You Never Know Who’s Watching

by: Bob Howdeshell
High School Baseball Web

The statement above is a common one used on this web site. It means that a player should hustle and give his best effort every time he steps on the field. That includes practice and games.

Because You Never Know Who’s Watching

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be allowed to sit with several college coaches as they evaluated talent at a very good high school baseball tournament. This was a small tournament with only six invited teams, held at a major division 1 college campus. A “showcase” tournament.

No player’s names are being used, no teams are being mentioned and I will try to stay as generic as possible with the description of these players. The focus of this article is to make a point, not to embarrass any particular player.

The following are some of the comments and discussions that I was allowed to listen in on:

The first involves a player with a “national reputation” listed as a top prospect in several sources that I am familiar with. He is a position player. The coaches were in agreement that this player had several nice tools …. Good arm strength, good glove and good speed. The question that each of them had was his ability to hit at the upper end of college baseball.

Some coaches told me that the solid tools that the player had would make him a prospect to them even without “plus” hitting abilities.

What happened next amazed even me. The player was struggling with his bat but showed flashes of an “upside.” However on defense the player did not move well. Did not show good anticipation, did not follow foul balls (showing a jump). More often than not only moved from his position if he was involved in the play.

Some of the coaches REALLY did not like the “lazy” (their words – not mine) attitude shown. On a couple of stolen base attempts (where the player was covering the bag) he did not make an attempt to stop a “less than perfect” throw. Basically he flagged at the ball and got out of the way.

One coach told me that he wanted players that were interested in “sticking their nose in there and getting dirty.” This coach is with a team that would be considered a “national power.”

Some of the coaches told me that they would have to see the player again – later this summer before making any decision regarding a potential scholarship offer. Other coaches told me that they probably would not pursue this player any further.

• Next Up - A right handed pitcher that was throwing solidly in the upper 80’s. He has a slight movement on his fastball, an okay breaking ball and a fair change-up.

  This player however did impress many of the coaches. WHY ????
  He did not have his best control at times. At times was getting penalized by a “moving” and small strike zone, and had 5 errors made behind him, by his defense.

  What caught the coach’s attention was his ability to battle and keep challenging the hitters. He did not drop his head or slump his shoulders when things went against him. He showed no expression when a ball was called on an obvious strike.

  He even went so far as to walk over and speak to his second baseman, after a costly error and then pat him on the back as he walked away. The coaches I was sitting near did not miss this!

  Each of the coaches that I spoke to admitted that they did not have the player on their lists of potential recruits. Each also said that they would be making a point to see the player pitch again this summer.

  This player became a prospect with several “big time” schools on a day when he was the losing pitcher and did not have his best stuff. Because of his attitude and the heart he showed.

• Third Example: Is a big first baseman. This young man does not run like a gazelle, does not have a great arm. (average at best) He is not what you would term “athletic” but he is not fat. However he made points with several of the coaches in attendance.

  Of course you have guessed it by now …. The young man can hit with the best of them.
  There is a little more to the story though. He can hit to all fields with power. He displayed a good ability to “go with a pitch.” He showed a good knowledge of the strike zone. I personally did not see him chase a bad pitch.

  With runners on second and third and no outs in a one run ball game this young man hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield. He did this with a 2-strike count. He made an out and the run scored. He did his job for his team.

  He hit a home run or two over the weekend, a double or two to the spacious gaps, had several “screaming” singles, but more importantly he hustled!

  This player ran hard on and off the field, every inning He did not quit as most of his teammates did in a blow out loss at one point in the tournament. As one pro scout commented to me …. “A “player” never changes his game, no matter what the score. A “player” plays as hard if his team is behind seven runs or ahead seven runs, or if his team is in a one run ballgame."

If you think that college coaches and professional scouts do not notice the “little things” you are mistaken. As one coach told me …. “We have to pay attention to each of the intangibles, it is the only real separator between some of these guys.” He went on to explain that each recruiting year they will have several players on their board that are essentially equal in athletic skills and ability. What then makes the difference is the “Little Things.”

So the next time you think that it doesn’t matter how you hustle or present yourself maybe you should revisit that part of your game. As another coach told me … “A player can hustle and give his maximum effort even on a day when he and/or his team is not playing their best game. It doesn’t take any athletic ability to hustle.”

