Since baseball started tracking the intercept point, Tatis has not had a lower intercept point in any month than the 27.6 inches he\u2019s showing this August. In other words, he\u2019s letting the ball travel deeper into his bat path more than ever. That has been great for putting the ball in play, and so his contact and strikeout rates are the best of his career, but it\u2019s also pushed his power production down to the lowest point of his career.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear from the numbers and the eye test that he\u2019s been tinkering with his stance and his approach all year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still searching and just trying to compete every single day,\u201d Tatis said.<\/p>\n
The difference between his stance and intercept point late last year (left) and this past month (right) shows just how much more open his stance is now, and how much further he\u2019s letting the ball travel in the zone.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s standing more spread out this year, with a more open stance, closer to the plate and further back in the box. Even recently, he\u2019s made more changes, as he\u2019s gone from an average of 41 degrees open\u00a0before this past weekend to 10 degrees open, more like he was last season. He\u2019s still letting the ball travel four inches further before making contact, which may just be robbing him of power.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything that you hit the other way and you get results (on) is always a good sign,\u201d said Rodriguez, who has a different take on the subject. \u201cYou let it travel, and you just went with it, instead of trying to do too much with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking at comparable players, Tatis has top-quartile bat speed and a 30-degree swing tilt \u2014 a swing that\u2019s on the flatter end but not as flat as the swings for Randy Arozarena or Corbin Carroll. We can look for comps based on those two aspects alone, and we\u2019ll find a list of 25 players that run the gamut from Seiya Suzuki and Bobby Witt Jr. to Nathaniel Lowe to Christian Walker.<\/p>\n
Now, let\u2019s separate that group by who lets the ball travel (lower intercept point) and who goes and gets the ball out front (higher intercept point). The entire group averages a 30-degree tilt and a 73 mph swing speed like Tatis, but the difference in results between the \u201clet it travel\u201d and \u201cgo get it\u201d groups is fairly stark, given how much else they have in common.<\/p>\n
\n| \n Go get it<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 33<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 0.449<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 55.20%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n To recap, all of these players swing equally fast and have similarly shaped swings, but the hitters who go get the ball out in front get 25 points more slugging by hitting the ball at the right angles more often. As a group, the \u201cgo-getters\u201d pull the ball more, hit the ball in the air more, barrel the ball more and have better overall production.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to say that Tatis needs to get the ball out in front more, and another to do that successfully, as his hitting coach points out. Tatis is pulling the ball in the air less than ever, but could the problem be that he wants to pull the ball in the air more often?<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of times it\u2019s because you want to,\u201d Rodriguez said of the desire to lift and separate. \u201cYou want to. And when you want to, what do you do? You open up and you cheat. But when you don\u2019t want to and you\u2019re in a good direction, you let the ball and your hands do the work. When you\u2019re trying to pull, that\u2019s when you get into trouble. But when you\u2019re in a good position \u2026 and the ball is inside, you react the right way \u2014 you lift it. So it\u2019s a matter of staying with a good approach to the big part of the field and letting his ability \u2014 his quickness \u2014 take over.\u201d<\/p>\n Letting the ball travel has been good for Tatis\u2019 strikeout rate so far this year, but has dampened his power production. Even getting the ball out in front another three inches, as he did last season, could get him back the power he\u2019s been missing this year. Perhaps it\u2019s wise to embrace a few more swings and misses if that aggression out front brings back the homers.<\/p>\n But the trick might be, somehow, to go get that ball without opening up, attacking within ideal mechanics. Controlled aggression. So simple when you say it that way.<\/p>\n (Photo: Carmen Mandato \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Diego Padres need more power in their lineup to put them over the top. The team…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,1306,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-161634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-san-diego-padres","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115062260789490477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |
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