Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
I think the biggest problem with the lack of power is that the Royals' swings are so geared for the outside part of the plate, everyone seems to have lost the ability to hit the inside pitch.
Turning on inside pitches is the easiest way to drive the ball out of the yard.
We saw this yesterday with Hosmer... he drove that ball to the wall that Jones made the nice running catch on. It was a pitch right down central, and he got jammed by it a little bit.
I don't think it's as simple a problem as Pedro Grifol, though. It's becoming more and more clear that - just like with the pitching instruction guys were receiving - something was broken in the minor league system's hitting instruction (not surprising, considering that dumbass Jack Maloof was and still is involved at that level).
Moore had to make some changes with the pitching instruction when guys like Montgomery, Duffy, Dwyer, etc. started stalling at AA and above. It's probably past time to make a change with the hitting instruction, too.
Gordon, Hosmer and Moustakas especially were all the premium power-hitting prospects in their respective drafts. Somewhere along the way, they have lost that. Could it be all three guys just "busting" to a certain degree? Sure, it could. But when you're 0-3 on guys with that type of power as draft picks (and whose power still flashes in game action), clearly something is wrong.
Also: All of this shifting that teams are now doing is going to hurt teams that rely on balanced approaches/contact hitting/up-the-middle approaches more than anything else.
The speed and defense and contact game are going to be minimized with all these shifts. Can the Royals adjust?
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Well, in Gordon's case, he seems like he's wanting to pull everything. Pitchers have been going on the outside half of the plate, and he's been breaking a lot of bats and rolling over on it and hitting slow rollers to 2nd. Hosmer's swing seems geared towards the middle of the field/opposite field. It's quicker than it was earlier in the season, but he's not getting any backspin when he makes contact.
As for Moustakas, he's the only one really showing any power at all, and almost all of it pull power. He looks like he's trying to make an effort to go to left field, but he doesn't strike me as the type who can just flare liners in that area. He needs to shoot for the left field gap. But the whole line-up seems to have the "opposite field" mind-set, and that's flawed as pitchers will tear you apart on the inside half of the plate. Aoki's finding that out right now.