Posted by: Torque (roscoethewestie@comcast.net) on Wed Mar 11 04:48:28 2009

> so i am wondering the best way to see the ball recognize it than hit it.
> i was told take the ball of the pitchers logo on his hat, than pick up the speed and rotation and since i am a pull hitter see outside react on the inside pitches. is this good advice or do you have better tips?

I don't know what the best advice is for you but you are smart in concentrating your efforts on seeing the ball and early pitch recognition. I hit much better when I focus on seeing the ball early and seeing it well. A lot of good hitters take the approach you take.

Hank Aaron said he was always looking breaking/offspeed because he knew no one could slip the fastball past him. Ted Williams broke the strike zone down into a grid of 100 sections and knew his batting average and had a good feel how he hit against all pitch locations. He spent more time swinging at the pitches he knew he would have success hitting.

If you are a hitter that knows what you can't hit as well then maybe you take an approach where you let the pitch go early in the count and look for a better pitch. Then work on the inside pitch and develop your hitting philosophy on inside pitches. The Hank Aaron approach in your case would be to always look for the inside pitch knowing that you will hit the outside pitch well. The Ted Williams approach would be to look for a good pitch for you to hit (outside) knowing that the outside pitch is your high percentage pitch. Two different approaches by two masters. I think the most important piece of advice would be to have a simple good consistent plan and do a little experimenting.

You are talking about two things in your comment. The first is early pitch recognition and the second is hitting philosophy on an inside pitch. Good hitters focus on both which it sounds like you are doing.

I am currently working with my son on hitting the outside pitch. He is sometimes swinging at an outside pitch at the same point in time as he would an inside pitch. I purchased a Tanner Tee. It is the same one used by major leagues and numerous teams. It can me moved very low to very high and all over easily. We are setting the tee deeper and low on the outside corner plate and working on driving line drives up the middle and to right center. Hitting is all about correct muscle memory. You might get one of these tees $60 shipped to your home. You could work inside and outside pitches. I really like this tee. The hitting DVDs on this site are also very good for creating torque and power on the baseball which is a must.