Situational Hitting: Part 1

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

I have touched on this topic some in previous Blog's but I feel it needs to be clearly addressed again. One of the most important things that hitters can do is execute properly when they have "Situational Hitting" opportunities. Obviously every at-bat technically is a "situation" but in the baseball world some are considered to be of more importance or of greater value. Here is a list of a number of key spots that hitters need to execute well:

1. Sacrifice bunts

2. Suicide squeeze and safety squeeze

3. Man on 2nd nobody out, move the runner over to 3rd (swinging away)

4. Man on 3rd with less than 2 outs

5. Hit and Runs

6. At bats with a runner in scoring position and 2 outs

7. Leading off an inning

Over the next few weeks I will dive into each situation and discuss the importance of being able to execute and give tips to help players improve their ability to execute in these situations.

Trivia questions: (you must answer without looking it up on google)

1. Pete Rose is the All-Time career hits leader, with Ty Cobb in second place. Can you name the player who is 3rd All-Time in career hits?

2. Alex Rodriguez has 6 of the top 10 best home run seasons by a short stop, can you name the shortstop who has the other 4 best single season home run totals?

Please post your answers (dont cheat), and tune in next week for the second blog on situational hitting and the answers to this week's trivia questions.

Schilling graduated from Coastal Carolina University, where he was an All-Conference and All-State player while being voted the fourth best second baseman in the country by the Smith Award Group. Schilling went on to coach at Coastal for five years, helping them reach the top 25. He is also a former Associate Scout with the Atlanta Braves.

Work the Count - Take a Strike: Part 2

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

Last week I wrote about the two quotes mentioned in the title: "Work the Count" and "Take a Strike." I commented that I did not like these comments because they were misleading and incomplete. The fact is that the more balls and the less strikes that you have, the better off you are. AND the first pitch of an at-bat is in fact a VERY good pitch to hit. I based a lot of these facts off the statistics of Major League hitters last season and of other seasons that I have researched. I used the following chart which I showed last week and I will show again this week:

Batting average by count for all MLB players in 2007:

0-0 = .344

1-0 = .341

2-0 = .351

3-0 = .394

0-1 = .324

1-1 = .327

2-1 = .338

3-1 = .368

0-2 = .166

1-2 = .178

2-2 = .195

3-2 = .233

As you can see, when hitters have two strikes on them they are not very successful. When they swing in non two strike counts, they have much greater success. At the end of last weeks blog I left you with a question. What count do you think gives up the most homeruns? My guess would have been 2-0 or 3-1, traditionally great hitters counts. The answer: 0-0.

WOW! This answer blew me away, but it does make sense. For one thing, every hitter is guaranteed to have a 0-0 count every at-bat. But the other reason is that big league hitters have figured out something that pitching coaches all over the world don't want hitters to know.

ALL PITCHERS ARE TAUGHT TO GET AHEAD OF THE HITTER!

Sorry to yell but this is so obvious. No pitching coach teaches his pitcher to fall behind (look at the chart above for the obvious reason). So if as a hitter you know the pitcher is trying his best to throw a strike with the first pitch, why on earth would you want to take it? Chances are high that you will get a strike, and if you swing at strikes you have a much better chance to hit.

I once went to a baseball clinic and heard a very well respected Division I baseball coach speak on pitching. For 30 minutes he went on and on regarding the importance of getting ahead of the hitter and throwing strike one. After a 15 minute break he then spoke on hitting and preached the importance of working the count deep and taking pitches. To me this made no sense. Clearly this guy must have been a pitcher at heart. Why on earth would you tell hitters to take strikes if you are telling pitchers to throw strikes early? Am I missing something?

The truth of the matter is that teams who see a lot of balls and lay off bad pitches are very successful. The Yankees and Red Sox are great at this. Rarely do you see their hitters swing at bad pitches. As a result they do work the count, by taking balls, not strikes. Their hitters get themselves into advantage counts ( 1-0, 2-0, 3-1, 2-1) a lot. That is working the count the right way.

For fun I thought that I would rattle off a few more facts for you that you might find interesting.

Again these are based on the 2007 MLB season and were found at Baseball Reference:

• The best count for hitting home runs was 0-0 giving up 853 dingers.


• The next closest count was 1-0 giving up 615. (clearly swinging early helps)


• Worst count was 0-2 with only 173 round trippers.


• 0-0 count gave up the most doubles, triples, homers and RBI's.


• The next most productive count in all those categories was 1-1.


• When a pitcher got ahead of a hitter 0-1 they struck out 21,644 batters! (now you know why pitchers want to throw strike one and why I am so against taking a strike)


• In contrast when the pitcher fell behind 1-0 they were only able to K 10,545 batters.

Clearly you can see that swinging the bat in one of the first three pitches that you see can make you very productive as a hitter(if those pitches are strikes). The deeper the count goes the more the hitter tends to tense up and try to put the ball in play. The earlier in the count you swing the looser you are and the more you try to drive the ball. So use this insider information, understand what the pitcher is trying to do and step in the box ready to swing early in the count and watch your confidence, batting average and production rise.

