Posted by: () on Thu Feb 21 10:27:22 2002

Folks

I think the two-strike swing is disaster.

First, it is hard enough to hit well with one stance, head position, rotary movement. Changing everything around after he gets two past you was too tough for me. I rejected the Williams two-strike swing after trying to make it work for years.

Second, I am not sure how opening the stance, straightening up, crouching down or any of these other gymnastics ``shortens the swing.'' A swing's length depends on none of those things. In fact, I'm not even sure anyone can define what is meant by a swing's ``length.''

I think its pretty simple and that there no magic bullets with two strikes. I bet that over a season of at-bats, the better hitters will also be the better two-strike hitters; worse hitters will have worse two-strike averages. Etc. I am sure there are anomalies, such as some fellow with a .225 average who hits .360 with two strikes. If you can find a mechanical difference in the two-strike swing that accounts for this, I would suggest you tell him to hit that way from the first pitch.

Melvin