Red Sox Prospect James Tibbs III Talks Hitting

James Tibbs III might best be described as a hitting rat. Drafted 13th overall last year by the San Francisco Giants out of Florida State University, and subsequently shipped to the Boston Red Sox in last month’s blockbuster Rafael Devers deal, the 22-year-old outfielder lives and breathes baseball — particularly the part that entails standing in the batter’s box. From a young age, Tibbs has doggedly worked on honing his left-handed stroke.

An Atlanta native who attended high school in nearby Marietta, Tibbs excelled collegiately, slashing .338/.462/.685 over three seasons at the ACC school, with a 28-homer junior campaign further enhancing his profile. And he’s continued to hit in pro ball. He played just 26 games after inking a contract last summer, and his results were mixed; he posted a 153 wRC+ in nine games (42 plate appearances) in A-ball, earned a promotion, then went cold in High-A. Now in his first full professional season, he’s back to doing what he does best: bashing baseballs. Tibbs put up a 132 wRC+ with a dozen home runs in High-A prior to the trade, and since joining his new organization, he has logged a 107 wRC+ over 86 plate appearances while acclimating to Double-A.

Ranked 14th in what Eric Longenhagen called “the best farm system in baseball” when our Red Sox Top Prospects list was published in late June, the promising young outfielder was assigned a 45 FV, with raw power graded as his best hitting tool. Tibbs sat down to talk hitting prior to a recent Portland Sea Dogs home game.

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David Laurila: You were drafted one year ago. Are you the same hitter now, or has anything meaningfully changed?

James Tibbs III: “I’m pretty much the same. It’s what’s gotten me this far, and I’ve kind of tried to replicate that as much as possible. I’ve never been one to try to make changes unless it’s absolutely necessary, because I play off of feel. I’ll make adjustments based off of that feel, but I’m doing it trying to get back to my base. My base has been pretty consistent for the last… three years? Two years? Something like that.

“I feel like I cover the plate well. I feel like I can see the ball well from where I stand and how I load. I feel like I use my body well in order to get to the spots that I can’t necessarily cover. So yeah, it’s been pretty consistent for the most part.”

Laurila: How would you describe your approach at the plate?

Tibbs: “It depends on the pitcher. What a pitcher does is going to dictate what I’m trying to do. It’s a chess match, right? So, for me it kind of varies depending on what a pitcher throws and what he’s consistent with. Is he east and west? Is he north and south? How I want to get my bat in the zone is based off of that. If I want to be more lofty, or if I want to be more direct… those things will vary based the pitcher. Is he slider-dominant? Is he changeup-dominant? Is he fastball-dominant?

“From there it’s my job to play the chess match and beat him to the spot, beat him to the zone. All of those things are based off what we’re seeing through his reports, through his statistics, through his charts. Those help me figure out how I want to best approach what he’s doing.”

Laurila: What about your swing? Is that basically always the same?

Tibbs: “It might be, based off of Hawkeye, but for me it’s more a change in mindset. If he’s throwing a ride fastball at 22 vert, I’m going to try to be more direct. In my mind that might be more direct, but to the eye the swing might look the same. If he’s throwing more sinkers or sliders, then I’m going to have to be more lofty with my swing in order to best match the plane so that I can hit it in the air.

“I’m not trying to hit anything on the ground. My approach is that I’m trying to hit balls hard in the air everywhere I go. From line to line, I want to hit the ball in the air. For me to best get on plane with what he’s throwing, I have to understand where the ball is going and how much run or ride he has. The mindset will make me feel different in the way I swing. I might think, ‘All right, he throws fastballs with ride, so I’m going to try to get on top,’ and it might not look different, but I feel like I’m better approaching the path, the plane, in order to create that flight and backspin the ball in the air.”

Laurila: Are you trying to catch the ball out in front?

Tibbs: “Absolutely. The game has gotten so fast, right? With all the velocity and ride — those sort of things — it’s kind of made you speed up the way that you approach the game. Maybe in high school, or even college, I would kind of let it get to me a little bit more, but here there’s more velo. In order to be my best self, I have to be able to hit the ball out in front of the plate.

“You’ve got the square, and then you’ve got the triangle of home plate. Right? I’m never trying to hit it behind the square of the plate. I’m trying to hit it in the front half of the plate at the very minimum. There is a six-inch window where I’m trying to live, and that’s out in front.”

Laurila: You can catch the ball out front and still go opposite field gap…

Tibbs: “Yes. There is a misconception… I mean, I can be late on a fastball inside and still pull it, but the angle with which I hit it is going to be more downslope, so I’m going to hit it on the ground. For me to have success on the pull side with a fastball in, I’m going to have to get it out in front. I might be early by the standard of I hit the ball to the right side of the field, but I’ll know that I was actually late. I did this last night. It was a sinker down and in, and I caught it more here, instead of more here, so I ended up hitting it on the ground. I wasn’t in a good spot to hit, because I wasn’t out in front of the plate.”