Matt Schilling is the Senior Director of On-Field Instruction at Baseball Factory, Schilling handles all on-field elements, including one-on-one training.

Schilling graduated from Coastal Carolina University, where he was an All-Conference and All-State player while being voted the fourth best second baseman in the country by the Smith Award Group. Schilling went on to coach at Coastal for five years, helping them reach the top 25. He is also a former Associate Scout with the Atlanta Braves.

Work the Count - Take a Strike

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

"Work the Count."

"Take a Strike."

These two famous phrases that we always hear from hitting coaches have been around for a long time. While I partly agree with some of what "they" are saying, ultimately I believe that these are flawed, incomplete and misleading comments for hitting coaches to make.

For years I have been told as a hitter, "The more pitches you see, the better your chance to hit." I have also been told to, "work the count deep." So this would lead me to believe that batting averages on deeper counts SHOULD be better. These well accepted hitting philosophies must be right because I have been hearing them for as long as I can remember. In fact, they have become an unwritten rule in baseball. I personally have never bought into these ideas, mostly because I liked to swing at the first pitch. So I did some research and came up with some very interesting findings. The following numbers were obtained from http://www.baseball-reference.com/ and are based on the 2007 Major League Season.

Batting average by count for all MLB players in 2007:

0-0 = .344
1-0 = .341
2-0 = .351
3-0 = .394
0-1 = .324
1-1 = .327
2-1 = .338
3-1 = .368
0-2 = .166
1-2 = .178
2-2 = .195
3-2 = .233

Based on these numbers you can see that simply "working the count deep" and "taking a strike" is not necessarily effective. If it were, then the 3-2 count should be the best count to hit in and clearly it is not. The fact is, the less strikes you have and the more balls that you have the better off you are. Just another reason why it is so important to swing at strikes only. Also it appears that the first pitch of an at-bat is a GREAT pitch to hit! So why on earth would we want to take a strike? (unless of course the pitcher can't throw strikes)

Take some time to review these statistical facts and tune in next week for a deeper discussion on this topic. Oh, and one last thing, what count do you think gives up the most homeruns?

The Quickest Way To Become A Better Hitter

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

Since America has become such a quick fix society I thought I would make my first blog a quick tutorial on how to be a better hitter…quicker. Now this is going to sound really basic and simple and corny but there is a lot of truth in it. While teaching lessons in our batting cages my instructors and I have annoyed our players to death with 1 simple credo: SWING AT STRIKES!!!

The quickest way to be a better hitter is to swing at good pitches to hit. Just about any hitter who takes the game seriously can hit a ball that is thigh high and over the plate. After all, this is the location that we practice hitting the most. Whether it is tee work, side toss, front toss, or a pitching machine, we all want our coaches to give us good feeds IN the strike zone. So most of the time we practice hitting GOOD pitches. Yet when hitters go into game situations they very often swing at bad pitches. It is really hard to hit a bad pitch solidly.

I always laugh when a player swings at a bad pitch and pops out and then comes to me and says “coach, something’s wrong with my swing, did you see what I did wrong?” Yeah I saw what you did wrong…you just swung at a pitch that was at your neck. There ain’t nothing wrong with your swing, you just swung at a bad pitch!

Hitting a baseball is one of the most difficult things to do in sports. As hitters we make it even harder by chasing bad pitches. Most bad hitters get themselves out. Most good hitters make the pitcher throw strikes. When you can get a pitcher to throw the ball over the plate you greatly enhance your chances of hitting the ball hard.

Chasing bad pitches are what I call “confidence busters”. Take a player that goes 0-3 while chasing bad pitches in two out of his three at bats. He is convinced he is not hitting well and that therefore something must be wrong with his swing. He starts questioning his swing, his ability, and his confidence is shot. Better yet, he has a bad round of batting practice before the game against a coach who struggles to throw consistent strikes in BP. The coach is frustrated because he has to throw to 12 hitters that day and he can’t find the strike zone so he instructs the hitters to “just swing at everything”. Now you have a team of hitters who go into a game with no confidence because they hit poorly in BP, and the last thing they did before the game was “swing at everything”. Now they go into the game and chase bad pitches, and perform poorly, and they develop bad habits…and poor confidence. It is a vicious cycle.

So the moral of the story is: ALWAYS swing at strikes. Make the pitcher throw the ball over the plate. Do not help him by chasing bad pitches. When training in the cages, swing at strikes. Develop good habits, don’t reinforce the bad. Swing at strikes and watch your confidence and your batting average rise.

Matt Schilling is the Senior Director of On-Field Instruction at Baseball Factory, Schilling handles all on-field elements, including one-on-one training.

Schilling graduated from Coastal Carolina University, where he was an All-Conference and All-State player while being voted the fourth best second baseman in the country by the Smith Award Group. Schilling went on to coach at Coastal for five years, helping them reach the top 25. He is also a former Associate Scout with the Atlanta Braves.

5 Days & Counting!

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