Posted by: THG () on Tue Jan 8 15:55:15 2008

> >>> Over the years it has come to be accepted on this sit that swing flaws are the reason for slumps. And although that is likely and initial problem, it does not explain why hitters go through slumps during the playoffs when they may have come of hot streaks or career years. I believe most of the slump has to do with their thought process which involves mechanics. Also a lot of credit has to be given to the pitcher. But some of the hitters are missing pitches right down the middle of the plate. Basically they are just not picking the ball soon enough or well enough to apply a solid swing. And anyone can execute great mechanics when there is no duress from top of the line pitcher. Kenny Rodgers was completely dominant 2 years ago and it was not the swing plane that put those hitters into slumps, it was the thought process. The same can be said for Clay Buckholz no hitter. <<<
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> Hi THG
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> I agree with you that not all batting slumps can be attributed to flawed mechanics. As you pointed out, good pitching and other factors can keep even the best hitters production down for a good period of time. However, I found that in many cases, video analysis does show some batters did develop mechanical flaws during their slump that effected performance.
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> In the case of A-Rod’s batting slumps, I do not think we can attribute it solely to pitching or not picking up the ball soon enough. During his slumps, he exhibited the same mechanical flaws in the Home Run Hitting Derby as he did against good pitching. Obviously, the pitcher in the Derby was serving up the best possible balls to hit. Yet, he still exhibited the same flaws that hampered his game production.
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> Below are two clips where I discuss mechanics that produce a productive swing plane and a clip of the flaw in A-Rod’s plane.
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> <a href="http://www.batspeed.com/media/Sosa_Swing_Plane.wmv">Sosa’s swing plane</a
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> <a href="http://www.batspeed.com/media/Abreu_Swing_Plane.wmv">Abreu’s swing plane</a
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> <a href="http://www.batspeed.com/media/A-Rod_Swing_Plane.wmv">A-Rod’s swing plane</a –
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> Jack Mankin


Jack. Thanks for the info and I do agree to a large degree with your analysis, but perhaps at sometime we need to touch on the mental side at a future date. Why? Because many such slumps be they mechanical occur when the hitter is likely overtrying. And the homerun derby is a classic case of why a hitter may over try. As such a number of hitters produce no homeruns at all.

For the most part they may simply be flying off pitches or perhaps it is the swing plane. But if they were hitting well before what happened? Perhaps they are thinking to much and in a pinch forget to do what works and go back to ways of the past. In the clip it appears that A-Rod collapses his swing and actually looks like he was fooled by the pitch. As such he legs appear in my opinion to collapse in a effort to lunge at the ball. Perhaps he was thinking about going to the opposite field initially and then remember it was an offspeed pitch but was already in a pull mode?

Don't get me wrong A-Rod is a great player and an asset to any team. But in his best season regarding clutch performances he reverted to the A-Rod of old in last seasons playoff. Even on the one homerun he hit it was not a good swing but because he is so strong it went out. As a matter of fact he looked surprised because he knew that pitch was not struck well.

Abreu and Sosa are more offspeed hitters so I would expect them to do better in homerun derby.

One interesting note I happened to notice Brad Hawp in the playoffs. He was completely overmatched until a pitch was thrown low and in for his homerun. On any pitch that was thigh high or higher it could be seen that he needed to start his approach sooner.