Posted by: George () on Mon Aug 27 12:27:32 2007

> I dont understand how carlos beltran get so much power. He does not get the bad far back in his load. As a matter of fact, the bat is very vertical, and i would think that he his losing bat speed from this. He does not use pre-launch like most other hitters, and his power cant solely come from bht. Can someone explain how he gets lots of batspeed? Thanks, JMAN.


GMAN. Regarding Carlos Beltran he is one very strong player (as is Justin Morneau who operates from a very basic stance, sees the ball and kills it to all fields). And from what you probably witnessed, Beltran hits line drives out of the park as opposed to the towering backspin type homeruns like a Jason Giambi. Also, it is not all about batspeed, but timing and hitting the ball on the sweetspot. Babe Ruth in a test study had an average batspeed of 75 miles per hour, though he was using a very heavy bat (which he preferred).
Pujols' average batspeed was 86 in a similar test study using a 32 ounce bat. In addition it has been said there are slow pitch softball players with batspeeds of 100 (like Mark McGwire), yet they cannot make it in the Major leagues.