While Marvin is certainly our resident philosopher, I will admit to having spent most of the last three years thinking about hitting. It has done wonders for my batting average but has probably ruined the swings of half a dozen people I've talked to. The batting title is within my grasp this season, though Freddy Melendez scares me with his right-field power and disciplined approach, and he swings with a sort of precise gusto, if you will, embodied in the 3-run triple he clubbed off of me to end yesterday's game one.
I have also learned the advantages of a right-field swing, though when I see Don Weiss standing there and inwardly grinning at the thought of a line drive coming his way, I realize that given time a defense will adjust to anything. Anyway, I take pride in the ability to hit line-drive singles between the first and second baseman, and I am always on the lookout for the pitch that can be blasted right down the line and over the head of an unfortunate right fielder for a home run.
I have thought a lot lately about batting slumps, as I have gotten into one-- not a terrible one, where I am adrift at sea in an open boat and starving to death for want of a hit, but a more pernicious sort of slump where I find myself wasting several at bats a day-- flying out on a first-pitch chicken-dance changeup from Havelock; deciding to pull no matter where the pitch is and then popping out; that sort of thing. This season has seen far more horrible slumps-- Marvin going 4-for-108 at Heckscher; Alex Rivera's 20-for-74 midsummer; Fred Lang's recent 5-for-63 freefall on the heels of a 16-for-29 hot streak that involved a batting tip from Phil Ciccone and a lot of sharp grounders into the shortstop hole. And Havelock's whole damn season; Bob Holzwasser's as well, until the day he went 5-for-7 and then tore a groin muscle... so I am 11-of-32 in September. No biggie, right? I suppose not, but I find the feeling of wondering what the hell's wrong with my swing for six days of the week and then going out on the seventh to fuck up some more just as unpleasant as everyone else.
Slumps can be physical or mental or some combination thereof. Dipping the back elbow is a good way to get under everything. Thinking too much about placing the ball can be equally deadly. Injuries can cause slumps, though they can also cause hot streaks. I think Alex's slump may have been caused by the conundrum posed by his role as a top-of-the-lineup hitter-- should he take pitches like a #2 hitter or be aggressive like he wants to be-- so, for a little while he took strikes and swung out of the zone, with a resulting dip in average. Lang's slump was at first a natural reaction to an unnatural hot streak, but he got frustrated and dug himself in deeper. I thought to myself last week, a lot of slumps are caused by swinging too aggressively. So my first time up Sunday, I was struck out looking by Jim O'Connor. Lately I've been considering acupuncture, or maybe going back to drinking too much on Saturday nights. Hangovers sometimes lead to a meditative approach to hitting.
As you may have seen from the leader boards, the race to break records is once again on. Joe Gerber's marks of 103 runs and 139 hits may possibly fall. Gerber had 376 plate appearances in which to achieve this; Zach and Freddy and myself will be lucky to get much over 300. I'm not asking for an asterisk for Gerber. I just want good weather until 2011.
Monday, October 4, 2010
The View From the Batter's Box, Part I
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2 comments:
I too spend way too much time thinking about hitting. It is the physics that intrigues me. Why in basketball can good shooters make 90% of their free throws? For one thing they are able to reproduce the exact same motion over and over. That shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish in softball. And the other thing? The basket doesn't move.
Ian, have you considered that pitchers are adjusting to your predominant choice of pitch and right field swing? If they haven't by now your detailed confession above will almost certainly keep you from seeing many outside pitches for a while. Time for you to adjust back.
I think slumps come from inattention. Not picking up the correct position of the ball. Dave's pitch while seemingly on course to be a strike is going to drop horribly short of of the mark and your swing. Hit the top half and the ball goes down, hit the bottom half and the ball goes up. In between is Ted Williams. Hit less than half of either and you're embarrassed.
I've been thinking of investing in a video camera. Maybe next season.
Hitting a contested jump shot might be more of a comparison to what we do. The defense is trying to stop you, and the speed with which you make incremental adjustments-- leaning in, fading away, using more or less arc-- is somewhat similar to reacting to a pitch.
I think the defenses against me are already so geared up to deny me the right side... and the same is true of you... that any further adjustment by them will open gaping holes on the left side. And the pitchers don't always execute their pitches... Appell threw me an incredible up-and-out hanger on a 2-2 count that I hit for a triple to right-center two weeks ago. Havelock and Freddy have given me some trouble lately tho.
I'm impressed by how you work counts and look over a lot of pitches. I think that helps diminish the effects of a slump-- you can get on via the walk, or at least make the pitcher throw you six pitches to get you out. That's what the top of the lineup hitters need to do.
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