C H A P T E R S I X
When a hitter “pulls” a ball, he is hitting it to the field that is on the same side of the plate as his feet. (Think of it as “pulling” the ball to his side of the plate.) A right-handed hitter pulls the ball to the shortstop side of the infield or left of center in the outfield; a lefty pulls toward second base and right of center.
An “opposite-field” hit is to the side of the plate across from the batter. A right-handed batter goes the opposite way toward the right side of the infield or outfield; a lefty goes away toward the shortstop or left field.
The ideal hitter uses the whole field; many players get into trouble when they try too hard to pull the ball. For example, a player may try to pull an outside fastball when he would be better off shooting the ball the other way. But that’s not an easy thing for a pull hitter to learn to do, because it is not his natural swing.
Most opposite-field hitters probably didn’t learn to hit that way, either; it’s just their natural style.
You will see more coaches try to teach pull hitters to use the whole field than you will see coaches trying to get opposite-field hitters to pull the ball. Many pull hitters surround the ball, something I talked about earlier. These guys break a lot of bats.
I was an opposite-field hitter, batting from the left side of the plate; most of my hits went up the middle or to the opposite field, which to me was the left side of the infield and outfield. For me to be able to pull the ball, I had to open my stance a little (that is, pull my right foot slightly back from the plate) and look for a pitch from the middle of the plate in. And then I would have to be quicker on the trigger than I normally would be.
In other words most hitters tell themselves: “Wait, wait, wait for as long as you can.” Players who are natural pull hitters can do that. But an opposite-field hitter or up-the-middle hitter can’t do that.
Then hitters look for a pitch in a certain zone to pull, perhaps hoping for a breaking ball or something off-speed. Batters shouldn’t try to pull an outside pitch; they’ve got to look from the middle of the plate in.
It’s not easy to remake an opposite-field hitter into a full-time pull hitter. He’s generally not quick or strong enough.
Changing a swing from a natural pull to hitting to the opposite field is more difficult for a player. When a pull hitter tries to use the whole field, a lot of it comes down to the position of the hands. A hitter who gets his hands inside the ball can do it. Ichiro Suzuki can take an inside fastball and still hit it the other way. But a batter who surrounds the ball could never do that; he would break the bat.
The other part of it is pitch selection. If the ball is from the middle of the plate to away, a hitter has a better chance to hit the ball the other way. If it is middle to inside, most pull hitters are going to do what is natural to them and pull the ball.
And then when it comes time to swing, players have to tell themselves to wait longer than would be normal for them, as pull hitters.
Many dead-pull hitters are so programmed to hit in a certain way that the only time they go to the opposite field is when they make a mistake. As an example, consider Jason Giambi when he was at his peak with the Yankees. Most teams defended against him by shifting the infield, putting three infielders on the right side. He didn’t try to change his swing, and the only time he seemed to hit a ball on the ground to the opposite field or in the left-center gap was when he swung late on a fastball. When he put the ball in the air, though, his hits usually went to the opposite field, so the defense in the outfield did not put on a shift.
A hitter is allowed to stand anywhere in the batter’s box, a rectangle that is about 6 feet long and 4 feet wide, with its nearest point 6 inches away from the plate. The rules say the batter has to be in the box, and if he makes contact with one foot out of the box, the umpire is supposed to call him out. That happens rarely; you might see it sometimes when the batter lays down a drag bunt.
Kevin Youkilis, a right-handed hitter, parks his right foot as far back in the box as is legal, earning a few precious extra fractions of a second as he times his swing for a fastball.
The relatively few batters who position themselves near the front of the box are contact hitters. These are hitters who bunt, put the ball in play, and have good speed.
In most cases a hitter doesn’t intentionally stand outside the box, but there are a few batters who will rub out the back line to get closer to the catcher. That gives them a bit more distance from the pitcher and a few milliseconds extra to react to the pitch. The catcher will often object when a batter does this because it gives him a bit of an advantage and also throws off the positioning of fielders.
It used to be that hitters would make adjustments depending on the pitcher. If a guy threw hard, they would stand deep in the box to give themselves a little more time to see the ball. If a sinker ball or curveball pitcher was on the mound, they would move up in the box to try to get to the ball before it sank too much. But you don’t see players doing that much anymore. Most players take the same position with every at bat, with most of them deep in the box.
You can assume that a player who is way inside in the box—on top of the plate—has had trouble with outside pitches and is trying to cover the outside corner. He also has to be very quick on inside pitches.
Players who stand away from the plate have probably had trouble with inside pitches but have the ability to cover the outside corner.
