Andrew McCutchen is chasing a batting title — he leads the National League with a .369 average — as well as an MVP award. The 25-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder tops the senior circuit in WAR and ranks second in OPS and runs scored. More importantly, he’s the catalyst for a team contending for its first playoff berth in two decades.

McCutchen talked about his approach to the game — and what it means to wear a Pirates uniform — last week at Wrigley Field.

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McCutchen on why he plays baseball: “It’s what I want to do and it’s what I’ve always wanted to do. Ever since I was 5 years old, it’s been the sport I really love. It’s really that simple. I could do other things, but not only can I play this game, I love playing this game. That’s been the case ever since I was a very young age.”

On baseball history: “History means a lot. You pay attention to what happened back in the day, from the early years all the way to where we are now. That’s especially true when you’re playing somewhere like we are today, in a ballpark like Wrigley Field. It’s the oldest park in the league and the more you know about it, the more you’re going to appreciate it. History is definitely a big part of this game.

“One of the reasons I appreciate being in a Pirates uniform is the greats who have worn it in the past. There was Bill Mazeroski hitting the walk-off home run to win the World Series. There was Roberto Clemente wearing the number 21. There was Pops: Willie Stargell. There was Dave Parker: Cobra. To think about all the players who have worn this uniform, being a part of this franchise means a lot to me. A lot of great players have played this game, and I’m just happy to be a part of the black and gold. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Manto stresses approach over mechanics and believes in letting a hitter be himself. The philosophy is paying dividends for the first-year Chicago White Sox hitting coach, as his team currently ranks sixth in MLB in runs scored and fifth in home runs. A big part of that success has been the reemergence of Adam Dunn and Alex Rios, who have flourished under his watch.

Manto shared his thoughts on hitting, and four key members of the White Sox lineup, last month at Fenway Park.

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Manto on Adam Dunn and confidence: “Adam has great athleticism. He really has a good bottom half in his swing, and as big as he is, he has great eye-hand coordination — despite his strikeouts. He has the ability to put a lot of balls in play, although it’s not necessarily happening right now. And he has a great swing path.

“I would define athleticism, for a hitter, as being able get to all parts of the plate. There are some guys who become too mechanical and strictly have the ability to hit middle-in. Athleticism is showing the ability to take a left-handed curveball, or a left-handed slider, that’s down and away and hit it to left-center. Adam can do that.

“Adam’s swing path is… I don’t know if ‘traditional’ is the right word, but it’s a bat path that comes down through the zone. He has some length in his swing behind him and he has great length out in front of him. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this year, when respected analyst Jay Jaffe named his Ken Keltner All Stars — aka the best eligible players not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame at each position — his right fielder was Reggie Smith. Some might argue that Dwight Evans or Bobby Bonds would be a better call, but Smith certainly has his bona fides. As a seven-time all-star, he accumulated 71.8 WAR between 1966 and 1982 and hit .287/.366/.489, with 314 home runs. A prolific switch hitter and an excellent defensive outfielder, Smith also had a reputation as a team leader. Now 67 years old, he runs Reggie Smith Baseball Centers in Encino, Calif.

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Smith on watching the game evolve: “When I played, the game was still coming out of the late ’50s, when ballplayers were really looked upon as heroes and role models. The game was played, I think, more for the love of it than for the money. We were making good salaries for the time, but nothing like today.

“I’ve seen the game change. The reasons that the players play the game has changed. I’ve actually seen players come into the game that did so because they were pushed into it by their parents. They were pushed because of the money and the opportunities that were there. I’ve seen players walk away from it for that very reason. They didn’t love the game and were playing it because someone else wanted them to.

“From a cultural standpoint, certainly you’ve seen change. It became more international, particularly as they began to cultivate and mine Latin America countries like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Now you’re starting to see them go into other countries like Japan, Korea and even Europe. Along with those changes, you see some of the cultural differences working their way into the game as to how it‘s approached. It has been a bit of shift, but part of that too is caused by a corporate approach to the game. It’s being run more as a business than as a hobby, as it was when I played. Read the rest of this entry »

When Phil Hughes takes the mound against the Red Sox tonight, the New York Yankees right-hander will throw fastballs, curveballs and changeups. It is the three-pitch mix he has featured this year while going 9-8, 4.09 — his FIP is 4.59 — in 19 starts. Unlike past seasons, he will not utilize a cutter or a slider.

Hughes, who began his professional career in 2004, discussed the evolution of his repertoire during a recent visit to Fenway Park.

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Phil Hughes: “When I first signed, I was fastball-slider, with a very occasional changeup — very occasional in that I never threw a changeup in high school. I started pitching when I was 15 years old and by the time I was drafted at 17, I had two years to figure out a breaking ball. A slider is what I learned and it’s what I had when I was drafted and signed.

