Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Tue Jul 10 05:26:46 2001

During the HR derby tonight, ESPN showed a clip of Gonzalez describing his swing. "I open up a lot more with my back foot in the batter's box; it's turned more toward the pitcher so my hips are freed up a little bit more..".
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> Could opening up the back foot (pointing the toes more toward the pitcher) in the box help contribute to better shoulder rotation???
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> Thanks.

The key is that the back foot must turn over to drive the back hip around.
If you do the opposite - point the back foot more toward the catcher/away from the pitcher, it can make you close off your hips, losing shoulder rotation. The foot position hinders the turnover action.
If opening the foot a bit helps that turn over action, then Gonzalez is doing what helps him.
Gonzalez is an interesting hitter. He is close to the plate. He is very rotational. He almost seems to spin off the front side. He hit as many foul HRs as fair ones. So he was pretty much sitting on inside pitches and turning through them. For that, the open back foot probably helped.
I don't see him play much (Boston/ AL). Does he always hit that way or was that an adjustment for the HR Derby?
He'd certainly need some adjustments to that swing if he was pitched away all the time. He never hit a ball even to centerfield last night.