What's up baseball players in this video let's
talk about hitting and let's talk about how to thrive or the very least survive
against a really nasty pitcher who's striking out lots of your teammates
all right so this is a really common question hey Dan we're playing a really good team the
pitchers got the picture is really nasty he's striking out 10 12 hitters a game how can we
get better at bats how can we get some hits off this guy how can we maybe get him out of
the game earlier and how can an individual hitter have a good at bat and give himself
a chance to get a hit against this guy so the biggest advice that I would give my players
when we're going up against a guy who's really really good is to understand that you're only
going to get probably one good pitch to hit when you're facing a really good pitcher and you have
to be ready for that when that opportunity comes and the other thing is you have to avoid being in
two strike counts against really great pitchers whether they have premium velocity or really
nasty curveball nasty slide or nasty change up whatever it is if you get to two strikes with
guys who have overpowering stuff they're gonna beat you that's just how it's gonna go because
you're going to have to expand the strike zone and swing and stuff that you don't ordinarily swing at
it's just going to put you in a bad position so the key overarching key to hitting against really
good pitching is to be aggressive earlier in the count when you're going to get a more favorable
pitch Now understand there's two sides to that coin because if you're swinging at the
first pitch of the at-bat against a great pitcher you're going to be out a lot of the time too right
and now he's going to have a low pitch count and that's going to be bad for you guys as a hitting
team so understand you don't want to go up there and always just go first pitch swinging first
pitch swing because they're going to get a lot of three pitch Innings or six pitch Innings and it's
going to be a long day because he's going to stay out there but you do have to be ready to swing and
that means going up not with this passive mindset but a really strong attack mindset that hey a lot
of times pitchers get complacent in that early part of the at-bat the first pitch the second
Pitch the third pitch you know oh oh one oh one one they're not in this like hunt for blood mode
yet a lot of times especially with young pitchers there's kind of like waiting for the bat to evolve
Golf and now those are times when as a hitter you can really jump on a guy like hey this pitcher
he's half asleep right now it's a 1-0 count I'm going to be ready to hit and be really aggressive
act like it's a 2-0 count and boom he throws me a fastball in the inner half and I can smoke it
because I'm ready being aggressive and being ready against really good pitching is a really important
tactic number two when you're facing a really good pitcher who's mowing guys down has a really
good out pitch and it out pitches means a pitch they can they can easily strike hitters out with
you have to try to X something out and so xing out a pitch means if I see the spin of a curveball and
I don't want to hit curveballs and I'm xing out curveballs I'm not going to swing in a curveball
I've like cut that out of the menu it's not something that I'm going to swing against so
for example you're facing Clayton Kershaw who is a nasty curveball if you see curveball spin your
brain says take doesn't matter the ball or strike if I see curveball from him I'm taking because I
don't have a chance of hitting it anyway because it's just better than me that can
definitely be the case sometimes against really Elite pitchers so if you're facing a guy who has
an amazing fastball and an amazing slider and his change up is just okay maybe you X Out the
slider you're not swinging sliders you're going to take your chances against fastballs and change ups
and if you can identify a slider out of his hand you're automatically taking you know that's a good
strategy sure when you're two strikes you might have to swing at it anyway but early in the count
especially don't swing at that nasty pitch if you can identify it and and so you cannot take pitches
that are on the white of the plate in the inner half inner third of it you know if it's on the
corner or the corner sure you can take those but if you get a fastball that's on the way the plate
you've got to swing you've got to try to Barrel it up because that might be the only one that you get
and if you get a curveball coming in for a called strike or a slider that stays up a little bit you
get a hanging curveball hanging slider you've got to swing at those you've got to be really
aggressive because those are mistake pitches the better level of competition you play against
the fewer and fewer mistakes pitchers are going to make and then you've got to really make them
pay when they do so a pitcher throws a curveball and he leaves it up here you can't take that pitch
if he's a really really good pitcher that's the one you've got to say oh look at that he's hung
a curveball it popped up coming out of his hand he doesn't make many mistakes I've got to go this
is the one right now I've got to swing out of my shoes on this one and try to make something happen
you can't take really good center cut pitches or hangers or any of that against really good
pitching you've got to make them pay the few times they're going to slip up so understand
that when you face a really good pitcher you need to one be aggressive earlier in the count because
that's when they're going to make more mistakes that's when they're going to be more generous
to you and throw the ball over the plate more often throw more fastballs for called strikes
as a hitting team you've got to be ready to jump on those 01011 those first three
pitches B swinging be ready to Barrel something up obviously as a team you can be stealing bases you
can be bunting you can do lots of other things to make that pitcher uncomfortable to make the
infield uncomfortable and to make things happen that's really important I'm going to be aggressive
if I see something in the middle of a plate I see a mistake pitch I see a hanging curveball I see a
hanging slider I cannot let those go by I've got to take my chances putting the ball in play when
I get one of those you can also really make them work don't swing at borderline stuff be really
selective about pitches in the middle you're not going to hit 93 on the black right so don't even
bother swinging make them bring it over the plate it's tough hitting against really good pitchers
obviously and having a good approach and a good strategy as a team is going to make it easier to
hopefully get to those guys where you can rack you can help their pitch count rise you can frustrate
them a little bit by playing some small ball and you can capitalize on the mistakes that they make
and the times where they ease off their focus and throw the ball over the middle of the play
a little bit more but you've gotta capitalize on the opportunities that you get when facing
a really tough pitcher all right so hopefully this video was helpful if you enjoyed it please
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for the baseball Community thanks again for watching and I'll see you in the next video