Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sat Dec 21 09:37:07 2002

What I find works,at least at low levels is to prepare the hitters for the fastest go to pitch of the upcoming pitcher you have scouted.This is mostly a matter of figuring out when the toe touch needs to be.This is confirmed in warmups and in ondeck circle.

If hitter is not behind,they are looking for a particular pitch location which means the swing will have a certain tempo that may vary from pitch to pitch(looking in vs looking away vs looking change vs looking for something up,etc.

Depending on the hitter's ability, they will have to make little or much mechanical/tempo adjustment(speed up tempo for blazer/accept risk of being early;slow down for big change of speed;shorten swing by opening stance/good info @ Epstein,etc) when behind or in the 2-strike or defensive situation.

Give me a hitter who can hit anything without adjusting(much)whenever he gets a good pitch(Bonds).