Uppercut by Uppercut, a Band of Sluggers—And the Reshaping the Modern Swing. Out: the Li -80°
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SWING ANGLE 80° NUMBER OF HITS: DONALDSON 100 40 80 20 60° 60 0 Batted Balls Hits 40° 20° 0° -20° -40° lift-60° UPPERCUT BY UPPERCUT, A BAND OF SLUGGERS—AND THE RESHAPING THE MODERN SWING. OUT: THE LI -80° BY TOM VERDUCCI Photographs by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images (Donaldson) &Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty Images (Gallo) 80° SWING ANGLE NUMBER OF HITS: GALLO 30 15 60° 25 10 20 5 Batted Balls Hits 40° 20° PLANE AND SIMPLE 0° The strokes of Donaldson (far left) and Gallo mirror a pitch’s downward path, staying “on plane” through the hitting zone. -20° -40° t -60°off IR FREETHINKING, DATA-DRIVEN GURUS—ARE RADICALLY NER UP THE MIDDLE. IN: THE DEEP FLY BALL -80° MARCH 26, 2018 | SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 45 DEEP THINKERS By changing his approach, Turner (right) became one of the game’s most reliable sluggers, while Gallo (below, center) was all or nothing in his first full season. THE 1-AND-2 pitch to Rangers slugger Joey Gallo last Sept. 17 didn’t signify the start of a revolution—it was more the Second Battle of Sara- toga than Lexington and Concord. The first shots had come a few years earlier, igniting the greatest hitting rebellion since Babe Ruth (more or less) invented the home run. What happened on this pitch in Anaheim would confirm the strength of the revolutionary forces. THE DELIVERY FROM repeatedly in practice to fire Angels righthander Gar- shots with the trajectory of rett Richards was most a clothesline at the back net likely to be a slider: He of the batting cage. used that pitch 75 of 178 Not now. Not since the times with two strikes last early adapters and the season, giving up just two quants learned that much IMAGES CLAYTON/CORBIS/GETTY TIM (TURNER); (GALLO) DAVIS/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK ADAM singles. Behind him, the of the orthodoxy of hitting shortstop crouched near was stone-cold wrong. A second base, the second steady decline triggered by baseman in short right- more stringent performance- field and the first baseman enhancing drug testing had far in back of the bag. To sent offenses into a tailspin. crack this analytics-crafted cordon with an opposite-field By 2014, runs and batting average were at their lowest groundballwouldrequiretheexactitudeofTomCruise since the introduction of the DH, in 1973. in the vault scene from Mission: Impossible, especially Then came the revolution—an insurgency waged in for Gallo, a 6' 5" lefthanded, launch-happy first base- the air. In just three seasons, from 2015 to ’17, batters man. In 2017 he swung at 1,056 pitches. Only once— hit 3,023 fewer ground balls and 1,196 more home runs, a certifiable mistake—did he ground a single to left. including a record 6,105 dingers last year. There were A generation ago a batter facing a 1-and-2 pitch would 3,157 more fly balls and few complaints about the tariff shorten his stroke to put the ball in play. Only four years forallthatlifting:2,658morestrikeouts.Teamsscored ago he would be quick to the ball by getting on top of 4.65 runs per game in ’17, up from 4.07 in ’14. it with a steep swing path—the approach he had taken Baseball is supposed to ebb and flow like the tides; 46 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | MARCH 26, 2018 industry bias. Hitting concepts were once passed down like stories at the Thanksgiving table, generation to gen- eration. These outsiders have instead used technology not just to educate themselves but also to disseminate their message, guiding the celebrated midcareer breakthroughs of J.D. Marti- nez, Justin Turner, Josh Donaldson and Jake Marisnick—to name just a few. Gallo never had to change. He was skying balls before it was cool. As a kid in Las Vegas he fell under the tu- telage of Mike Bryant, the father of one of his travel teammates and best friends, Kris Bryant, now the Cubs’ third baseman. In 1980 and ’81, Mike hit .204 in the Red Sox’ system before they released him—but that came after Ted Williams imparted to him the im- portance of hitting the ball in the air with a slightly upward swing path. “When I was eight years old, Mike was teaching me to hit the ball to the top of the cage, but not by dropping my shoulder,” Gallo says. “It was more backspinning the ball. With every coach I had besides Mike, we were hitting ground balls to shortstop as a lefty, or as a righty hitting them to second base. A lot of those guys are in change, moment to moment, is often barely perceptible. the minors now. They still have that same kind of swing, But this? This was