He Just Might be Baseball’s Best
Picture Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune
Fifty years from now baseball fans will look back on this time in baseball as the time the game changed forever. Not only is today’s game stockpiled with more talent than we have perhaps ever seen, but we have begun to unlearn the things that we’ve always known about the game of baseball.
For generations fathers and coaches have taught their kids certain undeniable mechanics when it came to hitting a baseball. Hands and weight back, step and squash the bug, transfer weight through the swing. We have been taught that these were the rules of hitting a baseball and then Toronto Blue Jays’ star, Josh Donaldson went on MLB Network and destroyed it all. We have now heard many others speak out about the untruths of hitting a baseball. Whether it is Gary Sheffield saying strikeouts are better than ground balls or Carlos Pena saying he’d watch an outside corner curve all day waiting for something he can actually hit.
For years we’ve watched in awe of guys like Ted Williams or Billy Williams or Ken Griffey Jr swing the bat. It is pure art and one of the most beautiful sights a pure baseball fan can see. Watching old film of some of the greats swinging gives me goosebumps, and I’m not going to lie… I grab a bat and start to swing in front of a mirror myself.
This is why when anyone who has ever been coached, taught, or has coached or taught a swing wonders how Kris Bryant has made it this far with a swing so unorthodox. While he’s cut it down some, he still has an incredible uppercut, which suggests he can’t keep a bat in the contact zone for very long, which also suggests a high rate of strikeouts. And we saw that, right? Last season he finished with 199 strikeouts in 151 games, striking out in 30% of his plate appearances.
We also saw majestic home runs. With that uppercut, when he squares a ball up it is going to travel a long long way. Bryant hit moonshot homers off the new video scoreboard, and deep into the night on many other occasions.
Bryant is a part of this newer age of swinging. While we were all taught from Tom Emanski and Fred McGriff that there was a certain process you needed to follow, certain set of fundamentals of a baseball swing that were unchangeable. Well, thanks to Donaldson we are learning that they are changeable. Bryant is local proof that this is the case.
Look at Bryant’s swing, before he even begins his swing there is a slight lunge towards the plate already moving his momentum in a different direction than taught. He tends to correct the action, but then offers a whooping uppercut towards the ball before making contact. In theory, this shouldn’t work. At least not at a high success rate.
But it does. It is working, and unorthodox approaches at the plate are working all over the league. Donaldson and Bryant are two, and a quick search on YouTube for hitting for power emerge many more “new” approaches to the way players swing the bat. But here’s the thing, the new way just might be the better way.
Bryant is mastering this. If you look at the video above, one thing the commentator didn’t point out is how much he pulls his right elbow into his body, forcing the back shoulder to drop. Dropping your back shoulder is uniformly advised against as the direct result is an uppercut swing. To hit a ball you need to have immaculate timing and the rest of your swing needs to be near perfect. The video also noted that someone with this swing would never hit for a high average, and while there have been tweaks to straighten some of this out, we sit on August 27th and Bryant owns a .303 average.
Timing is key, and will always be key in a swing. Listening to Carlos Pena on WSCR 670-AM The Score this past Friday (it was a great interview, do yourself a favor and listen), he mentioned that the one thing he would change about his major league career was working on his timing as opposed to mechanics. As we look at different, and very successful approaches, we are seeing that the mechanics of the swing isn’t as important as the timing of your swing is. While of course a certain amount of mechanics will help a player drive a pitch, hit a pitch harder, but the player timing means a lot more in terms of actually hitting the ball.
I put Bryant in that Donaldson category. He is doing things that aren’t necessarily “right” but because he has taught himself how to time a swing to hit a pitch, he is producing otherworldly results, and has put himself far ahead in the National League MVP race – especially after last night’s performance.
Thing is, we aren’t convinced that in two years time there will be anyone better than the Chicago Cubs Kris Bryant. While someone might be able to outproduce him in certain aspect of the game of baseball – Daniel Murphy with a higher average, or Mark Trumbo with more home runs – Bryant is becoming the best overall player in the National League in just his second year. While LA Angels Mike Trout is still in a class above Bryant, would it surprise anyone that has closely followed the Cubs if Kris joins him in the next several seasons?
While yes, there are going to be some of you that question that suggestion – you were already labeling Bryce Harper either on par or above Trout last season. Bryant is on pace to match Harper’s 7.9 WAR (according to Baseball-Reference) from 2015, and has been able to make an impact on the game by playing multiple positions which I don’t know we’ve ever seen.
I am not taking the stance today, however the inner Skip Bayless in me would like to, but Bryant is on a path to be baseball’s best. If this happens is yet to be witnessed, and will certainly be unorthodox.
