Jordan Lyles Astros SP 2013 OIP Evaluation Rating

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Premature hip rotation before pitch delivery causes early arm fatigue which equates to less innings pitched per game and a short lifespan as a starting pitcher on any level. Even though a pitcher with this major mechanical flaw may occasionally achieve a high pitch count in a game, this well ingrained habit of opening up early will most likely lead to a future as a relief pitcher until there's scar tissue build up in the shoulder rotator group which will diminish his arm strength/velocity and eventually a shortened career.

J Lyles  SP  Houston Astros  2013 OIP (Overall Injury Probability): 45%

Jaime Cevallos' POSITIONAL HITTING...the ultimate book on the slot position swing

With POSITIONAL HITTING, Jaime has written the BEST comprehensive book on the most effective and efficient swing for hitting a baseball or softball...the slot position swing. In this well written hitting instructional, you'll get an understanding of the body's natural coordinated movements during the positional slot swing that produce the most torque of any swing used in baseball or softball. The book is presented in an easy to read format even when covering kinetic linking, angular measurements, balance, bat dynamics, and mechanical efficiency. I can easily say that his book is the best book on hitting that I've ever read, and I've read them all. If you are serious about becoming the best hitter that you can be on ANY level, this book and his slot position training bats, the MP28 and MP30, are a MUST. Even though I freely endorse Jaime's book and training bats and don't receive commissions or compensation of any kind, please tell Jaime I sent you. Thanks.

http://theswingmechanic.com/   Jaime's website

Positional Hitting @ amazon
  http://www.amazon.com/Positional-Hitting-Approach-Analyzing-Training/

From Chris to Crush Davis

See what happens when you change from a hands hitter to the slot position swing? Guess it's an 'I told you so' moment...sorry, couldn't resist. Many times in the past when the opportunity arose, I would tell people he's going to be the next Adam Dunn when he changes his swing. Back in October 2010 I wrote this in the bi-line in a blog..."I wonder if Chris Davis realizes that he's just a couple of swing adjustments away from being the next Adam Dunn?"

In 2013 all I can say is that I'm extremely happy for him and his success. He's put in the time and effort to turn himself into the productive power hitter that I envisioned. I'm looking forward to when I'll be able to predict that next hitter that has this kind of power and consistency potential with a few modifications. Except the next hitter I may say has the potential to be the next Chris Davis instead.

10 Minute Drill Stations Lead To Baseball Success

You know if it's boring, the drill is probably taking more than 10 minutes to complete. Innervation and boring go hand in hand. Innervation is the brain's way of escaping. My apologies to the Japanese coaches and the infamous 1,000 ball drill, but innervation and fatigue lead to slop. This will happen with any prolonged drill past 10 minutes.

In the DPBI CHAMPIONSHIP HITTING system NO drill is practiced for more than 10 minutes. There is no need to overcome mental fatigue with reps in your training. Hitting is not marathon running. The goal is to remain sharp by keeping our concentration and focus. Remember fatigue is detrimental to quality in hitting. Fatigue has its place in training for some movements for pitchers and position players and in other sports, but not in the fine motor skill of hitting. Plus, you can always come back to the drill and for as many times needed in 10 minutes sessions, barring joint stress and injury from high or excessive reps. Emphasis should be placed on alternating 10 minute drills and muscle groups to be worked.

Additionally, I developed the frisbee T Drill to improve getting the lead hand through the zone faster on inside pitches. Poly balls work great with this drill. A special angled T had to be made to allow for contact off the hips. The was designed to simulate where the lead hand should be on inside pitches. A regular T can be used to simulate outside corner pitches when there a 2 strikes in the count and a need to protect the plate. 20+ years ago during my college coaching stint we'd wrap a newspaper with tape or a thick broom handle covered with pipe insulation & then taped over with either athletic tape or duct tape, and threw it with the lead hand at a baseball on a T. Both drills are still viable today.

 

The speed bag station has caught on with others! I've had the speed bag among my stations for hitters for some time now. It's great for eye-hand coordination and building forearm strength. This station also fits in well with the  DPBI CHAMPIONSHIP HITTING philosophy. 

