WSJ Article - Gurus Behind Baseball's Search For The Perfect Swing

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Mar 22, 2015
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gurus-behind-baseballs-search-for-the-perfect-swing-1489496965#livefyre-toggle-SB11585809772139604194704583020722951970336

By JARED DIAMOND
Updated March 14, 2017 9:08 a.m. ET

Doug Latta teaches hitting at a nondescript industrial park in Northridge, Calif., in a facility that consists of just two batting cages. He has no affiliation with a professional team. He never played baseball past college.

This is the man who transformed Justin Turner from a journeyman into an MVP candidate.

Turner met Latta after the 2013 season, when he had nothing left to lose. He had just been cut by the New York Mets, had a poor lifetime on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .684 and was nearing his 30th birthday. He was nobody—one of dozens of interchangeable utility infielders dotting the sport’s landscape.

Latta overhauled Turner’s swing, reversing years of teaching by major-league organizations. The next year, Turner hit .340 for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In December, he signed a $64 million contract.



“I knew nothing about hitting. Nothing,” Turner said recently, speaking by his locker at the Dodgers’ spring-training facility in Arizona. “I was completely backward in everything I thought.”

Toronto Blue Jays star Josh Donaldson credits his ascension from little-known catching prospect to American League MVP to Bobby Tewksbary, an independent league washout-turned-swing doctor. J.D. Martinez attributes his trajectory from fringe Houston Astros outfielder to Detroit Tigers slugger to Craig Wallenbrock, another independent hitting coach.

These self-made hitting gurus didn’t play in the big leagues, operate outside the mainstream and are convinced there is a better way to hit than what’s being taught at the major-league level. And they are rattling the baseball establishment.

“Hasn’t that happened in every industry, that headways are made by people who sit outside the box and were chastised and became martyrs?” Wallenbrock said. “When you step out of the box, you don’t have to go by the laws and the rules.”

From January 2007, Chris Colabello’s baseline swing. It’s conventional, with a more level swing plane.

These hitting mad scientists may use different nomenclature and methods, but their message is nearly identical. In their minds, many long-held assumptions about the proper way to swing—“stay back,” “swing down” and many others—are wrong.

“You listen to guys teach that, and it’s almost a crime,” Martinez said. “Organizations almost throw their money away.”

The gurus came to this belief by watching countless hours of film of the best hitters in history to try to uncover patterns. Or as Tewksbary put it, “What are Babe Ruth and Albert Pujols doing the same that lesser players are not doing?”

The answer defies conventional wisdom: To put it simply, hitters should develop a swing path with a slight uppercut, which results in more balls hit in the air. Fly balls produce home runs and extra-base hits. Grounders are the enemy.

From December 2012, Chris Colabello’s after working with Bobby Tewksbary. The swing shows what the gurus would say is a more ideal swing plane, with a slight uppercut at the end, resulting in more power. There are also other changes with his hands.
From December 2012, Chris Colabello’s after working with Bobby Tewksbary. The swing shows what the gurus would say is a more ideal swing plane, with a slight uppercut at the end, resulting in more power. There are also other changes with his hands. ILLUSTRATION: BOBBY TEWKSBARY
The numbers back up that philosophy: Last season, batters across the league hit .245 with a .511 OPS on ground balls, according to Stats LLC. On balls in the air, those numbers jumped to .408 and 1.186, respectively.

Focusing on elevation has clearly helped the hitters who have worked with the gurus. Turner hit grounders on 46.1% of his batted balls in 2013, but just 36.1% last season. Donaldson’s ground-ball rate has dropped from 45.4% to 38.2% since 2014, with his OPS rising from .798 to .953 over that span.

“I learned more in a session than I did in [three] years in the big leagues with Houston,” said Martinez, who has an .898 OPS in his three seasons with Detroit.

So why aren’t teams lining up at their doors to hire these gurus? The answer highlights the insular nature of baseball’s fraternity.

Some team executives wonder if the success stories are too good to be true. Marlon Byrd, one of Latta’s clients, and Chris Colabello, a Tewksbary disciple, have both been suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs, raising questions about whether the drugs or the teaching spurred their dramatic improvements. (Latta and Tewksbary deny their involvement in those suspensions and point to noticeable changes in their players’ swing mechanics.)

Beyond that, many teams don’t love the idea of their players seeking help away from the organization, even if they can’t prevent it. Latta, Tewksbary and Wallenbrock said they work with many of their clients under the condition of confidentiality, with players concerned about potential consequences from going outside the system.

Oakland manager Bob Melvin said he has come to accept external coaching as part of the reality of modern baseball but stressed that, “We pick our best hitting coach to teach what we think is the right thing to teach. It pretty much stops at that.”

Sometimes, that clashes with what the gurus espouse, leading to uncomfortable situations, with players wanting to appear coachable while still deploying their newfound knowledge. Latta recalled receiving a panicked phone call from an emotional minor-league client who worked all winter to revamp his swing, only to have his hitting coach immediately instruct him to throw it all away.

Toronto Blue Jays star Josh Donaldson credits his ascension from little-known catching prospect to American League MVP to Bobby Tewksbary, an independent league washout-turned-swing doctor.
Toronto Blue Jays star Josh Donaldson credits his ascension from little-known catching prospect to American League MVP to Bobby Tewksbary, an independent league washout-turned-swing doctor. PHOTO: ELSA/GETTY IMAGES
New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said he won’t stop players from seeking outside help. After all, he said, “They’re going to be responsible for their career being a success or failure.”

Still, Cashman expects players to keep their Yankees coaches in the loop because, “We’ve had players go off-campus like that and then they come in and they’re worse.”

In December, the Seattle Mariners hired former college pitcher Alon Leichman to fill the newly created position of “coordinator of organizational learning.” In that role, Leichman will go through training sessions with as many gurus as possible and report back to the Mariners’ front office about how they could potentially help their players.

Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto said if the Mariners can find future innovators before they work with Donaldson or Turner, “you can gain an advantage in your organization.”

That doesn’t mean a team will give someone like Latta or Tewksbary a uniform anytime soon.

Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia suggested that while the outside hitting coaches might understand swing mechanics, “There is more to hitting than just a swing.” Indeed, a big part of the job is to play psychologist and keep an entire roster on track.

“The stuff that major-league hitting coaches will bring into a play, a player might not be getting from his guru,” Scioscia said.

And many players will more readily trust one of their own. “There’s instant credibility from the players’ perspective for a guy who’s either played or coached or been around the big leagues,” said Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun, who worked with Wallenbrock in high school and college. “When you have an outsider come in, there’s naturally more skepticism.”

Write to Jared Diamond at jared.diamond@wsj.com
 

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
this is great! I love to share stuff like this, maybe it will open a few eyes or at least make them less resistant to new ideas.
 

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