Posted by: THG () on Wed Jul 2 10:29:14 2008

> Why is the barred front arm frowned upon? Most major leaugers do it why do we continue to teach mechanics that only average hitters do?


Mike. The barred arm often results in casting the hands and or a chopping type swing. Often Nick Swisher appears to cast. The cast opens up a lot of holes in the swing because the hitter's bat is only in the strike zone a limited amount of time. And in order to hit the batter has to rely solely on athletic ability and exact timing.

Hitting is much more mental now than physical once the hitter makes it to the big leagues. Just take the Cubs/Sox series regarding Aramis Ramirez. One week he is a Hall of Famer and the next week he is a goat. How do you explain the complete "about face" and lack of production? Who knows. He must not be seeing the ball as well. Perhaps the pitching was better. Maybe he had a swing flaw? Or maybe it was the law of averages or his thought process at the plate? Only the elite hitters (for the most part) come through consistently in the clutch. And that is because some hitters can just flat out hit regardless.