Laurila: You’re talking like a hitting coach…

Tibbs: “I mean, this has been my whole life, man. This is how I’ve lived. My dad was a pitcher in high school, and he and I did a good job kind of breaking down my swing. Then statistics and numbers and feel… they all play into it and help me correlate a plan as to what I need to do in order to be successful.”

Laurila: How does the Red Sox organization compare to San Francisco? Do the hitting coaches and coordinators put more emphasis on anything in particular?

Tibbs: “Here it’s more air-pull. That’s kind of what we’ve talked about, hitting the ball in the air to the pull side — and that’s literally my game. When I’m at my best, I’m hitting the ball in the air from the scoreboard in left-center to the [right field] foul pole. But I have power to left field, too. If my rhythm is good, and my timing is good… I mean, it’s all about timing. The guy on the mound is trying to change your timing, whether it’s offspeed pitches, his rhythm, slide step, leg kick… those things create a whole other level of difficulty in barreling a baseball.

“The name of the game is barrels. The name of the game is hard hits. The name of the game is contact rate. The name of the game is controlling the zone. I can do all of those things well, but your ability to mix and match timing, and mix and match pitch speeds, is what allows you to have the upper hand against me.”

Laurila: Bat-speed training is big in the Red Sox system.

Tibbs: “Yes.”

Laurila: Were they doing that in your old org?

Tibbs: “No. I’m doing that here, but I hadn’t previously. I mean, I have swung a heavy bat. I’ve probably done that since I was six or eight years old. I literally swung a metal stick to hit golf balls. But until I got here, it had been a couple of years since I’d done anything like that.”

Laurila: Has your bat speed, or your exit velocities, improved since coming here?

Tibbs: “I’ve only been here for about four weeks, but no. My EVs have actually gone down. Part of that is timing. I felt like my swing was off, so I’ve had to make an adjustment. But I think we’re trending in the right direction. I was hitting balls harder than I ever have in my life when I was in High-A, but then I got here and had to kind of readjust everything. The pitchers are obviously better at this level.”

Laurila: You had a power surge last year. What do you attribute that to?

Tibbs: “I got stronger, and that’s a testament to our strength coach at Florida State, Jamie Burleson. Understanding the game was a big part of it, too — understanding ways that pitchers were trying to pitch me was a huge advantage throughout the year. The chess match, right? I feel like I’m better able to understand the story that a pitcher is trying to tell on the mound. That helps me sell out to the pitch that I’m going to see. Obviously, there are times where I’m wrong. He might do something different, but I’m going to play the percentages. I want to be able to dominate that pitch, so a lot of it is understanding the sequencing, and understanding how he wants throw certain balls in certain areas. What he’s trying to do, and how he best executes pitches, is going to play into how I approach my at-bat.”

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Earlier “Talks Hitting” interviews can found through these links: Jo Adell, Jeff Albert, Greg Allen, Nolan Arenado, Aaron Bates, Jacob Berry, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, Justice Bigbie, Cavan Biggio, Charlie Blackmon, JJ Bleday, Bobby Bradley, Will Brennan, Jay Bruce, Triston Casas, Matt Chapman, Michael Chavis, Garrett Cooper, Gavin Cross, Jacob Cruz, Nelson Cruz, Paul DeJong, Brenton Del Chiaro, Josh Donaldson, Brendan Donovan, Donnie Ecker, Rick Eckstein, Drew Ferguson, Justin Foscue, Michael Fransoso, Ryan Fuller, Joey Gallo, Paul Goldschmidt, Devlin Granberg, Gino Groover, Matt Hague, Andy Haines, Mitch Haniger, Robert Hassell III, Austin Hays, Nico Hoerner, Jackson Holliday, Spencer Horwitz, Rhys Hoskins, Eric Hosmer, Jacob Hurtubise, Tim Hyers, Walker Jenkins, Connor Joe, Jace Jung, Josh Jung, Jimmy Kerr, Heston Kjerstad, Steven Kwan, Trevor Larnach, Doug Latta, Dillon Lawson, Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, Evan Longoria, Joey Loperfido, Michael Lorenzen, Mark Loretta, Gavin Lux, Dave Magadan, Trey Mancini, Edgar Martinez, Don Mattingly, Marcelo Mayer, Hunter Mense, Owen Miller, Paul Molitor, Colson Montgomery, Tre’ Morgan, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Daniel Murphy, Lars Nootbaar, Logan O’Hoppe, Vinnie Pasquantino, Graham Pauley, David Peralta, Luke Raley, Julio Rodríguez, Brent Rooker, Thomas Saggese, Anthony Santander, Drew Saylor, Nolan Schanuel, Marcus Semien, Giancarlo Stanton, Spencer Steer, Trevor Story, Fernando Tatis Jr., Spencer Torkelson, Mark Trumbo, Brice Turang, Justin Turner, Trea Turner, Josh VanMeter, Robert Van Scoyoc, Chris Valaika, Zac Veen, Alex Verdugo, Mark Vientos, Matt Vierling, Luke Voit, Anthony Volpe, Joey Votto, Christian Walker, Jared Walsh, Jordan Westburg, Jesse Winker, Bobby Witt Jr. Mike Yastrzemski, Nick Yorke, Kevin Youkilis