![]() ![]() (Carew tells a story of Nolan Ryan striking him out repeatedly until he taught himself to lower his stance by taking batting practice while sitting on a swivelling stool.) The third time that I faced him in Minnesota, he was yelling at me to stand up,” he says. The outside pitch dictated to me that I could keep that ball up the middle or go to left field. The inside pitch told me I’ve got to get my hands out and through the ball and try and pull the ball. I’m going to swing down, through the ball, because I have a better chance. I’m not going to swing up on a pitch that’s high. The baseball tells you what to do with it. I would rather see kids learn how to track the ball. I just sat there, saying to myself, Don’t these guys understand? They don’t know how to hit. I was watching a College World Series game and I noticed that everybody was trying to pull and get under the ball. Whether it’s because of the velocity of the pitching, or the analytic-driven defensive shifts, hitters are taught to focus on “launch angle” - the kind of swing that hits home runs, but also leads to strikeouts. So everyone knows what we’re talking about: Batters have moved away from the type of all-fields, contact hitting you did. (As of Thursday morning, Arraez was MLB’s leading hitter, with a. (Laughs) The next game, he hit a couple line drives. Well, the night that I talked to him about it, he went out and hit three fly balls, and I was upset. ![]() Rod Carew had some advice for Luis Arraez. Don’t fall into the trap with these analytics, trying to lift the ball and hit home runs.” Getting base hits and getting on base and scoring runs, that’s where your game is. I was in Minneapolis and I spoke with him: “What are you doing? Hitting six to seven home runs is not going to be of any value to you. Then all of a sudden, he hit a few home runs, and started swinging up. Luis Arraez with the Twins started off good, hitting the ball all over the place. These kids aren’t using their heads and understanding what kind of hitter they are. They’re trying to get everyone to hit the ball out of the ballpark, whether they can do it or not. 243, which would be the lowest since 1967. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.Īs we do this, the 2022 Major League batting average currently sits at. Now 76, Carew works with the Twins and maintains an active social-media presence through his Twitter feed ( a newsletter and a website selling shirts with slogans like “YOU SHIFT, I SHIFT” - an amusing commentary on 21st-century baseball strategy. 328 hitter who made 18 All Star teams in a 19-year career with the Minnesota Twins and the California Angels. If you don’t: Carew is one of baseball’s greatest hitters, a Hall of Famer and lifetime. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |