This is the video from our post practice conversation on Wednesday 11/13. We were fortunate enough to have Nick Rossetta fill in with Travis out of town. Nick pitched at Long Beach State after attending Cabrillo College and has a very analytical mind for the game. I think it is super useful to get a pitcher's perspective on hitting and a couple things he brought up post-practice were things we've talked about a lot in our sessions. Here is the full video:
Concepts Covered
Setup Too Close to Home Plate
We've talked a lot about this at our sessions in the past. Here is the video of Mike Trout that I refer to at the end - Mike Trout Swing - Behind Home Plate View. I'll at some point do a longer post using this video but as the main point, look how much lower Trout's right shoulder is than his left shoulder on contact. This is the "side-bend" I'm referring to that is allowing him to stride that close to the plate.
Remaining On-Time to Fastballs
This is another one we've talked about a lot. When you see breaking balls (especially multiple breaking balls consecutively) your brain gets trained to think that is basically the fastball. You need to make sure you get back on time to a fastball without having to take one.
Situational Hitting
We covered Hit and Runs, Runner on 2nd (0 outs), and Runner on 3rd (less than two outs) in our conversation. These all deserve their own posts, but I think the most important thing is that we at least understand what a successful plate appearance is in each situation. Nick's point at the end was that regardless of what the situation is, if you practice gap to gap hitting, that works in every situation. Please watch the video to go through each specific scenario and some of the mistakes we make in all of them.