You Never Know Who Is Watching

HITTING TIPS

THE FOUNDATION OF HITTING
Hitting .300 is as simple as learning the foundation of hitting. Coaches and instructors often make the mistake of complicating what is a very simple process. We tend to confuse kids by getting them to think about a bunch of technical jargon when the basic foundation will do the job. With these Hitting Tips, I am going to give you a conventional and solid basis for everything you will do as a hitter, from day one. When you get to the higher levels—high school, college and pro ball—and you are already pretty good and other people think you can hit, then it’s okay to experiment with different techniques if you think they will help you hit the ball better. But to get started, watch the video clips to learn all the basics of hitting that lay the groundwork for success:

THE STRIDE -
The Stride should also take you in a straight line. If you were to draw a straight line from the batter to the pitcher—that’s how I want you to stride. If I stride open—if I’m stepping back away from the pitcher, it will force my front-side shoulder to come out, and then I have to open my hips early. Next thing you know I’m dropping my hands and I won’t be able to take a straight path to the ball.

For me, the key to success is to take a straight path to the ball, to get back to basics. If you follow that straight path your hips stay square (again, lined up with the pitcher) and at that point you can take the bat directly to the ball.

Remember that the shortest distance between two points (the batter and the pitcher’s release point) is a straight line. Any deviation from the straight line will make your swing longer. That’s when you hear comments like: “He has to drag his bat through the strike zone.”

Avoid overstriding or lunging at the pitch. If you stride too far your head starts to move and you won’t get a good look at the pitch.

RHYTHM & BALANCE -
The whole game of baseball is based on being in balance—fielding, running and hitting all depend on balance, and that’s what will determine your progress and success in everything you do on the baseball field.

You have to go back to go forward. This rule applies to almost any athletic activity. If you are a runner on a track the objective is to create some type of momentum; you want to lean back-- that’s why a sprinter uses blocks—before exploding forward. A cat that’s on the prowl is in a coiled position before it strikes—same thing with a snake that’s coiled—essentially moving in reverse—before striking at its prey.

For hitting, there needs to be a little bit of lean back to initiate the swing before you stride forward. You’ll see some hitters do a little step back, which is often called the “toe-tap.” Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves does this and it works well for him: He steps back and then goes forward. I’m not an advocate of the toe-tap, but you have to do something in your swing to get your weight to go back before moving forward.

Think of this triggering mechanism as a bow and arrow: You have to draw the bow back slowly and then let it go so that it can hit its target. Same thing with hitting: It’s a slow step back to trigger the movement—the coiling of the snake, and then a smooth move forward. As you pick up your front foot you should be able to stand on one leg. If I pick up my front foot and fall forward it’s a sure bet that my balance is off.

Here’s how it all works together in sequence: I’m relaxed and ready as I step into the batter’s box with a shoulder-width stance. I’ve got the bat in the position where I picked it up off my shoulders, the pitch is coming, I pick my foot up and I have to go back before going forward or I’ll be unbalanced at the outset of the swing.

Weight transfer = keep your head down on the ball. Shift your weight from back to middle to the point of contact as you keep your head down on the ball. I’m swinging down on the ball as if I’m chopping down a tree with an ax.

THE GRIP -
Grip is the key to success or failure with any bat. When I was coaching my kids back in Evansville, Indiana, I noticed that they would always squeeze the bat too hard rather than applying a relaxed grip. What’s more, kids can’t understand the concept of putting the bat in the fingertips and lining up the knuckles. For proper knuckle alignment, you want to line up the middle knuckles of your fingers on both hands.

I started wondering about the possibility of a bat design that would set the right knuckle alignment and fingertip grip automatically.

I decided to move forward with the idea of making bats to get more kids to try this new design. It’s funny because I started this company out of a simple idea to help my kids use their hands better on the bat, to make hitting easier and more comfortable. But you put the bat in your hand and the first thought that pops in your head is, “This is perfect. It fits right in the fingertips. You don’t have to think about what you’re doing; the bat does everything for you.”

THE SWING -
In a perfect world you want a shorter swing that goes directly from Point A to Point B because simplicity is better: As pitchers throw harder, a longer swing will give you less time to make adjustments. We’re talking about time and distance: A swing on a straight line puts your hands straight to the path of the pitch. If you have a longer swing, though, your path is not quite as direct and that little movement will end up causing you trouble.

