Posted by: ssarge (ssarginson@earthlink.net) on Fri Oct 8 09:08:59 2004

I have been educating myself with this website since November of 2003. This is by far the best website I have found about hitting. I completely changed my swing based on what I learned from this website. I played at a division 2 school that swung wood bats in conference and I went from hitting .355 with 9 doubles and 3 homeruns my junior year (all-conference numbers) to hitting .415 with 23 doubles and 16 homeruns my senior year. (all-american numbers) I ended up signing with the Florida Marlins as a result. Thank you for all of the education. If anyone knows of any sites where I can get more video clips, I would love to hear from you. Thanks again.
> >
>
> Kevin, I extend my congratulations to you. I am a scout for the Mets,and i know a lot of the scouts in both leagues. I can tell you that the Mets, Marlins and the Cardinals have been focusing their efforts on pitching first, speed second and hitters third. But when they do sign a hitter they are looking specifically for a hitter who has sound rotational mechanics such as Jack has described. They are looking for hitters who can drive the inside and outside pitch, and the scouts feel that good execution of top hand torque wull go a long way in achieving this.On the other hand there are some organizations that seem to have a linear philosophy (the A's and Mariners come to mind). Understand that I am not criticizing them. If they feel linearism fits better with their style of slap hits to the opposite field, that's ok. But I feel (as do the scouts with scouts of the Cards, Marlins and my own organization) that in the long run, with tht you can score more runs using tht to drive HOMERUNS to the pull and opposite field rather than going linear and beisng satisfied with slap singles. Again, congratulations on your sucess.

I think Bernie's post is pretty perceptive.

It pains me to concede the point about the A's, my home town team. But it is indeed painful to watch the swings of Byrnes, Crosby, and increasingly Chavez. That kid has a chance to be one of the greats, but I think the window is closing. When he was under Epstein's influence, his swing was much more effective than today - and certainly prettier to look at, not that that should be a factor.

I will continue to maintain that MLB batting coaches don't have that much effect on the swing mechanics actually used by their hitters. But if you wanted to throw my words in my face, look at the A's hitting coach, and check out his web site. Very nicely packaged hitting instructional products. Slickly marketed. A look under the covers shows more "hands to the ball," "a straight line is the shortest point" pap. It's almost enough to turn me into a Giants fan.

Regards,

Scott