another study found that getting more sleep can lead to longer careers. Those players who struggled to get the prerequisite shuteye found themselves out of the game sooner than those with an abundance of rest -- presumably because they let their plate discipline and reaction time slip from lack of sleep. 

 

Coaches can aid in this process as well. In Major League spring training, workouts are pushed back. In-season, teams make efforts to allow for additional sleep. Instead of arriving at 11 AM for a 7:05 PM after a cross-country flight, Cubs' manager Joe Maddon has instituted "American Legion Week". When enacted, Maddon orders his players to stay away from the ballpark until an hour before the game, opting for rest versus batting practice, going so far as saying pre-game BP is overrated (more on that at a later date). 

 

This is not a new revelation at all. Scientists have been studying the effect of sleep on the human body for years. As disinterested as they seem in the health of their players' brains at times, the NFL has been at the forefront of implementing sleep regulations. MLB teams, on the other hand, has been slower to embrace the science. While one football game can be more physically taxing, Major League Baseball's arduous schedule and cross-country travel can chip away at the sleeping habits of its workers more so that football. As the NFL study found, if players continually get four hours of sleep or less in a cycle, it's the equivalent of aging yourself 11 years. 

 

All this being said -- if it is good enough for professional athletes, it certainly would behoove you to try to get more rest. 

 

[Steve Lein]

My company is big on this idea and research, as demonstrated by their recent deal with the NFL!

 

It's legit, haha!

[Parker Hageman]

 

  On 2/27/2018 at 6:09 PM, Steve Lein said:

My company is big on this idea and research, as demonstrated by their recent deal with the NFL!

It's legit, haha!

 

Care to elaborate on that?

[Steve Lein]

 

  On 2/27/2018 at 6:25 PM, Parker Hageman said:

Care to elaborate on that?

 

I'll do so with these links:

 

http://www.startribune.com/sleep-number-becomes-minnesota-vikings-sleep-and-wellness-partner/450665943/

 

http://www.startribune.com/each-nfl-player-will-receive-voucher-for-sleep-number-360-smart-bed/472016353/

 

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/nfls-new-secret-weapon-for-training-world-class-athletes-smart-beds/

 

(Page 17): http://sleepnumber.new-media-release.com/360smartbed/downloads/SleepNumber_SleepWhitePaper_FINAL.pdf

 

https://blog.sleepnumber.com/five-ways-athletes-pay-the-price-for-poor-sleep/

 

As far as the actual research conducted and numbers and what not I know about, a lot of it is probably proprietary

 

 

[Parker Hageman]

If anyone has been following this thread, I'm sliding my entries over to the blog section. I feel like there is not as much community interaction I was hoping for here and the blogs will be able to make it easier to go to the newest topic without having to dig through six pages of this thread.

 

You can read the inaugural entry on Lance McCullers two-seamer here: http://twinsdaily.com/blog/992/entry-9340-improving-your-two-seamer/