Posted by: The Hitting Guru (hitman3527@aol.com) on Fri Mar 24 22:09:33 2006

> Anyone notice that the old-timers Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, Williams, Mantle, Mays, Aaron all carried their hands low next to their ribs during their stance? I notice during the WBC, Japanese batters tend to keep their hands out front in above home plate. Modern MLB players tend to keep their hands at least shoulder high. If we're to follow Williams and these superstars, shy don't we teach players to start their hands low anymore?


You may have a point, but I believe Aaron and Dimaggio's hands were up more than the others. Also each player you named was a Hall of Famer and most likely would have been successful regardless of their technique. At least a few of the above were exception athletes in addition to being great players.

With the hands low, the player has to be exceptionally strong or have athletic ability or precise/consistent timing in order to make up for the low hand position. Most players with low hands do not last very long though some have put up great numbers. The reason for the most part is that it is hard to hit a good high fastball with a low hand position. A player has to uppercut to get to a level plane in order to make contact with such a pitch. Of the great hitters who are non steroid users only a few can handle the fast ball up consistently. Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Pujols are the only ones that come to mind at the immediate who can handle the high fastball consistently.