When Carl Everett played in Boston, he had an extreme position in the box; his front foot was almost touching home plate. I guess that means he wasn’t in the box. Everett was exceptionally quick on pitches that were down and in. From a pitcher’s point of view, that left no room to throw inside without hitting him.
It’s a game of adjustments all the time. If a hitter stands on top of the plate and pitchers keep pounding the inside of the plate, he might back off a bit to better get to the ball. If they keep pitching away, away, away, the hitter may move up a little bit closer.
But the catcher is also watching the hitter’s position in the box. If he sees the hitter move one way or another in the box, he and the pitcher will make adjustments of their own. It’s fun to watch Jason Varitek studying the position of the batter in the box before setting up to receive a pitch; that’s one reason why he’s one of the best in the game.
Switch-hitting is a mystery to me; it seems like double the trouble. I have a lot of respect for players who can do it because I know how difficult it is for a player to hit from one side of the plate.
I’ve mentioned some of the things that can go wrong in swings: Your hands are not right, your footwork is off, you’re jumping at the ball, or you’re not seeing the ball well. Can you imagine having to deal with that from both sides of the plate?
The reason to switch-hit is so that most pitches are coming in to the batter, where most have greater success. Switch-hitting is something that should start very early in life, at the high school level or even before then. To try to learn to do it as a professional is very, very difficult.
There have been some great switch-hitters, though. Hall of Fame players like Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray had power from both sides.
And let’s not forget former Red Sox third baseman Bill Mueller. In 2003 he blasted back-to-back grand slams against Texas in the seventh and eighth innings of a game—the first from the right side and the second from the left. He had started the game with a solo homer in the third inning. I don’t know how you can sleep after a game like that. I used to toss and turn after I got a pair of singles. Mueller went on to win the 2003 American League batting title, with a .326 average.
“Jerry Remy has grown into an immense talent in the broadcast booth. He’s always thinking about situations, about what could happen, just like he did when he was a player.”
RUSS KENN, PRODUCER OF BOSTON RED SOX TELECASTS
Mueller, who helped lead the comeback against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, retired as a player in 2006. He made a cameo appearance at Fenway when the Red Sox returned to play Game 6 of the ALCS in 2007, their backs against the wall down three games to two. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch and Boston went on to win the game 12–2.
But not all switch-hitters are equally capable from both sides of the plate. For some of them you’ve got to wonder why they even bother—they are so much better from one side than the other. Most switch-hitters have a great difference in batting average between the left and right sides. For example, over the course of his long career, Omar Vizquel was a contact hitter from the left side, while from the right he has a little bit more pop. (Perhaps some of that might be credited to coaching from Eddie Murray.)
Red Sox captain Jason Varitek is an accomplished switch-hitter, although his stats are different from each side. Across his career he has made 3,205 plate appearances from the left side of the plate against right-handed pitchers and 1,351 appearances the other way around.
Through the end of the 2007 season, consider these Varitek stats:
Left-handed against right-handed pitchers: .260 batting average, 102 home runs, and 663 strikeouts
Right-handed against left-handed pitchers: .284 batting average, 46 home runs, and 239 strikeouts
So, Varitek has a bit more power swinging the bat from his unnatural side, but a lower batting average and a slightly higher percentage of strikeouts. (Overall, his career batting average is .267.)
If a hitter is naturally left-handed, there is really not much point to switch to the other side because most of the pitchers he is going to see are right-handers. And a left-handed hitter is a step and a half closer to first base, so if he has any kind of speed, it is almost ridiculous to move to the other side of the plate.
Another thing to consider is that some left-handed pitchers give right-handed hitters problems. Righties generally don’t throw right-handed batters a lot of changeups. But lefties may do just that, and the changeup becomes a very difficult pitch for them to hit. As an example, Tom Glavine works the outside of the plate, changing speeds, giving right-handed hitters a totally different look than they are getting from right-handed pitchers.
I am right-handed. I throw with my right hand, and I’ll sign your baseball with my right hand. But when it came to hitting, I came to the plate as a lefty. That’s just how it happened. When I was a kid, I just started swinging left-handed and that was where I was comfortable. I never even gave it a thought.
It was an advantage for me because I could run.
When I swung, I was trying to hit the ball flush, but I wanted my hands on top of the ball. My dominant hand was my right hand, and that’s also my throwing arm. So, for me swinging left-handed was much more comfortable because my dominant hand was my bottom hand on the bat. I always said my right hand led me to the ball and my left hand was just going along for the ride. (We are getting into hitting technique and philosophies here; my dog, Rajj, could give you one and the cat around the corner could give another.)
You’ll always see a few right-handed throwers who choose to go up to the plate as a lefty. More unusual is a guy who throws left-handed and hits right-handed, like Rickey Henderson.
