Posted by: Sweet Steve (Drwinsthry@aol.com) on Wed Jun 19 17:58:07 2002

Grc,

Right, this is exactly what I'm talking about--pulling the hand across the front of the body so that the wrist doesn't turn over either upon or even after contact. I may be wrong, but I don't think you ever saw that until maybe 5, 10 years ago tops--when the "new breed hitters" came up. In fact, if you look REALY carefully at Juan Gonzalez on tape, you will see some swings where he actually appears to be holding the bat, at contact, so that the bottom wrist is almost starting to face a little bit TOWARD the pitcher (i.e. such that the handle actually seems to be braced against his palm, with his wrist locked, at contact). I'm wondering (a) if anybody has evidence that that would provide a stronger "platform" from which to hit, and (b) if that somehow imparts extra backspin to the ball? (Letting go with the top hand is not really relevant here, except to the extent that you pretty much have to let go in order to swing like that.)