A Visual Scouting Primer: Hitting, Part One

A few weeks ago, I introduced an ongoing series aimed at clearing up the confusion that sometimes accompanies the scouting-specific language that pops up in our (and others’) scouting reports. While the first installment was an introduction to pitching terminology, this one will be focused on hitting. And while the previous entry was part of Prospect Week, and accordingly featured almost entirely videos of prospects, this one will focus more on current big leaguers.

There are a number of reasons for the departure from prospects for this installment. For one thing, I believe it’s easier to understand these terms when they’re exemplified by players with whom you, the dear reader, are more familiar. Additionally, most of the terms I’ll dig into that are used to describe swings are more easily illustrated using a side view of a player’s swing and, unlike major league broadcasts, minor league broadcasts tend not to include these angles. But even aside from that practicality, I think it’s important to place these terms in a broader context than just prospect evaluation. While some of these terms are sometimes used to describe a possible hinderance to a prospect’s development, I want to emphasize that they aren’t inherently good or bad. Players can excel at the major league level while still embodying these traits, even the ones that, in a vacuum, seem to carry negative connotations.

Just like in the last installment, many of these terms will be familiar to you as baseball-savvy folks, but I hope that the accompanying visuals will serve as a useful supplement to your consumption of scouting reports, both past and present. And because I can’t help myself, I’ve sprinkled a few prospects in throughout the piece for those of you who may be jonesing for more prospect coverage.

So without further ado, let’s get into the swing of things!

Stance/Setup
A hitter’s stance (also referred to as his setup) is pretty self-explanatory, but if Julie Andrews taught me anything, the very beginning is a very good place to start. A batter’s stance is simply his positioning before the pitcher begins his delivery. There are all types of variations based on a given player’s preferences, but a few basic terms are easy to define.

Closed: Giancarlo Stanton and Casey Schmitt

A closed stance refers to a player’s front foot being closer to the plate than his back foot, closing him off from the pitcher. In Stanton’s case, it’s rather extreme, as though the pitcher just told him to “pick a card, any card,” and he wants to make sure there’s no peeking as the pitcher asks him to memorize it. Schmitt’s stance is less extreme but is still considered closed because of his foot placement.

This is an aspect of a hitter’s stance that is often tinkered with in hopes of improving timing or plate coverage, or in service of whatever other psychological or physical advantage the hitter thinks he can gain over the pitcher. In Stanton’s case, his stance used to be more or less neutral, but over the course of the 2017 season, he gradually closed it off to what it is now:

You've seen how Stanton's closed his stance by now. But it's still cool to look at the different stages this season. All these are home runs pic.twitter.com/1xxFGgwIUL

— David Adler (@_dadler) August 21, 2017

Open Stance: Rafael Devers and Matt McLain (and Tony Batista)

Devers is an extreme example of an open stance, with his front leg almost starting outside of the batter’s box. Meanwhile, McLain’s stance is still considered open even though it’s not as exaggerated as Devers’ is. Here I would be remiss if I left out Batista’s textbook example of an extremely open stance:

Load
A term that often comes up when describing a player’s swing is his load. While load is a more general term that can refer to a hitter’s overall positioning as the pitcher releases the ball and the hitter assumes the starting position of his swing, we most often use it to refer to where his hands come set just before starting (or “unloading”) his forward movement toward the ball. Once again, there are many variations. Here are a few examples. First you’ll see what these hitters’ swings look like in slow motion, then with a freeze frame added at their respective loads.

Simple: Garrett Mitchell

Mitchell’s load is simple because his hands don’t move very much before they come set.

Noisy: Zach Neto

Unlike Mitchell, Neto’s hands move around a lot before they come set for his load. When prospects have timing issues or other concerns regarding their overall bat path, this is an area where they may make adjustments as they develop.

Shallow: Adley Rutschman

Rutschman’s load is considered “shallow” or “short” because his hands stay very close to his chest and shoulder rather than pulling back toward the catcher. His front arm stays bent, almost to a 90 degree angle, before he starts his swing, which allows him to get his bat through the zone very quickly.

Deep: Fernando Tatis Jr.

In contrast to Rutschman, Tatis’ load happens with his front arm nearly straightened out (sometimes referred to as an “arm bar”), and much further away from his chest and back shoulder. While this lengthens the distance his bat needs to travel in order to make its way through the zone, it is also likely responsible for some amount of his power production. Rather than one approach being right or wrong, this is a different-strokes-for-different-folks situation. Tatis has proven that a deep load works for him, but if a prospect is having trouble with his timing, this is an adjustment that could help to address it.

Hitch: Josh Donaldson

A “hitch” refers to the downward movement of a player’s hands before he loads them, as we see here with the recently retired Donaldson. Similar to the noisy load exemplified by Neto above, this can be a reason for concern if it’s causing timing or bat path issues, but a hitch is an extremely common thing to see in many of the sport’s power-hitting superstars. For that reason, the language can be somewhat nebulous. The word “hitch” will often be reserved for when this is an issue, whereas it may be referred to as a “trigger” when a player has clearly harnessed it as a timing mechanism or power-producing feature. Isn’t language fun?

Bat Wrap: Junior Caminero

A bat wrap is when a player points the head of his bat towards the pitcher as the ball is traveling toward the plate. Here’s a look at that same swing from Caminero, this time from the pitcher’s perspective:

Much like a hitch, a bat wrap can be an area to focus on during a player’s development if it’s causing him to struggle against velocity or pitches in the top-third of the strike zone, as it clearly adds length to a player’s bat path. But it can also be a source of power and bat speed, so it isn’t inherently a bad thing, provided the hitter is still able to time pitches properly.

Lower Half Load
While the term “load” is often used in reference to what a player’s hands are doing, his lower half is also a key piece of how he prepares to attack pitches. The two most basic elements of a player’s lower half load involve his front leg: the leg kick and stride. Every combination of those two elements can help a player time a pitch and/or activate his lower half to create additional power in his swing.

No Stride, No Leg Kick: Adam Frazier

Not every player utilizes a leg kick or a stride in his load. In Frazier’s case, he lifts his heal, but his front toe stays on the ground as he shifts his weight during his swing.

Stride, No Leg Kick: Bobby Witt Jr.

Witt lifts his leg to stride forward, but doesn’t kick his knee upward in a way that shifts his weight fully onto his back leg, as is typical with an actual leg kick.

Leg Kick, No Stride: Josh Bell

Bell’s lower half features a leg kick, but then he puts his foot down in virtually the same place he lifted it from. (Note: Please forgive the blurry start to this GIF — there was an ill-timed crossfade in the broadcast feed.)

Leg Kick and Stride: Jackson Holliday

Holliday’s swing is a thing of beauty, and this ultra-slow-motion video from a batting practice session clearly shows his big leg kick and long stride toward the pitcher.

Two-Strike Adjustment: Triston Casas

Players make adjustments to their mechanics all the time, for all sorts of reasons, but sometimes a player will consistently adjust his mechanics based on the count. While Casas doesn’t do this in such a pronounced way any more, when he was a prospect, there was a very clear difference between how he set up and swung when he had a two-strike count against him. He’d widen his stance, deepen his squat, eliminate his stride, and choke up on the bat significantly.

Here’s what he looked like with fewer than two strikes:

And here’s what he looked like with two strikes:

And for good measure, here’s a side-by-side:

There’s much more to be discussed when it comes to the ways we describe hitting mechanics – hell, I haven’t even really gotten to the actual swing yet! But seeing as how I’m pushing my word count limit, I’ll end this one here and pick up where we left off in my next installment.