Game Thread: Twins v Mariners, 6/15 @ 12:10pm CDT

[Broker]

 

Plus, it's far too early to give up on a 23 year old playing in what figures to be his first full major league season.  

 

Buxton is hitting about .263 if you take April at bats out of the season. This isn't a guy to give up on.

[ashbury]

Apologies to Mr. Ashbury for implying he's not too bright.

I didn't catch on that that was what you were doing until you pointed it out.

 

I'm sure we're fine.

Of course we are.

 

[Jham]

 

I was watching Buxton's can of corn fly ball to right-center. Where does easy power come from? it comes from putting energy into the square area of the sweet spot, of course. But that energy does no good unless it's headed in the right direction, which is basically right back at the pitcher.

 

If you recall how the Angels corrected Alex Meyer's tendency to fly open on his delivery, they made him pound his glove back into the baseball just before his shoulder/forearm torque. That allowed Meyer to store energy from his long leg drive, then deliver it in a straight line towards the plate. Without that pound, Meyer would fly open, causing his pitches to drift wide arm-side.

 

Similarly, a hitter must store the energy from his leg drive, then transmit that energy to the sweet spot of the bat traveling into the path of the ball.

 

One common mistake hitters make is opening up their hips and shoulders too early, preventing them from covering the outside of the plate, and causing the sweet spot of the bat to slide away from a direct path through the ball. 

 

A second common mistake is to start bringing the bat head around too early, in an attempt to "catch up" to that speedy baseball. Even if you avoid opening up your hips and shoulder early, bringing the bat head around too early will waste a lot of that energy. 

 

Byron Buxton tends to make both those mistakes. Not his fault; this is a coaching error, and it is fixed fairly easily. 

 

If you're looking for a good example of how to produce easy power, the best example on the Twins is Eddie Rosario. From his relatively modest frame Rosario is able to put an excellent charge into baseballs to all parts of the field. How?

 

First, he's in an athletic crouch, which gets his body out of the way of an outward snap, and allows him to drive with his leg and body. It also allows him to carry the sweet spot through a long sweep in line with the pitch, with power.

 

Second, he holds the bat counter-rotated towards the pitcher, allowing him to lag the bat head as he bring his hands forward. 

 

Third, he drives through and up with his rear hand, executing what Bert calls the "uppercut swing." The uppercut motion from an athletic crouch gets your torso muscles driving through the swing. If you want to hit a ball really hard and far, that's the way to do it. 

 

Buxton right now does have an athletic crouch, but he still tends to open his hips and shoulders too early. The heel tap helps a little, but it's nowhere near enough. Buxton also tends to open up the bat head early, rather than lagging it behind to store energy. Last, he also throws a roundhouse punch, not an uppercut. This will cause him to slap and pull the bat's sweet spot off the ball. 

 

Watching Buxton ground out to SS now, I see he's trying to do most of the stuff I was mentioning, but he's not quite there. He needs a little more crouch, a little more counter rotation of the bat, and he needs to tilt his head to get more of an uppercut swing. I would also get him to close his stance. so his hip points more at the 2B. I get the impression too that he's opening up the bat too soon. Hard habit to break. 

I always thought the ideal Buxton swing would be similar to Alphonso Soriano.  Both have lengthy torsos and naturally long swings that generate power.  Closing down allows him to use the lanky build and natural flexibility to generate torque and force him to stay closed.  Then leg kick for timing and keeping weight (and bat) back.

 

Look at the amount of rotation Soriano gets.  Buxton has that, but loses efficiency when his swing gets too "arm-y".  This should naturally give him more direct energy through the ball.  This may not help him starting hips and shoulders early, as it will likely feel to him that he has to start them even sooner to get to that same position of being out front.  That's just something he'd have to work through in the cage.  I'm no expert, but Hageman has been tweeting about the leg kick for weeks.

[jimbo92107]

 

I always thought the ideal Buxton swing would be similar to Alphonso Soriano.  Both have lengthy torsos and naturally long swings that generate power.  Closing down allows him to use the lanky build and natural flexibility to generate torque and force him to stay closed.  Then leg kick for timing and keeping weight (and bat) back.

 

Look at the amount of rotation Soriano gets.  Buxton has that, but loses efficiency when his swing gets too "arm-y".  This should naturally give him more direct energy through the ball.  This may not help him starting hips and shoulders early, as it will likely feel to him that he has to start them even sooner to get to that same position of being out front.  That's just something he'd have to work through in the cage.  I'm no expert, but Hageman has been tweeting about the leg kick for weeks.

Good discussion...probably should be its own thread, but oh, well...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71F2iWb57o8

 

I'll see your Soriano and raise you a Ted Williams. He recommended stepping towards the pitcher. Some guys have longer strides, some shorter. One thing I see from the Williams vid is that Buxton definitely is not swinging the bat like he's trying to chop a tree, as Williams suggests. You can see that all the great hitters in Ted's video lag the bat head longer than Buxton does. In fact, Aaron and Ruth both have huge forward strides, yet as they slide forward, what's the bat doing? It's counter-rotating! How in heaven's name will that piece of wood ever get around to the ball?

 

The answer is, fast. Really, really fast. That counter rotation, along with all the power supplied by a strong leg drive, has to end somewhere. When it ends by jamming down that front foot, it triggers an explosive, quick turn of the hip, which drags the hands around in a small arc, while the bat head automatically snaps outwards with terrific force. As Ted described, the wrists don't roll over before or as you're meeting the ball, because you are intent on driving your back hand in line with the approaching ball, not to supply power, but to keep the bat square to the ball. Only after the bat is well past contact do the wrists roll over, so you avoid injuring them. 

 

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, Buxton. He should do something like that.

[snepp]

I should miss games more often. At least 75% of their 4 home wins have come with my absence.

[akmanak]

The Twins do not have someone who can teach our young guys to hit. Keeping Buxton is a waste of time since he probably wont come around due to what has happened to the other younger talent that used to be in this team. Long story short, your statement is not valid and they should trade Buxton before it is to late.

 

maybe they could work out a trade for aaron hicks.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Good discussion. Buck has a very good eye for what is a strike, and that will help. I think eventually he will figure it out.

[Pardon My Dinger]

The Twins do not have someone who can teach our young guys to hit. Keeping Buxton is a waste of time since he probably wont come around due to what has happened to the other younger talent that used to be in this team. Long story short, your statement is not valid and they should trade Buxton before it is to late.

 

 

I like how the answer to not having teachers for Buxton is 'trade Buxton.' Good take.

[Pardon My Dinger]

That said, I was in favor of trading Buxton for the last three years. At this point, we're in too deep to get that franchise changing trade. Let the boy play. He's a good boy.

[akmanak]

I like how the answer to not having teachers for Buxton is 'trade Buxton.' Good take.

We have dealt with the whole thing about not having a quality batting coach for years so if you think that is going to change anytime soon you are wrong and this is the main reason we need to dump player like Buxton because of the inability to train him.

[AlwaysinModeration]

I don't want to let this thread end on that note, so let's go with this...

 

Nice win, nice game by José, let's hope Escobar and Rosario stay hot this weekend. Need to get those bats firing, would love to take 3 of 4 games and break out a 4-game lead over Cleveland. Sure, the starting rotation for this series isn't necessarily how I would have drawn it up to start the season, but let's win 'em anyway.