It's all in Your Head

Well I said I would write about hitting so here are more of my tips. For now I will write a little bit about the mental aspect of the game, mainly being a smart hitter. Some people when they here “mental aspect” think “Huh, that’s not important I’ll just wait ‘till he posts about the mechanical parts” but hitting is mainly all up in your head. Having not played much baseball I am constantly learning new things every game and in between seasons, I am constantly making up all these theories about hitting and putting them into practice. Ted Williams wrote about guessing and I wrote a little in my last post but here I am going to go a little deeper. One thing I have tried to do this past year is watch the pitcher, for example what’s his fastball like, when and where does he usually throw it, what’s his curve like, how much does he have off his changeup, does he have a set pattern, is he wild, how tall is he… the list goes on and on, but it is surprising how big the percentage of your at-bat is spent on the bench. I used the example earlier about the kid throwing first pitch fastballs, but there also was one time that I noticed a kid couldn’t get his breaking ball over for a strike, so I told everyone and tried to lay off when it came, or another time I noticed the umpire had an unfairly high strike zone and the kid liked to put his fastballs there, so I struck out looking in my fist at bat, and then made sure to swing away in my next. Then there is guessing, this is a little more complicated and hard to put to practice effectively but it is basically thinking like the pitcher. Let’s say you strike out on a curve in your first at bat, the count is now 0-2, what do you think is coming? A curve of course. Now let’s say the count is 2-0, you’re on top now, a fastball is most likely coming so as to give the pitcher an edge, and remember he has to throw a strike when he’s behind. Lastly a few notes on the 2-strike count. One thing I had trouble with was thinking in the box, I would swing away and throw away quick at-bats instead of grinding them out. When the pitcher is on top 0-2, the pitch doesn’t necessarily have to be a strike but you need to swing if it’s close, even if you don’t like it foul it off and wait for your pitch. If you’re up 2-0, 3-0, or 3-1 you can wait for your pitch but remember that the pitcher must and will throw a strike and most likely the pitch he either has most confidence in or the most control over.