In an effort to have a variety of stations, I now use the Wii and its Table Tennis game. The one exception is that you have to add wrist weights while you play. To have the endurance to play this 10 minute drill will take some practice to accomplish, but well worth it.

Strive To Be A 50 Plus OFP Baseball Player

 A scout must avoid lack of confidence, other organizations' scouts pumping him for information, having a favorite team or players which is a deterrence to objectivity, zero prospects which are prospects with an OFP of below 50, and choosing poor associate scouts in order to meet the number one goal of an organization...winning a world championship.

     Once the prospect has been been graded, the scout should stand by his OFP and belief in the prospect and himself. The Scouting Bureau's report may not be as accurate as yours. I knew a scout that changed his report for that reason alone...the MLSB had this prospect graded 13 points higher. It turned out the prospect was just as he originally graded and reported. The Bureau had missed the mark, but this territorial scout didn't have conviction in his own abilities and changed his grade on a new report to match theirs. This is another one of the 90% failures because he had a lack of confidence in his scouting abilities. The other pitfall is the opposite extreme and giving out information to other scouts when they pump you for information. Besides being arrogant, this smells of a lack of loyalty to your own organization. The pitfall of having a favorite team or players  falls into the category of "deterrence to objectivity" which was previously alluded to. The final pitfall for a scout has to be picking poor associate scouts. This happens, but not often. It did happen to a certain territorial scout that relied heavily on his associate scouts for reports in order to get more playing time on the golf course. I will say that he did put together a decent network of associate scouts overall, but a few turned out to be incompetent, and one, an M.D. in is day job, was brought to the attention of the MLB Commissioner's Office by a fairly well known collegiate coach for offering players PEDs and soliciting to be an agent for the prospects he carded. Both were brilliant men, but lacked common sense, good judgment, and moral ethics.

   The goal of finding prospects that will help the organization to win championships has not changed, but the methods used to do so are in a continual change. The modern scout has to familiarize himself with techniques to improve time management, adapt to changing technology, staying current with sports psychology as well as baseball strength training, and bio-mechanics. All of these must be combined with the absolutes of scouting: being objectively subjective, aggressive, an ability to not pre-judge prospects, knowing the up-to-date needs of the organization, an unending patience and avoiding scouting pitfalls.

   Time management includes more than just managing time in the scouting department and by each individual scout. The concept of business time management includes four functions and is already in use by some general managers. The functions are production, organizing, directing, and controlling when adopted by the scouting director can facilitate the organization's scouts to be more productive which as a result would reverse the past problem of only 10% of their scouts being successful.

   Today's scout should be computer literate to help keep the flow of information moving. Being knowledgeable in computer applications should be a goal of the scouting department  for each scouting director scout in the 21st century.  The speed of communication necessary to build a successful, championship organization requires it. A wireless laptop and printer will soon become tools for the scout and will be as valuable as a radar gun and stopwatch.

   Staying current in the latest thinking in sports psychology, strength training, flexibility, nutrition, and bio-mechanics are necessary for the scout of today. The need to provide correct information to prospects is now a part of the job. The old saying that "sports medicine changes every six weeks" also can apply to almost all areas of baseball and can become frustrating, but the modern scout must accept that staying current in his knowledge base is integral in helping his organization reach its yearly goal of winning a championship.

   Not following the absolutes of scouting is why there is a 90% failure rate among scouts. A successful scout has to avoid being subjective without including objectivity. The two must go together 100% of the time to help make an accurate OFP and determine signability.  That being said... a deterrence to objectivity is the scout allowing himself to pre-judge prospects because he reminds him of past unsuccessful prospect X, etc. The scout must eliminate the prejudice and rate tools with focus and not emotion.

   Lack of patience can actually be lumped into the pitfalls found in scouting. It just happens to lead the pitfall league in problems that scouts must deal with. Impatience with the scouting director is one problem when there is a lack of interest in your prospect. If the prospect is drafted by your organization, then there can be impatience with the player development department in taking their time moving the prospect up the ladder, and if you are a successful scout, the lack of moving up the ladder in your own career can become a detriment. All the behaviors related to impatience are part of human nature and that a successful scout needs to overcome. To become a patient scout requires some stress management techniques or you'll never have peace of mind. Finding a healthy way to unwind and clear the mind, is key to surviving and thriving in the scouting world. Developing a hobby can be one process in helping you to relax and will take you a step closer to mastering patience.

