Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue May 16 16:46:50 2006

>>> If you watch videos of Piazza's swing in the peak of his hitting career, you'll see that his power was generated from the tremendous extension of his hands through the strike zone - and he smacked them 450ft + - I might add! Analysis will also show that Griffey would roll his wrists on contact, producing that most treasured back-spin the experts subject to. <<<

Hi Scott

Welcome to the site. – I have studied dozens of Piazza clips and I agree that his hands are more extended at contact than most of the best hitters. However, I disagree that he developed his power from that extension.

After charting Mike’s swing when the Dodgers first brought him up in September, I told my sons to buy as many of his rookie cards as they could find. Any hitter who could generate the rearward acceleration of the bat-head I charted in his swing (THT) was bound to put up some great numbers.

You stated, "Analysis will also show that Griffey would roll his wrists on contact.", -- Let us Analyze a clip of his swing - http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Griffey01.mpeg - and see when his wrists started to roll. – His wrists remain palm-up/palm-down right through contact. They do not roll until the bat is pointing toward the pitcher.

Also, frame-by-frame the clip forward to contact. Note his back-arm still forms the “L” position at contact. That is closer to the contact position I found in most of the best hitters. As I stated earlier, Piazza’s was more (but not fully) extended.

Jack Mankin