Fall back on the foundation we covered previously: A square (square = straight-line to the ball) stance; square stride, with the bottom hand going to the ball; moving from Point A to Point B. This is the foundation for a shorter swing that will cut down on your strikeouts and improve your ability to make contact with consistency.
The only way to apply the solid foundation of hitting is with a fluid, controlled and relaxed swing. That’s a given, and yet one of the biggest problems facing young hitters is that they grip the bat way too hard.

All this talk about proper mechanics and the foundation of hitting goes out the window if you are squeezing the bat instead of applying a relaxed grip. Let the bat feel relaxed in your hand so that the wrist action is like casting a fishing line or popping a whip. Casting a fishing line calls for a flick of the wrist. The same flick-of-the-wrist technique applies to swinging a baseball bat.

The Inside/Out Swing—your hands lead the bat head. An inside/out hitter keeps his hands inside the baseball. I like the concept of the inside/out swing because it keeps you focused on the straight-line mechanics that are the foundation of hitting. Let’s say you get a pitch to hit in the middle part of the plate. If you have a good swing—and you are making sure your hands are inside of the ball, you will hit the ball in three or four different places and it will look as if you hit the ball on the nose. You can hit a bullet to left-center, a bullet to dead center, a bullet to right-center and probably hit the ball hard down either line. In each case it would look like you hit the ball right on the nose.

The hands go back slowly; you go directly to the ball; and you hit it in different spots, depending on the location of the pitch, to spray the ball to all fields.

The pitch that nips the outside corner has to come farther to you, and so you’ll have to hit it back farther, or deeper, towards you at the plate. A left-handed batter will shoot that pitch towards left; a right-handed hitter will shoot that pitch towards right. The ball you hit up the middle is a ball you hit a little farther out in front of you and it’s located towards the middle part of the plate. Remember that you have to hit the ball where it’s pitched; that’s basic. So the one solid swing we’ve been working on will allow you to hit the ball to leftfield, centerfield or right.

FOLLOW-THROUGH -
I prefer “finish your swing” to the concept of the “follow-through” on the swing. You always hear about “staying through the ball” and that simply means to leave your head down and finish your swing. Don’t look up and start pulling off as soon as you hit the ball. The goal is to hit through the ball and then look for it after making contact.

When you hear baseball analysts or coaches talk about “full extension” of the bat all they really mean is to “finish the swing.” Swing to the ball and swing through the ball. If you are trying to chop down a tree with an ax you never stop short at the point of contact. You want to chop as if you are cutting all the way through that tree.

It’s the same deal with swinging a baseball bat. If you stop the swing and look up as soon as you hit the ball you end up falling backwards. Now, if I swing through the ball my transfer of weight keeps me going and I’ll rotate through the ball and finish my swing.

1.Never put the tying or go-ahead run on base.

2.Play for the tie at home, go for the victory on the road.

3.Don't hit and run with an 0-2 count.

4.Don't play the infield in early in the game.

5.Never make the first or third out at third.

6.Never steal when you're two or more runs down.

7.Don't steal when you're well ahead.

8.Don't steal third with two outs.

9.Don't bunt for a hit when you need a sacrifice.

10.Never throw behind the runner.

11.Left and right fielders concede everything to center fielder.

12.Never give up a home run on an 0-2 count.

13.Never let the score influence the way you manage.

14.Don't go against the percentages.

15.Take a strike when your club is behind in a ballgame.

16.Leadoff hitter must be a base stealer. Designated hitter must be a power hitter.

17.Never give an intentional walk if first base is occupied.

18.With runners in scoring position and first base open, walk the number eight hitter to get to the pitcher.

19.In rundown situations, always run the runner back toward the base from which he came.

20.If you play for one run, that's all you'll get.

21.Don't bunt with a power hitter up.

22.Don't take the bat out of your best hitter's hands by sacrificing in front of him.

23.Only use your bullpen stopper in late-inning situations.

24.Don't use your stopper in a tie game - only when you're ahead.

25.Hit behind the runner at first.

26.If one of your players gets knocked down by a pitch, retaliate.

27.Hit the ball where it's pitched.

28.A manager should remain detached from his players.

29.Never mention a no-hitter while it's in progress.

30.With a right-hander on the mound, don't walk a right-handed hitter to pitch to a left-handed hitter.

 

**Taken from the Baseball Almanac.