Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Sun Nov 5 18:29:38 2006

> I dont think a lot of reaction hitters are succesful at the high level. Its all about anticipation. IF you anticipate correctly your eyes work better for you. At the same time, you cant just pick a pith out of the blue and look for it. You gotta look at pitch charts, know the situation and make an educated guess on whats coming. If you think breaking ball and get a fastball you wont catch up, but so what. Take it!

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TSA. I can appreciate your comments, but would add that the hitter should have a good idea of what he does well. Every hitter should have his own strike zone which emphasizes the pitches he best handles. In addition the hitter as you alluded to should have an idea of what the pitcher can throw for strikes. It has been said that the first at bat of a game a hitter should not swing at a pitch he has not seen unless he has two strikes. I happen to agree unless the pitch is just a fat pitch that the hitter has 100% confidence that he can hit.

As far as reaction hitters go, there are few that I can think of that can just look for the ball and get maximum results. Ken Griffey is one of such players. Barry Bonds is another as once he has the pitches timed, the pitcher is dead meat for the most part. Even most good hitters, have to look fastball and adust down. Hitters with less bat spead have to (cheat/anticipate more) in an effort to hit a good fastball effectively. A good example was when Shinjo hit the homerun off the lefthanded Mets closer.