The Care and Feeding of Bret Boone

F.O.B. Steve from the sadly defunct M's blog Mariners Wheelhouse gives us some tips on our newest aquisition:

In Boone's good seasons in Seattle, he consistently hit the ball with power to right field. The Mariners believed Boone's problem the last couple of years was that his bat slowed down, so he couldn't hit the ball hard as consistently as he had in previous years. They believe he compensated by shortening his swing and trying to pull the ball to generate power, instead of continuing to hit the ball to right and aceept the loss of power. When the Mariners took Boone out of the lineup for 10 games in June to work on his swing that was what they had him working on.

At the time the Mariners let Boone go, Hargrove commented that after his time off, Boone came back with things fixed, but shortly thereafter revereted to his previous habits. The Mariners DFA'd Boone after he proved unable to shake the old habits or unwilling to accept that he was no longer going to be a 30 HR guy. Perhaps Molitor will have more success.

Anyway, as you track suckitude for Mr. Boone, you might keep that in mind.

Hitting ball to right side => good.
Hitting ball to left side => suck.

Actually, I should amend it a bit. It's not quite as extreme as I made it sound. Boone also has been good turning on inside pitches. During his good years, though, he drove outside pitches to right with authority. He was particularly effective on pitches high and away, and at times was actually a sucker for a shoulder-high fastball off the plate.

And I think the comment pertains to Boone swinging with the upright stance he uses before he has two strikes. In previous years, hit many balls to right field using that stance. Very few this year. He swings out of his heels trying to pull the ball until he has two strikes and puts himself in the hole.

so, I should say:

Hitting ball to right side with upright stance => Good
Hitting ball to left side => Suck.

Posted by Batgirl at July 23, 2005 12:11 AM
Comments