Posted by: Hitmaster () on Wed Oct 10 19:21:04 2001

Would it be fair to say that, at least in our era, Bonds would be the greatest linear hitter in baseball?
> > > > >>NO!!!
> > > What makes you think Bonds is linear?
> >
> > Well, until recently I had though of Bonds as rotational. I have numerous clips from various angles showing that he has a circular hand path. Even when a few weeks ago Bonds was quoted as saying that when he his he "throws the bat at the ball", I didn't realize there was a relationship between "throwing the bat at the ball & the hand path."
> >
> > But then, over the last day or two, Jeff and Melvin have been saying that ant hitter who "throws the bat at the ball" has a linear, not circular handpath.If this is true, then if Bonds throws the bat at the ball he has a linear hand path. So, either Bonds lied when he said he throws the bat at the ball, or Jeff and Melvin are wrong when they assert that "throwing the bat at the ball" results in a linear swing?
> >
> > Who should I believe, Bonds or Jeff & Melvin?
> >
> > Who has more credibility, Bonds or Jeff & Melvin?
>
> What's getting thrown at the ball-The hands,the bat or the bathead?
>
> What is throwing the hands,the arms extending or the arms staying fixed to the torso with torso turn throwing the hands until the bat pulls the hands ?
>
> What throws the bathead,arms extending,torso turning,an/or hands torquing?
>
> Some or all of the above? It can be confusing as with all cues.
>
> What is the preferred reality,what do we see? What would we like to see?Do the cues promote the desired reality?

Of course I have never had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. bonds but I can tell you what throwing the bat means to me, especially after having trying it out myself.

Throwing the bat on an inside pitch means throwing the bathead at the ball.The result was hands remaining in a circular path.The front arm remained fairly straight, which is important to me. At contact the front arm was almost fully extended but the bottom arm (elbow was still bent.
I discovered that if I think throw, push, whatever, the KNOB of the bat, I get an undesired inside-out swing, thanks to a tendency for the front elbow to bend. Also there was a tendency for the bottom arm to extend by contact, which, at least for me is not desirable when thinking "knob".

As far as measuring bat speed is concerned, I have no method of measuring batspeed other than examining film of my swing, which is exactly what I did. Throwing the bathead took about 5 frames for me to make contact about 18 inches in front of home plate. Taking knob to the ball also took about 5 frames, the difference being that I could not make contact my preferred 18 inches in front of home plate without lunging my entire body forward. So, preferring not to lunge I contacted the ball about even with home plate.Perhaps as a result of the arms bending & producing inside-out swings, I was consistently hitting the inside part of the ball, mostly bloopers and fly balls to centerfield.

My unscientific conclusions (and I underscore the word unscientific because I'm not out to convince anyone; I'm just answering your questions): Throwing the bathead at the ball resulted (TO ME)in the bathead making contact with the ball in the same amount of time (5 frames)as in throwing the knob of the ball. The difference, though was that I contacted the ball farther out in front of the plate . Perhaps one could deduce that batspeed was greater since the bathead traveled 18 inches farther in the same amount of time. I can for sure tell you though that I felt quicker.