Perhaps the focus on the swing-or-no-swing question about Perdomo shouldn’t have been tied to the perfect pitch but, rather, the third nose of the bat while Perdomo watched the fastball split down the middle of the plate.
Granted, the offering was 100.7 mph out of Miller’s hand – not an easy pitch to swing – but by not throwing a cut to center, the count went from neutral to 1-2, heavily in Miller’s favor. That was also his best pitch to hit.
Strikers should all be more aggressive when they are strong but they should also have different techniques.
For example, Aaron Judge and Luis Arráez should have very different approaches.
“If you compare Jaji and Arráez and they’re sliding in the dark, low and far, the chances of Arráez doing anything good with that pitch if he plays it are very slim,” said Stokey. “The chances for Jaji to do something productive are very big because he has a great batting speed, he has a great ability to create speed and impact on the baseball.
“Guys with low power have to be more aggressive. If they’re swinging early, they have to lean on getting that ‘Swing’ away.”
This was a problem for Mookie Betts in working with Stokey back in 2023. Betts was very concerned about contact, having as low a K as possible, and it was draining his energy. Another factor related to his rebounding season is that he was very selective when he swung. Bettors added bat speed but there was also a change in mindset, Stokey told me in this piece last fall.
“The thing about (Betts) was, ‘Man, your hitting ability is so good,'” Stokey said. “A lot of times you see players who are good at driving the ball, they don’t want to swing and miss. So, even though Mookie didn’t have the standards to chase badly he would add to the edge and swing balls in the shadows and slow down for putting the ball in play. He would slow himself down and make bad, unproductive contact.”
Even the best hitters in the game may not have a good idea about where they belong on the spectrum of contact and power.
The good news? There are ways to improve. But there is a question of economic training.
There are only so many hours in a day, only so many reps you can take. How much of that should be directed at a government that focuses on, say, bat-speed training?
“If you want to look at it through the lens of the big three: power, contact, and decision making … a good training program, a good training environment, will take all of those things into account,” Stokey said. “You can easily train your power, your bat speed, your communication skills, and your swing decisions in the same area.
“Now, you need amazing technology, like Trajekt, or you need a pitcher that can mix pitches for you in batting practice, things like that… Say a hitter gets a 50-50 (pitch mix) on Trajekt, or iPitch something like that. (The athlete) is trying to figure out how to make the best takeoff, or drive the contact line to get the best quality. ball flight in a batting situation. twice.”
The primary goal of Driveline training is to embrace and create environments that force athletes to adapt through consistent learning.
For example, a specific two-strike defense drill may be a poor use of timing, Stokey said. Instead, we want to create difficult situations, like games.
Starting this season in the majors, ABS technology will begin to protect a hitter like Perdomo from the unfortunate outcome of making the right decision in a high pitch marred by an umpire’s error. Maybe one day 99.9% of football calls will be made correctly. Maybe one day technology will trickle down to amateur sports, too.
Still, even if bad umpire calls decide a few ends, the art and science of swing decisions and techniques will always be important.
Not all strikes are created equal. The correct attack positions vary from fighter to fighter. It’s a game of chance as Perdomo found out in the WBC. There is no guarantee involved in any single swing decision, but we want to put our athletes in a position to succeed as often as possible.