“When I got to the big leagues, I threw a fastball, a curveball and a changeup. I didn’t throw a slider at all. When I got into pro ball, our pitching coordinator, Nardi Contreras, sort of looked at what stuff I had and figured that a curveball played more into the type of pitcher that I was. He felt that it played into my repertoire better, so I started the process of learning a curveball. It was at the end of rookie ball and on into instructional league when that process started. The peak of my curveball was probably my year in Double-A. It was a really good pitch for me and I threw it all the time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tony Perez was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, a reward for 23 years of productivity, the first 16 of which were spent with the Cincinnati Reds. A respected hitter from 1964 through 1986, the native of Cuba was a renowned run-producer. A .279/.341/.463 lifetime hitter, and 7-time All-Star, he ranks 28th all-time with 1,652 RBIs. Now 70 years old, he serves as a special assistant to the president for the Miami Marlins.

Perez talked about the approach he employed as an RBI machine, and what it was like hitting in his era, when the Marlins visited Fenway Park in June.

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Tony Perez: “I see the ball, I hit the ball. That was my approach. When I started out, we didn’t have a hitting coach. You had to be your own. I made my adjustments through the years, but I was always a good hitter, so I didn’t have to make too many.

“We didn’t have a batting cage in the stadium, or anything like that, into the 1970s. By the 1970s, I already had six or seven years in the big leagues. Really, I didn’t hit as much as the guys do now, but I never had a problem with not hitting a lot. I had my regular batting practice, and that was it.

“I’d learn about the pitchers. I’d learn how they were trying to get me out, and I’d see the ball. The [data] is valuable to the guys who are playing now, but in my time we didn’t have that. We just picked it up from the other players. We talked a lot. We talked to the veterans. When I came up, I had Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Tommy Harper and guys like that. I did my asking about pitchers.

“With two strikes, we used to say that we had to protect the plate. You make the plate bigger and anything close that you can get, you swing at it. I struck out a lot, but I never took too many third strikes. I would swing at anything close that I could hit. Read the rest of this entry »

Tyler Naquin has “future batting champion“ written all over him. The Cleveland Indians selected the 21-year-old outfielder with the 15th-overall pick of this year’s draft, and his sweet, left-handed stroke was the primary reason. He hit .381 over his sophomore and junior seasons at Texas A&M, prompting Baseball America to rate him the best pure hitter in the college ranks.

Naquin, who received a $1.75 million signing bonus, is beginning his professional career with the short-season Mahoning Valley Scrappers. Last week he sat down to discuss his bat, his defense, the draft, and his first month of pro ball. In separate interviews, Indians scouting director Brad Grant and Scrappers manager Ted Kubiak shared their thoughts on the club‘s top pick.

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THE BAT

NAQUIN on how he learned how to hit: “I’ve never had a hitting instructor in my life. I’ve never gone to any type of hitting camp, or anything like that. I’ve only had baseball coaches. It has mainly been my dad. He’s always said, ‘Hey, slow and easy feet, pick it up and put it down, swing the bat.’

“I’ve been blessed. I’ve always had kind of a natural way of swinging a baseball bat. When I was younger, I used to hit a lot of rocks, using a broomstick. My best friend and my brother would flip me rocks.

“People sometimes say I’m a bad-ball hitter. If it’s a low pitch, I can still flick my hands down there and shoot a line drive. It’s all hand-eye coordination, to be honest.”

On his hitting approach: “My approach to hitting is very simple: Read the rest of this entry »

Few people in baseball understand the ins and outs of scouting and player development better than Terry Ryan. His expertise in those areas helped turn the Minnesota Twins into a model small-market franchise — six playoff berths from 2002 to 2010 — and it will be needed if the team hopes to revisit its first-division status. He returned to the general manager’s chair in November after serving for four years in an advisory capacity.

Ryan talked about his approach to scouting and development — and included his thoughts on statistical analysis — at Target Field in late June.

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David Laurila: How would you define what is typically referred to as “The Twins way?”

Terry Ryan: There’s no such animal. It’s just the right way. It’s not the Twins Way, or it’s not the Baltimore Orioles Way, which used to be regarded as tremendous development and scouting, and how they go about their business. Our way isn’t any different than any other organization; we just believe that it’s the right way to play the game. That stems from the days when Tom Kelly was in our system — in the minor leagues and major leagues. Just play the game right. Get an out. Make the routine play. First-pitch strikes. Run balls out. Hit the cutoff man. Take the extra base. That’s just the way we’ve always described how we want to go about our business. But it’s not any different than the other 29 clubs. We do stress a lot of those types of things — there’s no doubt — but so do other teams. It’s just the right way to play the game.

DL: How willing is the organization to adapt to the needs of individual players?

