Had another nice chat with Chad Mottola today. This time we talked about at what point, exactly, players learn to use batting practice to work on going opposite field or situational hitting, and stop trying to yank everything. Motor said it’s different for every player. He said that he himself learned to shut down his hitting after his second round of batting practice because by the third set his ego started to win him over and he went into “launch” mode. A hitter just has to learn who he is and adjust accordingly, if he can.
Launch mode, AKA, Over the fence mode, Yank, drop bombs, homer mode—whatever you want to call it. It all speaks to that desire hitters have to absolutely murder a ball when it’s softly tossed to them over the heart of plate instead of humbling themselves and working on situational hitting. Why can’t more hitters know themselves?
“But then I ran the risk of making management think I wasn’t putting my work in.” Said Motor.
That part made me laugh. Ah yes, the “eye-wash” mandate that all younger players must live under. A young player can’t do his own thing when he’s young and in the bigs. Even if said thing is what’s best for him, if it’s at odds with what the manager likes to see from his players, it’s wrong for him. A lot of times in baseball you have to do what’s best for you the way someone else thinks it’s best for you.
Just about this time JP Arencibia finiished an excellent round of batting practice and came over to ask Motor if he’d seen his work. “Yes,” Said Motor, who then nodded at me, “And now you’re going to try and launch some because you felt good about that last set.”
“Nuh-uh. I just wanted you to know I was giving you credit” Snarked JP.
Several balls went over the fence during JP’s next round.