the Angel Falls of change, a stupendous and they’re trying to change. But for me, I always had cascade. The traditional tenets of hitting flipped quickly. that [loft]. I kind of credit my career to Mike. We were Be quick to the ball? No. Get ready early and slowly tip at the beginning of that new-era hitter.” the bat back before firing. Last season Gallo went deep 41 times, joining Reg- Get on top of it? No. Use a slightly upward path to strike gie Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Hal Trosky as the only the bottom third of the ball. lefthanded hitters to surpass 40 in the American League Hit the fastball out front and the breaking ball deep? by age 23. Bryant has mashed 94 homers in his first three No. Do the opposite. seasons, sixth most in National League history. Hit the ball to the back of the batting cage? No. Hit it Says Bryant of his father, “He got it early. I’m sure if toward the top. he wasn’t in the Red Sox organization with access to Just put the ball in play? No. Always try to get it in the [Williams], I don’t know if he’d be teaching this way, or air, even at the risk of whiffing. at all. It’s so funny. Back then it was, ‘Mike Bryant, he A confluence of three forces has changed offenses doesn’t know what he’s doing.’ Now everybody is saying radically: technology, analytics and failed ballplayers exactly what my dad said.” turned private hitting tutors—the veritable garage-and- basementindystart-upsofthisdisruption.Amongthem: ICHARDS THREW his slider down and in, as a 71-year-old college dropout cum surfer, a former high confidently as British general John Burgoyne school coach, a failed independent league player, a self- R must have been when he decided to test the taught Internet baseball junkie and a .204 hitter who Continental Army at Saratoga. Gallo is the King was released from Class A ball after just two seasons and ofLoft.Noqualifiedhitterlastyearconnectedwitha four home runs. Not a major league at bat among them. higher average launch angle (the trajectory of the ball They have something else in common: freedom from offthebat)thanGallo’s22.3degrees—morethantwice MARCH 26, 2018 | SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 47 the major league mean. He batted .458 on balls in the air losopher, than legendary hitting guru Charley Lau. and .164 on balls on the ground. Only Matt Carpenter of “From the ’60s through the ’80s things didn’t change theCardinals(73.1%)gottheballairbornemoreoften much, with the bat in and out of the zone quickly. In than Gallo (72.1%). the ’90s things started changing a bit. Within just the Gallo’s approach at 1 and 2 was the same as when he last three years we’ve seen incredible change because first stepped into the box, the same one he learned in of technology. Baseball always has changed. But now Mike Bryant’s cage: backspin the tar out of the ball and that change is coming faster.” senditskywardtocenterfield. Suchintransigencealso is why he has struck out 272 times in his first 198 career MAGINE A globe hanging in front of home plate, games, more than anybody in history except one of his and a hitter swinging a sword at it, envisioning contemporaries, Twins third baseman Miguel Sanó. Over I its core as the sweet spot of contact. Tradition- three seasons Gallo has a .201 average. “A lot of people ally, a batter would be trained to bring his hands disagree with that approach,” he says, “and I get bagged from their starting position toward the globe as quickly on a lot for that, but that’s just how I am. I’m going up as possible in a direct, downward line. He’d try to strike there and taking my ‘A’ swing every time.” the globe with the sword just north of the equator, con- SWING EVOLUTION TY COBB BABE RUTHUTH PLAYING PEPPER THE HOME RUNN SWINGSWING A DECADE-BY-DECADE (34.5", 44 OZ.) (36", 42 OZ.)Z.) LOOK AT SOME OF THE Erect setup with Contact sacrificedcrificedf foror MOST INFLUENTIAL feet close together. power. Athleticletic sesetup.tup. STROKES IN Huge hitch. Bat held Low hands,, bbatat tippedtipped with hands apart at as a trigger,r, forwardforward BASEBALL HISTORY, first, then together stride to a firmfirm frontfront INCLUDING THE in load position. side. Swing pathpath SIZE OF EACH Barrel stayed flat. slightly upward.wardd. PRACTITIONER’S TYPICAL BAT AsGallouncoiled,ahugeand growingarmyofkids tinue down to the sweet spot at the core and then turn MARK RUCKER/TRANSCENDENTAL GRAPHICS/GETTY (COBB); IMAGES weremimickinghis stroke in battingcages, thetopsof upward after contact—exiting the other side of the globe which either had rings dangling as targets or a bright line stillintheNorthernHemisphere,withouttheswordever 17feetawaytomarktheimpactofaballlaunchedat25 crossing the equator.