TR: Every player is different in how you treat them and how you develop them. How much work they can handle. How much playing time they can handle. What they should do nutritionally. How much and what kind of rest you have to give them. Every player is a little different, up here and in rookie ball. After you get to know those guys… you know, some guys can’t play a day game after a night game. I don’t know why that is, but it happens. Read the rest of this entry »

The numbers show that Glen Perkins has been an effective pitcher since moving from the starting rotation and into the bullpen. The Minnesota Twins southpaw knows those numbers as well as anyone, and not just his won-lost record, his ERA and his WHIP. He’s also aware of his BABiP, his FIP and his WAR, as well as most anything that can found in his PITCHf/x data.

Prior to a recent game at Target Field, the 29-year-old talked about his move to the bullpen, his repertoire and his interest in stats.

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Perkins on his success pitching out of the bullpen: “A big reason has been more confidence, and the mental side of it came with the physical side. Going to the bullpen allowed me to get healthy. As a starter, I had just worn down.

“A positive was that pitching with inferior stuff taught me to be able to command the ball. It also taught me to set up hitters and recognize what they’re trying to do. There are nuances in the batter’s box that I can pick up on now that I never used to be able to. I needed to get any kind of advantage when I had bad stuff.

“My stuff got better when I went to the bullpen. I got healthy and started throwing harder. I actually kind of went back to my first year in the big leagues. In 2007, I was a reliever and was throwing a lot harder than I did in 2008 and 2009. Along with the increase in fastball velocity, I’ve become a lot more comfortable with my slider. I have a two-pitch mix that I’ve learned to work with. When you throw 95-96 [mph], hitters can’t stay on a fastball that quick, and then a slider.

“I got pounded pretty good in 2009, my last year as a starter in the big leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

Giancarlo Stanton can make hitting look easy. At just 22 years old, the Miami Marlins slugging outfielder combines prodigious power with an ability to hit for a solid average. Last season he belted 34 home runs, and this year he boasts a .283/.365/.555 slash line and has 19 long balls on his ledger. His current-season numbers would be even better were it not for a 12-for-64 stretch from June 1 through June 20.

Currently day-to-day with a balky knee, Stanton will represent the Marlins in next week’s All-Star Game and — health permitting — participate in the Home Run Derby. He discussed his hitting approach during a mid-June visit to Fenway Park.

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Stanton on hitting: “The first thing you need is a good pitch to hit. You can feel as good as ever, but if you don’t swing at strikes, you’re not going to be successful. There are times that hitting is very interesting. It’s also a long process. You can feel great and swing at strikes and still make outs, so it’s about consistency. You have to make sure you’re doing the right things and not changing just because you’re not successful for a short time.

“For me, it’s about staying inside the ball and not trying to hurry up on a pitch inside. That’s one of the things when you’re not hitting well, you see the ball inside and think, ‘Boom! I have to get to it real quick.’ It’s more the opposite. You want to be smooth and soft with your body to get to that ball. Read the rest of this entry »

Logan Morrison isn’t capable of producing the same type of offensive fireworks as Giancarlo Stanton. The 24-year-old “LoMo” doesn’t have his teammate’s light-tower power. But he can go yard. His left-handed stroke produced 23 long balls last year and his slugging percentage was a solid .468. Swinging for the fences simply isn’t his modus operandi.

Morrison doesn’t fashion himself a home-run hitter. The Miami Marlins first baseman goes up to the plate with an opposite-field line-drive approach that helped him post strong OBP numbers in the minor leagues and in his 2010 rookie season. Since then, his results have been mixed.

Two-plus seasons into his Marlins career, Morrison is seemingly caught in between. Hitting in the middle of Ozzie Guillen’s order, neither his on-base nor his slugging numbers are up to snuff. With the All-Star break looming, he has 10 home runs and a .242/.317/.433 slash line.

Morrison is capable of much more, but first he has to find himself. When he does, will he be a middle-of-the-order run producer? Or will he be more of a batting average-OBP guy? Could he be both?

Morrison talked about his approach when the Marlins visited Fenway Park in June.

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Logan Morrison on hitting: “I’ve pretty much tried to keep the same approach my whole life. Growing up, my dad was big into the art of hitting. It was Charlie Lau, then Tony Gwynn and reading his book. That turned into me going to Kevin Seitzer and getting lessons from him. He was always up the middle and the other way.

“I’ve also worked on learning how to pull the ball and when to pull the ball. That’s something I’ve tried to develop, but right now I’m trying to get back to up-the-middle and the other way. My approach has always been up-the-middle and the other way, but whether it’s timing — my contact point — I’m pulling a lot of balls this year. That’s OK with me as long as I’m getting hits, but I’m not getting enough hits.

“I was pulling the ball last year too, but not to the extreme that I am now. Why? It could be the pitching. Read the rest of this entry »