Posted by: The Hitting Guru (hitman3527@aol.com) on Mon May 22 14:45:45 2006

> BHL and all of you who believe in his ridiculous Pull Hit Theory on this site, in case you haven't already read it, go get last week's SI with Pujols on the cover. Read the article on Pujols "Swing of Beauty" and then explain to the rest of us why the greatest hitter today in baseball actually trains to avoid "pulling the ball?"
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> Here are some quotes from the article for the linguistic genius (BHL)to chew on.
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> Cardinals first base coach Dave McKay, Pujols's personal BP pitcher during the season, often pitches him exclusively away.
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> "From the very first day we saw him in camp, he wasn't whaling," McKay says. "He'll ask me to pitch him away, away, so he can concentrate on seeing the ball.
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> Pujols asks, "What are we doing?" Mihlfeld replies, "Some hit-and-run," and pinpoints 20 minutes' worth of fastballs on the outside corner. Pujols hits almost every one to rightfield, exhaling in short, sharp bursts -- Whew! Whew! -- that ripple his upper lip as he makes contact. "He'll go four or five weeks before he pulls the ball," Mihlfeld says.
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> So BHL and your small contingency of supporters, please come back on and instead of telling ME (us) how wrong we are about your Pull Hitting Theory or sharing with us some ridiculous statistics and BIG words...come back on and tell us all what Albert Pujols is doing wrong by trying NOT to be a pull hitter? Would think the greatest hitter today in baseball would not want to avoid pulling the ball if in fact HE thought it would help him?
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> P.S.- The P.S. as BHL always does assuming we hadn't heard enough of him already...uh...your expert thoughts on this???

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Sam R. Lighten up a bit, though I understand the spirit of your comments. Everyone's opinion for the most part has merit. Let us remember that a power hitter who has a great eye at the plate does not have to use the opposite field much. You never see Ted Williams or Babe Ruth hitting a homerun to the opposite field. This is not to say they did not do it or have the ability, but we never saw it. Ted Williams basically claimed he would not give in in a effort not to pull. Also for a hitter that goes to the off field without Pujols' strength many of those homeruns under the same swing would have been outs. Opposite field flyballs are generally outs to the less than exceptional players. Ted Williams believed that for the guy who's best shot is not going out of the yard he should hit the ball on the ground when going to the opposite field. (Science of hitting)

In general, the pitchers' only chance against Pujols has been up and in or out of the strikezone. Any hitter can be pitched to, but it takes an exceptional pitcher to do so. Most pitchers are AFRAID to pitch the high hard inside stuff. There is such a tendency to pitch outside that Pujols can afford to cheat that way. Any of the great hardball throwers should/would make Pujols respect them inside.

Pujols is in a league of his own. And maybe we should study his technique more from an overall hitter standpoint. He hits line drives for homeruns and is not an all or nothing swinger. (But if the pitchers can't pitch inside, they might as well walk him.)