A variety of my ideas on hitting are rooted in my very own experiences taking part in, for higher or for worse. Once I was at school taking part in ball, I used to be consistently working via a selected mechanical problem. Historically, it’s referred to as “getting caught on the again aspect,” however I all the time stated I received caught on a pedestal. Once I received to the very best level of my leg kick (which was reasonably excessive), I typically transferred an excessive amount of of my weight over my again foot – it was a swing path killer. Due to my intensive expertise with it, I’ve all the time been eager on figuring out hitters who’ve an identical problem.
Rotational actions like hitting and pitching have linear elements, however hitters must do extra than simply transfer on the coronal aircraft (from left to proper or proper to left) with a purpose to have a deep entry into the hitting zone. A hitter has to rotate along with his hips and/or backbone whereas transferring alongside that linear aircraft to create rotational energy and an excellent bat path. Within the case of pedestal hitters, they attain their peak leg carry whereas typically neglecting these different points of motion.
Take Will Smith, for instance. He makes use of a excessive leg kick to create house in his swing and fell into the pedestal hitting behavior through the second half of final season:
October ninth
September twenty second
September seventh
A number of hittable pitches within the coronary heart of the zone with no barrels to indicate for it. On the middle-middle heaters, his path was reduce off and he solely skimmed the underside of the ball, slightly than hitting it flush. That led to can-of-corn fly balls to proper area as an alternative of barreled line drives. This was a persistent problem for Smith all through 2023 – the worst offensive season of his five-year profession and the primary with an ISO beneath .200.
Once you switch an excessive amount of weight over your again foot, you both get caught and create a path which ends up in lazy fly balls to the alternative area otherwise you fall too heavy in your entrance aspect and hit grounders like Smith did towards Manaea. You lose depth in your bat path and might’t cowl as a lot of the zone together with your barrel. For Smith, that negatively impacted his wOBA on outer third pitches. For the majority of his profession, he has been capable of cowl these pitches, so this must be one thing he can repair. To try this, he’ll must get again to his early 2023 swings the place he was balanced and creating house for his bat to work via the zone.
April thirtieth
Smith is an effective sufficient hitter that he nonetheless posted a 119 wRC+ final yr regardless of his mechanical flaw. Not everybody has that a lot room for error, although. Enrique Hernández has had a wRC+ beneath 75 in consecutive seasons after working a 109 mark in 2021. Like Smith, he sometimes depends on a giant leg kick to create house, rhythm, and timing in his swing. And whereas the dimensions of his leg kick fluctuates greater than Smith’s, it’s nonetheless a key driver in his course of. Listed below are just a few swings from 2023 earlier than he was traded to the Dodgers:
April eleventh
June twenty fifth
July 2nd
Even if you wish to reduce Hernández some slack on the top quality changeup from Shane McClanahan, that swing remains to be instance of how his lack of stability causes him to land closely on his lead leg. The heavy touchdown is much more apparent in his swing towards Jesse Scholtens within the second clip. With that swing specifically, his leg kick works straight up and down, which causes him to power a lead hip exterior rotation.
What do I imply by that? In the event you’re making an attempt to blow up your lead leg open, you’d create the counter motion (inside hip rotation) first. That method, you’re making a reciprocal sample that results in easy exterior rotation. Staying impartial initially of the swing creates an imbalance, inflicting the hitter to face on the pedestal as an alternative of rotating into after which out of it as he swings. Hernández has hyper cell exterior rotation, which is seen by his tendency to stride open. To manage it, he must create enough counter rotation along with his hips. Unsurprisingly, when he went to Los Angeles, he made a transparent change in his leg carry that allowed him to stack his heart of mass over his midpoint as an alternative of his again leg. Take note of the course he works his leg kick:
August nineteenth
September ninth
His leg carry began engaged on an angle in the direction of his again leg, which allowed him to have a managed explosion and balanced swing. With the Dodgers, he had a 96 wRC+ – far more in step with his profession 94 mark. Sure, it was over a pattern of 185 plate appearances, however the motion high quality enchancment is plain.
The final instance I’ll use to painting pedestal hitters is Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan. His case is a little more sophisticated. In his rookie season, he splashed onto the scene with a 126 wRC+. Nonetheless, his peripherals recommended there would doubtless be a regression – his .341 wOBA was significantly increased than his .312 xwOBA. In 2023, these numbers virtually utterly converged. He had a .313 wOBA and .318 xwOBA. From a mechanical viewpoint, this wasn’t utterly shocking.
His massive leg kick is an important part of his swing. It retains him steady, which performs a key position in his nice plate self-discipline. Nonetheless, the motion additionally makes him closely reliant on his fingers to do many of the work to get on aircraft. Given his elite bat-to-ball expertise, he can efficiently try this greater than different gamers, however he doesn’t have a lot room for error. If he will get caught on his again aspect, his fingers can solely achieve this a lot. If he identifies a pitch too late, even simply barely, then he places himself in a troublesome place to make flush contact. Listed below are just a few swings exhibiting that:
July ninth
August thirtieth
September twenty second
Every of those fastballs have been thrown between 96 and 97 mph, however have been proper down the center. Kwan couldn’t get his fingers on aircraft regardless of the hittable places. This was a pattern for him all yr. In 2023, he noticed 190 four-seamers with a velocity of at the very least 96 mph and had a .155 wOBA towards them. That is one other instance of why rotational hitters like Kwan, Hernández and Smith have to be on high of their mechanics always. Pedestal hitting provides batters even much less margin for error than different hitters towards excessive velocity.
Each hitter has his weak spot, and for this trio of gamers, theirs is instantly associated to how they load with their leg kick. As I watch every of them in 2024, I’ll be in search of any potential changes they may have revamped the offseason, or would possibly make because the season progresses.