There are three basic batting stances: straightaway (also called neutral or even), closed, and open.
In a straightaway stance, the hitter’s feet are equally distant from the plate, at a right angle to a line between the pitcher and the catcher. This is the most common stance in baseball.
“When you play this game twenty years, go to bat 10,000 times, and get 3,000 hits, do you know what that means? You’ve gone zero for 7,000.”
PETE ROSE
The second most common position is the closed stance. Here the foot closest to the pitcher is moved a bit closer to home plate than the back foot. For a right-handed batter, the front foot is pointed more directly toward first base; for a left-handed batter, the front foot is headed in the general direction of third. A closed stance brings the shoulder in. Many players who come to the plate this way are vulnerable to pitches inside, but they can handle the ball away a little bit better.
Players who have a tendency to let their shoulder fly too soon will sometimes use a closed stance. When a batter swings, he wants to go directly back toward the pitcher with his front shoulder. When coaches say a player is leaving too soon, that means the front shoulder is flying out; this makes the bat drag, opening up a lot of the plate for the pitcher.
Less common is an open stance. Here the foot closest to the pitcher is pulled slightly back from the plate. A righty would have his front foot angled toward third; a lefty’s front foot is turned slightly toward first. An open stance helps the batter see the pitch a little bit better. When he opens up, he is clearing his shoulder slightly so that he is facing the pitcher better.
An open stance helps him to be a little quicker on an inside pitch, but at the same time, he is usually vulnerable to pitches away because he has to reach across the plate. To cover the outside of the strike zone, he’ll close up the stance with a step back toward the plate as he swings.
If you see a batter holding the bat up high above his shoulders, he is probably a good high-ball hitter. Most hitters who hold the bat low are going to be low-ball hitters—it’s pretty much impossible for a guy who starts out low to get back on top.
It’s all a matter of comfort for each hitter, and it is really not where he starts, it’s how he gets to the pitch. He can start from just about anywhere. He can stand on his hands. It doesn’t matter. It is what position he gets into that will determine how good a hitter he is.
Some players go through a whole routine of wiggling and waggling before they settle in for a pitch, and I’m not just talking about Nomar and his batting gloves.
I don’t really concern myself with anything that goes on before the hitter is ready to swing. That’s just his routine; every guy’s got one. That’s just how he gets ready to hit. There are guys who are relaxed and laid-back. And then you’ll see players who have everything going one way or another. But when it comes to the trigger time—the swing—most players do the same thing.
Sometimes a batter will intentionally try to put the ball on the ground. This is something that players with speed will do, especially left-handed hitters, who are already closer to first base and are ready to fly. A batter puts the ball on the ground by getting his hands above the ball to hit the top.
Remy Says: Watch This
Spreading the Wealth
Players who use most of the ballpark are generally the best hitters in the game and usually have the highest batting averages. Manny Ramírez is a perfect example of a guy who can hit from right-center field to the leftfield line because of his swing.
Ramírez has the ability to make the decision to go to the opposite field, and he has the ability to look for a certain pitch and pull it.
Remy Says: Watch This
The Hitter and the Defense
Watch the batter’s swing and see if you can figure out what he is trying to do: Is he trying to pull the ball, or is he trying to move it the other way? Check the defense: How are they positioning themselves? The way they set up against a particular batter the first time he came up to bat may be different from the way they play him later in the game. Fielders may be trying to counter adjustments the batter has made in his swing, or the team may have made a change in pitching strategy against him.
Are the outfielders moving to different locations based on the count? When the pitcher has two strikes, look at the outfielders to see if they are moving more toward the opposite field because they expect the batter to cut down his swing to try to make contact and avoid striking out.
Some players used to try the Baltimore Chop, hitting a ball intentionally into the ground near home plate so it bounced high enough to allow the runner to reach first base before a play is made. It got its name in the 1890s when it was a favorite of legendary Baltimore players like John McGraw and Willie Keeler.
I can’t think of anybody who does this regularly today. There are those who have a downward plane to their swing, but they are still trying to hit line drives.
There are times in the game when a batter tries to bring home a runner by hitting a sacrifice fly—a ball hit in the air deep enough to allow a runner to tag up and score from third base. Like most things in baseball, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
The batter begins by looking for a pitch he can lift in the air, perhaps a hanging breaking ball or something else that is up in the zone. He’ll try to stay away from a sinker ball; he’s more likely to hit it on the ground. Some players without a natural uppercut will try to adjust their swings to hit a fly ball. For example, a ground ball, line-drive hitter may drop his hands a little bit to try to get underneath the ball.