Nick Shaw provides the walk off tonight.
It's Bill Howard and an RBI double by Nick Shaw.
What's up guys, Coach Madden, YouGoProBaseball.com and I'm here with Nick Shaw from The Baseball
Box.
If you don't know about The Baseball Box check the link down below.
It's a monthly subscription box with a bunch of baseball goodies in there right?
That's it.
My favorite time of Spring Training, and I know yours as well, is when the agents send
you all your gear, a box full of stuff.
Oh yeh.
And that's kind of what got you started in this right?
Absolutely.
Cool.
That's so cool.
Check it out guys.
What we're going to talk about today though in this video is how to hit a faster pitcher.
Ok.
Now, you know, I'm sure you guys have faced junk ball pitchers, guys who pitch a little
bit slower, and then guys who bring the heat, right.
Nick has got some great tips for you on how to hit the guys who throw a little bit faster.
First of all, what is the fastest guy that you've ever faced?
Maybe not a name but what is the mile per hour?
102.
102 mile per hour.
98 was the fastest I ever saw hitting in pro ball.
My pro ball batting average is 0.
I struck out that at bat.
I told you the story earlier but give us some tips for how to hit a faster pitcher.
Did you get a hit on 102?
Yes I did.
Ok!
Let's go!
Yes.
Alright, what do we do now?
How do we do it?
So I know it's overwhelming guys.
There's a guy on the hill, he's throwing hard.
A lot of times there is a radar gun back there, it's an overwhelming thing but the key is
to calm it down.
It's only a little adjustment like everything in hitting.
We're just making an adjustment.
It starts on deck.
On deck I want to time his fastball.
If he's a fast thrower, he knows it, the catcher knows it, the coach knows it, so guess what's
probably going to come a lot...the heater.
So we're timing up the fastball.
I want to just start my load a little bit earlier that way I'm on time for his fastball.
We can react to everything else but I want to key on his fastball since that is his strength.
So we're starting our load a little earlier.
That doesn't mean get my foot right down and wait for the ball.
That just means starting my load a little bit sooner than I normally would to compensate
for his speed.
The other adjustment I can make is if I normally stand in the middle of the box, I used to
move to the back line of the box.
That way it gave me another foot or so of reaction time.
My swing is not changing much.
I'm just moving back in the box.
Another adjustment I used to make is tell myself be a little bit shorter to the ball.
What that meant to me is I want to be compact, quick to the ball.
I don't want to let my barrel get too too deep toward the catcher in the zone.
I want to be more compact to the ball that way I can get the barrel to contact point
sooner.
Now, let me ask you this, are you trying to swing the same on an 85 mph guy versus a 98
mph guy or a 102 mph guy?
Same swing or anything different?
My swing intensity is basically the same.
It's easy to say "this guy is throwing 95 I need to swing harder" but what happens when
I swing harder, my muscles tense up, I actually move slower, my swing gets bigger.
So like I said, I like to take the same mentality and not let the velocity kind of dictate me
swinging harder.
Now, from the pitching perspective I was a 96 mph sinker ball guy and just from my philosophy
I was mostly fastball.
I threw mostly fastballs.
So if you know you have a guy who is super fast with the fastball, they usually stick
to what they're good at.
So if you kind of have that approach in the box like "I'm going to get mostly fastballs
in this at bat" you can kind of eliminate all the other pitches and if he throws you
a nasty slider and you swing and miss, tip your hat to the guy, that's a great pitch
but be ready for that fastball, get your foot down, be on time, and do work, try to get
on base.
That's it.
Let's hit the fastball.
Great tips.
Thank you so much.
Guys if you haven't checked out The Baseball Box please do so down there.
Ooops, you ok?