His right foot and leg appear to at least partially slip out from behind him. He appears to hit off a stiff front leg and gets no push off because the back is slipping out. When I was a kid playing little league, I read this book by Charlie Lau, The Art of Hitting 300. Lau was batting coach for the White Sox I believe? He was a proponent of a small push off the back leg and hitting from a firm, but not straight, front leg. It worked great for me in little league, I remember that. But what Frazier's doing just looks awfully screwy.
What say you guys? Has the organization worked with him on his mechanics? Or, don't the coaches think it needs fixing? IMHO, seems to me that his mechanics could you some tweaking. Curious to hear others' opinions.
But maybe it works for him
Seems pretty damn impressive to me!
Why would you say there is something wrong with it?
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Frazier's swing is old school in the sense that he's not starting inside the ball, He takes the outside strike and tries to yank it across his body . I know he slopped one to right today . But that was a two-strike backhanded serve when he was just protecting .
He hits with enormous power . His dial goes all the way up to 10. He's got good pitch recognition . Reads the spin well and knows what a strike is . He's going to be great . Without doubt .
Seems pretty damn impressive to me!
Why would you say there is something wrong with it? Link - ( New Window )
Eddie, that example it's not as apparent. Maybe it's just one of those deals where it's an occasional issue for him?
Frazier's swing is old school in the sense that he's not starting inside the ball, He takes the outside strike and tries to yank it across his body . I know he slopped one to right today . But that was a two-strike backhanded serve when he was just protecting .
He hits with enormous power . His dial goes all the way up to 10. He's got good pitch recognition . Reads the spin well and knows what a strike is . He's going to be great . Without doubt .
Ya, it's probably that slopped one to right I'm thinking of. So, I guess it's just an occasional thing, that hopefully he'll iron out over time.
He said each day he has been working with them to learn to stay back and see the pitch longer.
Kinda wish they fixed this down in the minors so he does not have to learn on the job and under the spotlight.
That all said...he has incredible bat speed
Most guys now use more of a rotational swing, where the back knee goes down and the weight stays centered a bit more. Take a look at Judge, for example. See how low his back knee gets at contact, in comparison.
I don't disagree that the lower half of that swing could use some attention.
I remember reading about Gil McDougald and the Yankees. He won batting crowns in the minors but he had a weird swing. Rogers Hornsby was a scout for the Yankees at the time, saw him play and told the front office not to mess with his swing. Got to the majors, had a good rookie year but then sure enough Casey messed with his swing. He had a good career but mostly because of his defense and versatility, he was basically just a decent hitter.
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Frazier's swing is old school in the sense that he's not starting inside the ball, He takes the outside strike and tries to yank it across his body . I know he slopped one to right today . But that was a two-strike backhanded serve when he was just protecting .
He hits with enormous power . His dial goes all the way up to 10. He's got good pitch recognition . Reads the spin well and knows what a strike is . He's going to be great . Without doubt .
Ok, he may be outdated. But back in the day, after i read his book and worked my ass off, I hit the shit out of everything! I had game :) !
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That is pretty cool...
manh george : 7/8/2017 10:43 pm : link : reply
looked much better today. As O'Neill (I think it was) had said, he had been getting onto his front leg too quickly. On the triple and homer, he wasn't necessarily staying back, but he was balanced on both legs so that his crazy-high bat speed could work itself. I don't know the pro swing well enough to know if he should be staying back even longer, but this looked great based upon my limited knowledge. Kid has huge athleticism.
The separation is important because it allows Frazier to keep his hands back while limiting the overall movement or "noise" in his swing.
Frazier has made his name as a baseball player with those massive forearms and elite bat speed. Watch how well he engages and loads up his wrists. He is just so dominant in this area of his swing, I could name some of the best hitters in the game who aren't as good as him at being aggressive with loading their hands up, and triggering the barrel to the ball in the zone.
Watch him in batting practice if you get the chance. He's working on incorporating his lower half to create more leverage, it just hasn't translated as often in-game yet.
Let this bad boy rake! It is more of a concern right now to limit the movement and "noise" in his swing to where he develops a hitch to come out of his swing that impedes that bat speed, or changes his eye level when recognizing pitches.
Yogi had a notoriously bad swing. And remember the "Pine Tar Game" when George Brett hit that memorable HR and Billy had him thrown out on a technicality? I've watched that a dozen times and I swear if Brett didn't hit the ball, it would have come close to hitting him in the face.
Whatever, Frazier will work it all out. He has incredible bat speed and ultimately, it's the batter's brain, reflexes, athleticism, and transfer of power to the bat that determines how good he will become. He has the tools and it could be more detrimental to his future to try and change his swing to fit the mold of someone else's idea of a "perfect swing" rather than just letting him hit the ball the way he feels like hitting it.
Frazier seems like a spunky kid. If he is the "real deal" as they say we are another piece closer to having a WS type ready team. An "ACE" pitcher is needed for sure though....not easy to find them and not sure we have any young guys who fit that potential.
I don't think this is a huge problem to fix. He already had it partly fixed by yesterday. He needs to decide--with the coaches' help--how far back he wants to be. But even balanced on both legs and working off of his top side is different than where he was up to Friday.