If the A’s have a terrific second half reversing all bad trends, we will be able to look at this “unauthorized coaching” article as the springboard that vaulted the team back to relevancy. Obviously, if the team continues to sputter, who reads junk on the internet anyway?
The All-Star break offers a natural “reset” and no team could use one more than the A’s, who limped, tripped, and plunged into a well even Lassie couldn’t help with, dropping 9 in a row and 17 of 20 to achieve the impossible: falling off the radar in the AL West.
Hopefully, Zack Gelof’s and Nick Kurtz’ IL stints will be minimal and soon the A’s will be at least near full strength again in terms of their roster. But how to squeeze more out of a roster that struggled to hit (on the road), pitch (at home), and led for 6 pitches on the last 6 game road trip.
Here’s some of how (if you know these folks feel free to pass these pearls along)…
Henry Bolte
For whatever reason, possibly involving head movement and/or swinging too much with the top half and not properly aligning the bottom half, most every time Bolte pulls the ball it’s on the ground. This worked fine for a while as he beat out a bevy of weak bouncers and some of the harder ones got through the infield, but it is not a sustainable profile.
This was shown in the slump Bolte took into the All-Star break, 6 for his last 50 with just one extra base hit (a HR). That a .120 BA and .180 SLG.
The solution: Even if he can’t adjust your mechanics easily mid-season, simply a change in approach can allow Bolte to return to being an offensive force in the 2nd half. During his epic 12 for 12 XBH-a-palooza at AAA just before being called up, Bolte was rifling balls to RF and right-center. This has always been, and continues to be, his best swing.
Pitchers are exploiting Bolte’s desire to “turn on pitches” by running a lot of fastballs in on the hands and Bolte is responding by chopping a lot of weak ground balls to 3B and SS. Sliders and changeups away, unless hung, have never been good pitches to try to pull.
Bolte should embrace his strength and think “right-center”. This will have many positive repercussions all at once. One is that he will naturally become less interested in pitches that are in off the plate, curing him of one way pitchers are getting him out a lot lately. Another is that an off-field swing/approach allows hitters to see pitches that fraction of a second longer, resulting in generally better swing decisions. A third is that it plays to Bolte’s inherent strength rather than trying, in real time, to master a part of his game that does not come easily.
The beauty is that when you focus on your strength and it results in a lot of hard contact, more slugging, increased success, not only is it a confidence booster but pitchers lose a “way to get you out” and are forced to throw more strikes to the inner half (if you are routinely mashing strikes on the outer half). And with that increased confidence, perhaps without being so self-conscious or effortful about it, you might turn on some inside fastballs or spin left up and hit the line drives and fly balls to LF that are so hard to produce now.
If Bolte emphasizes a “right center field first” approach he will be in company with some truly great hitters, such as Miguel Cabrera, Edgar Martinez, and Michael Young. And it doesn’t have to be forever, but it absolutely should be for right now.
Jacob Wilson
I’ve made much of this in game thread comments but it warrants its own paragraph here. Wilson suffers for his own ability and confidence: he is sure he can “get to” any pitch and he has a gift for sometimes turning pitches off the outside corner or down at the ankles into base hits.
The problem is, just because you can hit a pitch doesn’t mean you are well served to put it in play. The reality is that Wilson has, many many times, been gotten out (or you could say gotten himself out) on two pitches: well in off the plate and very high out outside. These are pitches that when you do put them in play, it’s going to be a pop-up or a lazy fly ball.
My belief is this: yes, Wilson can be a decent hitter swinging at a lot of junk. He has a unique gift that might allow him to hit .280 with this flawed approach. Trouble is, as a .280 hitter Wilson’s value is compromised since he rarely walks and his slugging is not especially high. A .280/.320/.400 hitter is ok but not special.
The solution: My other belief is that if Wilson will just commit to an approach of “hunting strikes” he can hit .320, which in this day and age is elite. He has even demonstrated that for long stretches (2-3 months) he is capable of hitting at that level. Bump his BA .040 and suddenly we’re talking about a .320/.360/.440 hitter who plays a solid SS. Now that’s the player the A’s signed to an extension.
Jacob, we know you can hit a lot of bad balls and even poke some of them for hits. But if you truly “hunt strikes” and commit to trying to lay off pitches you can hit but are balls, you can be the player who earned the All-Star starting gig just one year ago.