   Other potential pitfalls in scouting include marital stress, and signing immature prospects. As to marriage and marital stress, a scout must realize that he'll be on the road...often. Sometimes the time out away from home can be up to three weeks. From my experience, I know of many divorced scouts for just this reason. Maybe this is why for many years the average age of scouts was where they were in their sixties.  In short, a scout need to be aware and should address this issue with his spouse and work at his marriage to maintain it. Wives can be understanding is the positive side of this issue.

   The signing of immature players can be a pitfall, but usually doesn't happen often thankfully. I have seen a couple of players signed that had no business being signed due to poor make up. Sometimes players can have their attitude righted after signing, but I rarely see that with those that like to sip suds in high school, etc. A prospect that has a drinking or drug problem in high school is immature cannot handle the life and pressure of a minor league player. Point being- a scout must use common sense and good judgment as to what's best for the prospect and the organization.

    In conclusion, baseball is a business...first and foremost. There is no room for thinking otherwise. Being a successful scout means that he's helping build championship teams by choosing championship caliber prospects objectively with all the tools available to him. That is the bottom line for a scout. If a scouting director requires his scouts to familiarize himself with techniques to improve time management, adapt to changing technology, staying current with sports psychology as well as baseball strength training, nutrition, bio-mechanics, and combine this with the absolutes of scouting, that scouting department, along with the organization's player development department, are well on their way to building a successful baseball franchise.

Consistency In Your Hitting Stride

Q: A hitting instructor was saying to change where you step based on where the baseball was pitched?  Is this even possible?  You have so little time to even decide to swing, how can you step outside on an outside pitch and step straight on a pitch up the middle and step out on an inside pitch?  Don't most if not all professional hitters step in the exact same spot regardless of where the baseball is pitched?  Thanks, Vance M.

A: Absolutely, Vance. The great hitters do it consistently...same spot, same stride length on any type of pitch. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to see this while I was helping Paul Prinz of Bio-Kinetics with his filming for three series at the old Arlington Stadium in Arlington, TX. The video was then digitized for bio-mechanical analysis. Paul allowed me to see a sample of Don Mattingly and Wade Boggs' swings and then a few others that were the opposite...stepping to different spots and having different stride lengths. The difference in how quick and consistent to the ball and contact point they were compared to the other hitters that lacked consistency of stride and landing spot was very noticeable in their swing analysis. There IS a tangible reason via bio-mechanic breakdown as to why these "inconsistent" hitters lead the league in broken bats, and the great hitters never deviate their stride length.
For better hitting,
Del

KEEPING YOUR HEAD STILL IN YOUR SWING FROM THE START...

or

How The Lower Case c Can Lead To Hitting Success

Make a small "c" slowly with the middle knuckle on the middle finger of the lead hand as your hands begin their positional hitting (see slot position swing blog post) path to explode through the ball. The reason for doing this in a slow manner is because a slow start enables the hitter to keep their head still, body in control,  and maintain positive tracking of the pitch. I won't use this forum for specifics, but I adhere to Dr. Bill Harrison's Vision Training for teaching proper visual acuity by limiting the number of eyes muscles used in hitting which in turn prevents blurring the hitter's vision during pitch tracking...a.k.a. fine centering/soft centering.

Hitting is an act of controlled aggression. To be a good hitter that can consistently drive a pitch, you must put yourself into the role of being the aggressor with a hunter/predator mindset in a confrontation with the pitcher.  This hitting attitude with a proactive state of mind helps the hitter pick up details visually much better than a passive approach.

The correct hitting mindset along with dynamic vision training, depth perception drills, and tracking pitches correctly with a still head allow the brain to take over by making the pitch look like it's coming in as big as a basketball and in slow motion. The small c is the first and most important step in the dynamic linking hitting process by overcoming inertia quietly to provide a blur free quality at bat.