Posted by: Jimmy () on Wed Jan 2 23:36:52 2008

Hi JW,

You mentioned controlled aggression, but the aggression is all you spoke about. What about the control?

I actually put the word aggression before control when I describe it as... Aggressive Under Control.

I do this because the hitter has to be ready to go and aggressive first, but controlled enough to actually put a quality swing on those strikes. He also has to be controlled enough to be able to take the pitches he has no business swinging at.

The only pitches that hitters should be swinging at (before two strikes) are the ones that they can absolutely hammer.

I agree with you about them learning their strike zone by swinging the bat, but this is learned in practice. Hitters hit 1000 times more baseballs in their life during practice than in a game. They need to pay attention to which pitches are hit hard more often and which pitches are not.

It is not a coincidence that hitters with the best strike-zone discipline have the best averages.

And as far as the two strike count goes...

Having two strikes in the count is only half the story...How did you get to two strikes is the telling fact about the at-bat and the hitter.

If the hitter has two strikes because he swung at two balls at his eyes, this does not mean he is aggressive, it means he has no control and the count should be 2-0 instead of 0-2.

If the hitter fouled off two meatballs down the middle of the plate to make the count 0-2, that is also a control issue for me. Had he put a quality swing on the first one, he'd be standing on second with a first pitch double. Instead he's in the hole 0-2.

Then again maybe he wasn't ready to hit early enough and those meatballs caught him by suprise. In that case, shame on him for missing an opportunity because of a simple lack of focus and aggressiveness.

If the hitter took two bastard pitches for strikes that would have probably been outs had he put them in play. In that case the hitter stayed with his plan and executed aggressiveness under control. He has a chance.

In any case, the hitter must not swing at pitches just to stay away from two strikes. He must swing because it was a pitch that was in the zone that he anticipated.

Swinging to stay away from the two strike count is a defensive, sissy, fearful approach, that will lead to more strikeouts and less solid contact because of the constant offering at balls out of the zone.

If you want to teach someone how to strikeout, tell them to swing at everything.

If you want to teach someone to be Aggressive Under Control at the plate, teach them to be ready to swing at every pitch that enters their zone, but controlled enough to shut the swing off at balls out of the zone.

I do understand the age factor in this discussion. The difference between pro guys and 11 year olds is the pitchers ability to throw strikes and the umpires ability to call the actual strike zone.

An 11 year old game would take 10 hours if the ump called the actual zone with these pitchers, so the zones in those leagues are huge. This in-turn makes the hitter feel like he has to swing at everything or else it's called a strike...I get it.

But I don't think this is a reason not to teach the youngsters a good Aggressive Under Control approach.

Even if it means they walk 4 times in a game or strike out looking at 3 bad calls by the ump. Remember that its about development and not wins and losses right! It's not about the result...It's about the process.

If the good players get walked and the lesser players get pitched to, TOO BAD...That is how baseball is played! They have to get used to that fact as well in their development.

Deal with the fact that your son isn't going to be the hero every night, and more importantly, teach him to deal with it also.

Swing at the meatballs, Take the balls, and Battle with two strikes!

Aggressive Under Control!

Jimmy