On Hitters Adding Movement to Their Loads

Brent Rooker
Peter Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

Recently, I wrote a piece about the benefits of hitters simplifying the mechanical process in their load or gather. For many hitters, moving too much in the lead-up to their barrel entering the hitting zone can create inconsistent timing and suboptimal reciprocal movements. Taking noise out of the swing can better prepare a hitter to have a consistent bat path; if you always know where your barrel is in space, you’re better equipped to hit the sweet spot more frequently. The thing is, not all hitters are the same. What works for one may not work for another, and that is the beauty of baseball.

I’m afraid I may have left some readers with the impression that simplification is the only path to improvement, when in reality, some hitters need to add more movement to their process to put their body in a position to be athletic. More movement does not always equal more complication if that movement is in the right direction. If a hitter stagnates their mechanics too much, they could be taking away from their potential. The kinetic chain needs flowing energy to function at full capacity. To some people, cueing simplicity and less movement can be harmful.

Last year, when Jarred Kelenic was trying to find the swing mechanics that would work for him, he led himself to something that looked very simple but still wasn’t adjustable enough to be the hitter he wanted to be. This swing is from October 2022:

October 4, 2022

Kelenic was a much better hitter in the final month of the season relative to the rest of the year, but this is still far off from where he is now. As a powerful but not very stretchy athlete, he needs to maintain fluidity and looseness throughout his process. The adjustments he made in the offseason have done exactly that. Here is a recent swing of his from last week:

May 7, 2023

By adding more movement to his load (hand row), Kelenic has allowed his body to create optimal reciprocal movements. I know I throw that term around a lot, but it’s for good reason. Every move an athlete makes (or doesn’t) leads directly to another move. Last year, Kelenic’s stagnant hands led to a steeper and more inconsistent bat path. For some hitters, picking their bat up off their shoulder and firing is exactly what they need to do. But for somebody like Kelenic, it didn’t create enough stretch to get his barrel on plane deeper in the hitting zone, therefore creating more exploitable holes in his swing and improper balance in his body. The row leads to a reciprocal movement of his hands getting on plane early and staying on plane later.

Another great example of this is Jonah Heim. After struggling as a left-handed hitter in 2022 with an 83 wRC+, he added more movement and space for separation in his swing, and it has paid off in the early going. The first swing below is from September of 2022, and the next is from a few weeks ago.

September 24, 2022

April 28, 2023

Heim opened up his stance and added a slight leg lift to give his body a chance to create separation between his torso and hips. His swing in 2022 was merely okay, and there was clearly more to be had. On the line drive to center field, he was so close to really getting a hold of the pitch, but his hips were never activated, limiting his barrel to a smaller piece of the hitting zone. With a fastball on the outer third, he could only get it off the end of the bat despite being on time because that’s all his bat could cover.

For a hitter like Heim, it’s also extremely difficult to cover breaking balls low and in. His posture was too upright relative to his bat path. To get to breaking balls in that area of the strike zone, you have to get into your hips if you can’t contort your upper body to get on plane. By opening his stance and cueing a rotation into his rear hip, he created the amount of separation needed for his hands to start their down swing deeper in the hitting zone. It’s not completely transparent from this angle, but if you pay attention to the back of his belt, you’ll see he is showing more this year than last. That means he is now creating enough counter-rotation to allow his bat to get on plane earlier. He didn’t even need to make an adjustment with his hands to get to this position; it is the direct result of him creating separation. This change has boosted his wRC+ as a lefty from 83 last year to 141 this year.

The last hitter I’m going to use as an example is Brent Rooker. After struggling to find his groove to begin his career, he is firing on all cylinders and leading the league with a 200 wRC+. He always had the power and ability to be an above-average big league hitter, but he hadn’t found the exact recipe he needed to be consistent. This year, he adjusted his posture and hand position to create more torso bend and slightly more hand movement. This is subtler than Heim and Kelenic but still serves as an example of how creating more movement and fluidity can completely change a hitter’s profile. Here is one swing from last year and another from this year to show the change:

September 9, 2022

May 6, 2023

Like I said, this is a subtle addition of movement. Last year, Rooker put his hands where he wanted them to fire, but the lack of movement created a slight bat comb that looked slightly forced. His body wanted to move! By not putting his hands in a position to create the smooth movement, he rushed the hand comb. For a hitter who is whiff-prone even when he’s at his best, this can be problematic: a rushed bat comb can lead to even more whiffs because of an inconsistent bat path.

This year, Rooker has embraced the movement and a slow load. By setting his hands lower and closer to his back hip, he is now letting them move slowly into the slot from where he wants to fire, and the quick hitch has disappeared. Combine that with more torso bend, and you have a hitter who is perfectly balanced and on time at pitch release and when the pitch is entering the zone. That improvement has resulted in a drastic Barrel% jump, from 4.8% last year to 20.8% this year (97th percentile). This is a more subtle example compared to Heim and Kelenic, but it still illuminates how embracing movement (even if it is a tiny bit) can improve a hitter’s balance and bat path.

More often than not, the answer for a hitter is simplification. But absolutes do not exist in baseball. Each player’s body and capabilities are different: some can be productive by hardly moving at all, and others need an open stance with a two-phase leg kick that puts their body in a proper position to swing. Everything is on a spectrum. For these hitters, embracing movement has worked very well.





Esteban is a contributing writer at FanGraphs. You can also find his work at Pinstripe Alley if you so dare to read about the Yankees. Find him on Twitter @esteerivera42 for endless talk about swing mechanics.

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LenFuego
10 months ago

IIUC, the article’s conclusion is that Kelenic introducing movement of his hands in his “load” (in his case, the movement is a downward pull) is causing some kind of kinetic response that gets him on plane. I would contend that simply starting his swing from the much lower position that results from that downward pull (his hands seem to be as much as 8 inches lower than last season when he starts to swing) is the change that has unlocked him.

My contention is that he would be better off still not having all that pre-swing “load” movement that gets his hands to that location … he should just start his hands off there in the first place. To my mind, pre-swing movement is the enemy of a repeatable swing. It is extremely difficult to adjust the timing of your swing between fastballs and breaking balls when you have movement in your pre-swing load, and you invariably get off-balance — advantage pitcher.

Last edited 10 months ago by LenFuego
sandwiches4evermember
10 months ago
Reply to  LenFuego

That load movement might be part of his timing that has improved his results. It also appears to have come with a change where he starts more upright than he had been before. That might help with his pitch recognition.

Again, I am so far from an expert in this area that it is not even funny, but that’s my thinking here.

tz
10 months ago

I’m probably the least expert on any of this, but I think the key is the timing of the extra movement. Finding a way to load and also be balanced at the time the pitch leaves the pitchers hand seems to be the key for all three examples here. Looking at Rooker’s “before” swing, he looks too unbalanced towards his back foot when the pitch is released, which means he’s probably spending some of the precious next 0.2 seconds getting rebalanced before whipping his bat through. In his “after” swing, he’s added hand movement, but it’s concurrent with his leg lift and (most importantly) it all happens before the pitch is released, letting him be well balanced for the whole flight of the ball and also having a quieter looking swing.

Towel
10 months ago
Reply to  LenFuego

Timing and rhythm exists my guy