Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sat Feb 12 14:41:16 2005

>>> Jack, I apologize for not giving you the video I was talking about. You can find it here: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/player_media.jsp?player_id=134181

As you can clearly see, the pitch is right down the middle, and Beltre hits it to right-center (the other way).

I would agree that the back arm needs to straighten on an outside pitch, but this pitch was clearly not outside. If you compare the same type of pitch to someone like Barry Bonds, Shawn Green, or Sammy Sosa, you will note that their elbows are tucked in.

After seeing this video, would you say that Beltre's back arm straightened too much at contact? He consistently does this, and consistently hits home runs. I'm confused, to say the least. <<<

Hi Mike

I could not get the frame-by-frame of his swing to work. But from what I could see, he was far enough off the plate to treat pitches down the middle as more outside pitches. As I stated before I did not give a swing classification to a batter until I had charted 15 or more swings at various pitch location. In most cases I also had across the plate views of their swings to gauge the extension of the arm at contact.

Mike, there could be a great hitter that does not conform to the “Absolutes” I defined. All I can say for sure is that I have not found one player in all the hitters I have charted that did not.

Jack Mankin