Brandon Nimmo: A Mets Prospect on Hitting

Brandon Nimmo is one step closer to the big leagues. He’s also off to a good start in Sin City. The Mets promoted the 22-year-old outfield prospect to Las Vegas at the end of July, and he’s finding Triple-A to his liking. In 12 games with the 51s, Nimmo is hitting a handsome .297/.413/.405.

The sample size is small, but at the same time, it’s indicative of his potential. Drafted 13th overall out of a Cheyenne, Wyoming high school, in 2011, Nimmo is one of the top prospects in the New York system. A lanky left-handed hitter, he’s been compared to Miami’s Christian Yelich. He’s comparably raw – remember, Wyoming – but the styles are similar.

Nimmo discussed his hitting approach, and touched on his Citi Field ETA, during last month’s Eastern League All-Star game.

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Brandon Nimmo on hitting: “My plan is simply to hit something hard. I’m not trying to hit home runs, or anything like that. Home runs are actually mistakes that come from getting under the ball a little bit. I’m trying to hit line drives, and if I can get something on the barrel, that’s where I’m going to have the most velocity and the most chance of having something fall. I want to be short and direct to the ball.

“If you looked at video of me from when I first got into pro ball, and compared it to now, you wouldn’t see a whole lot of difference. I think I’m pretty much the same, outside of strength. I’ve mostly been going with what feels comfortable, and what helps me get to pitches.

“Our hitting philosophy was drilled into me early on. It’s basically to get a good pitch to hit. A lot of people misinterpret our hitting philosophy as wanting to draw a walk. That’s not what it is. It’s to get a good pitch to hit and not be afraid to walk. It’s never a bad thing to get on base.

“You also can’t be afraid to take strikes. If it’s a pitch you can’t drive, you probably don’t want to go after it unless you have two strikes. You shouldn’t be afraid to get to two strikes. You want to get rid of the fear that causes you to just want to put the ball in play. What you want is to get your pitch and put it into play hard.

“I try to stay up the middle with my approach. What I look for at the plate kind of depends on how I’m feeling and how they’re pitching me. As you get higher up, it starts to become a cat-and-mouse game, but my main philosophy is to think up the middle and adjust from there.

“You can look at reports too much and start to get away from what you do well. You can’t always just go off of numbers. Regardless of what they’re trying to do to you, pitchers make mistakes. Of course, hitters are going to make mistakes, too. Each side is trying make the other pay for a mistake. That’s probably the biggest part of hitting: Getting some mistakes and doing something with them when you do.

“When I’m not going well, what’s going wrong can differ. Usually, it’s because I’m a little tired and a little long with my swing. That’s going to happen over the course of a long season. When it does, you have to grind through it and work to get back to feeling comfortable again. And sometimes you try to do too much. That happens too.

“One thing about baseball is that it can be a lot of things. Sometimes you’re trying to do too much, sometimes you’re not doing enough, sometimes you’re too long, sometimes you’re cutting it off too short. That’s a tough thing about this game. You find out through experience – through trial and error – what works for you and what doesn’t. You learn what your keys are and how to make adjustments

“I like to keep my hitting coaches in the loop. When you go into a slump, they can help you out if they understand what you’re doing when you’re going good. If you’re not on the same page, it can get frustrating trying to work through things. You need to be on the same wavelength.

On his timetable: “I’ve had an opportunity to be around big-leaguers in spring training, and those guys are real professionals with the way they go about everything, That’s what I’m trying to do. I want to be a professional who works hard at what he does.

“How close am I to playing in the big leagues? I have no clue. I can’t control anyone’s decision-making process is, so I don’t know what the time frame is. All I can do is keep working hard. From there, the rest will take care of itself.”