Shea Langeliers, Tyler Soderstrom
Both Langeliers and Soderstrom have had excellent stretches this season and bad stretches. For Soderstrom he struggled mightily early before turning it on lately, and Langeliers has been in a funk since an incredible April. Both are essential cogs in the A’s hopes of having a plus lineup with depth and ample power. But neither has been as consistent as you would want.
The solution: Stop guessing, start reacting. Soderstrom and Langeliers share that too many times that are caught looking for a pitch and either looking foolish swinging at what they’re not being thrown or, just as often, watching a called third strike they could have mashed if only they had known it was coming.
To my eyes, both hitters are at their best when they simply react to each pitch as best they can and are at their worst when they anticipate one pitch only to be vulnerable if and when they guess wrong. Most recently we saw this in action during the White Sox series that was so forgettable for Langeliers, culminating in a critical at bat (runner at 3B, one out, 1-0 in the 8th) when looking fastball Shea was frozen by a curve center cut that he wasn’t looking for, then tried to swing at a fastball that turned out to be a chase slider. Resolving not to swing at another chase slider, Langeliers stepped back in…and watched a belt fastball that caught a lot of the plate.
These two hitters will take off if they get back to basics, a version of “see ball, hit ball”. Just react so that every belt high curve, every elevated slider or changeup, every fastball in your happy zone, gets properly punished. Of course you won’t recognize correctly every pitch, so you’re going to wave at some sliders in the dirt or get way out of in front of some changeups, but overall you will be much better off and so will the A’s.
Basic Hitting Strategies
There is one tendency that drives me crazy, because even as I watch game after game for decades I still don’t get it. It’s the compulsion to swing at high fastballs well above the top of the strike zone.
The solution: There is a very basic principle that can prevent hitters from falling into this trap. It’s a “truth” that should be ingrained in every hitter: if you have to raise your hands significantly to swing, you’re not swinging at a strike. This was actually taught to me years and years ago by the great Cal baseball head coach, Bob Milano.
He was right. The moment you feel yourself start to raise your hands, you are about to swing at a ball. That’s because every hitter’s hands set up no lower than the top of the strike zone, certainly at the point where they are actually swinging. So don’t raise your hands to go after a pitch and you have stopped swinging at a key chase pitch: the high fastball out of the zone.
Put Players In The Best Position To Succeed
Ideally, every player should be able to thrive under any conditions, but in reality this is just not the case. Recently the A’s have walked into some unnecessary trouble, giving Jeffrey Springs not one but two starts on a 6-game homestand in Summerlin, and last week moving JT Ginn up while he was battling a 2-week illness to both start and finish the 6-game road trip.
Opportunities to shuffle personnel in their best interests don’t always present themselves, but here’s an easy example in front of Mark Kotsay and his wacky coaching crew. The A’s have a brief 3-game homestand coming out of the All-Star break, a 4-day hiatus that allows teams to reshuffle their rotations as they please.
The SP you clearly want to minimize starts at Sutter Health Park is the lone remaining veteran, Springs. Starting Springs against the Nationals over the weekend would be yet again asking for trouble, whereas the rotation is so flexible at this moment that Springs could easily be penciled into the #4 spot opening the road trip to Arizona, a hitter’s ballpark but nothing like West Sacramento where Springs has an unsightly 6.79 with 16 HR in 54.1 IP.
The solution: So here’s one easy move the A’s could make coming out of the ASB: Let 3 of the young guns, e.g., Jump, Perkins, and Ginn, get the ball for the 3 home games and then trot Springs out there against the Diamondbacks — and focus on fastballs down and away. Why? Because one thing about that pitch and location is it rarely gets hit out of the ballpark. And lord knows that should be the first, second, and third emphasis for Springs, who leads the planet in HRs allowed.
Leave it to the A’s to wait until it’s too late to make necessary changes and then start playing good baseball. But better late than never and in the mediocre AL West, a suburb of the mediocre AL, string a few wins together and as the Red Sox can tell you, you never know when you might even find yourself being relevant again.
Go do all these things, A’s, and godspeed to you. If you can lose 9 in a row then you can win 9 in a row, and I highly recommend it. Let’s face it: if the team only loses 55 games this season, it’s probably going to be a fun ride after all.
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