Braun Working on a Swing Change

[True Blue Brew Crew]

Per Adam McCalvy...

 

Ryan Braun has been working with a private hitting coach this winter and is making changes to his swing for the first time ever. Call it the launch angle revolution or whatever, but he's trying to turn some of those hard outs into home runs.

 

Personally, I think this is a mistake. Hitting the ball hard is the most important thing. Bad luck shouldn't be a reason to make changes. Hopefully this doesn't backfire like it did for Harper.

[pacopete4]

He’s going to win another MVP. Book it.

[clancyphile]

This will be an interesting development.

[Lathund]

Personally, I think this is a mistake. Hitting the ball hard is the most important thing. Bad luck shouldn't be a reason to make changes.

 

Yeah that worries me a bit. I'd imagine all players tinker a bit with their swing, trying different things etc, even if on a small scale, and I imagine he'll have tried to lift it more at times. If this kind of change felt natural to him, surely he'd have tried to incoporate it by now? I mean if someone can maintani their contact profile but raise their launch angle, that's nearly always a good thing. But that's not a given. An uppercut swing compared to a more level swing would usually lead to more misses.

 

But then again we don't really know what kind of changes he's making. Could be pretty minor things, could be fixing actual flaws etc. Will be interesting to see.

[jerichoholicninja]

His swing seemed fine last year. But it seemed like he would go through stretches where he would just swing at anything within 2 feet of the plate and he would be totally useless.

[coolhandluke121]

Was hoping this would involve a slightly shorter bat and more hitting for singles and doubles. Sounds like the exact opposite. I think he could turn himself into a high average guy again if he sacrificed some power and laid off the low outside stuff more, but I'm not holding my breath.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

Was hoping this would involve a slightly shorter bat

 

I know, right? I'm sure it's not lost on him that he uses one of the longest, heaviest bats in the majors. It would seem logical to make an adjustment there with that as he reaches his twilight. Who knows, maybe a lighter, shorter bat will be part of this tweak.

[DHonks]

The dude absolutely crushed the baseball a lot last time, but defense were often placed perfectly. Some games he'd hit three rockets that the 3b or SS would barely snag. Because of the velocity, he'd be an easy out even with good hustle. I commend him on trying to get a little more lift. It's not crazy to think he could have hit 10 more homers at least with how hard he was hitting them

[RollieTime]

Watch, Braun will have an MVP season in 2019 by hitting .300 with 35-40 bombs

[pacopete4]

Watch, Braun will have an MVP season in 2019 by hitting .300 with 35-40 bombs

 

If he does we will be back in the post season.

[clancyphile]

Was hoping this would involve a slightly shorter bat and more hitting for singles and doubles. Sounds like the exact opposite. I think he could turn himself into a high average guy again if he sacrificed some power and laid off the low outside stuff more, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Maybe he is also looking at that.

 

I just hope he does nothing irreversible. If this new approach doesn't work in spring training, go back to the old one.

[3and2Fastball]

He's discovered an undetectable "clear" and needs an excuse for when he puts up a .975+ OPS again this season. It was the hitting coach, Yep, that's it (!)

 

Go Ryan Go!

[DHonks]

You make it sound like his low average was due to strikeouts. It was due to a very low BABIP.

[TURBO]

He's discovered an undetectable "clear" and needs an excuse for when he puts up a .975+ OPS again this season. It was the hitting coach, Yep, that's it (!)

 

 

Too soon...

[RollieTime]

Braun struck out in only .5% more of his at bats last season than his career average. He’s still a great hitter, he just smoked the ball right at guys last season.

[Jaylyn]

Was hoping this would involve a slightly shorter bat

 

I know, right? I'm sure it's not lost on him that he uses one of the longest, heaviest bats in the majors. It would seem logical to make an adjustment there with that as he reaches his twilight. Who knows, maybe a lighter, shorter bat will be part of this tweak.

Is he still swinging a 35 oz. 33in. bat?

[KeithStone53151]

Braun struck out in only .5% more of his at bats last season than his career average. He’s still a great hitter, he just smoked the ball right at guys last season.

 

And if a higher percentage of those 100+ exit velocity outs go over the fence...that raises his avg, obp, and slugging.

 

If Braun thinks it's the best thing to do, he's probably right and it will probably be a good adjustment.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

Braun struck out in only .5% more of his at bats last season than his career average. He’s still a great hitter, he just smoked the ball right at guys last season.

 

And if a higher percentage of those 100+ exit velocity outs go over the fence...that raises his avg, obp, and slugging.

 

If Braun thinks it's the best thing to do, he's probably right and it will probably be a good adjustment.

 

If only it was that simple. It's not. Altering the plane of your swing is not an automatic positive outcome. Since he was hitting the ball quite hard last year there's plenty of reason to say don't change a thing.

[Lathund]

The man himself says the changes aren't massive. Which is probably good.

 

"What [Wallenbrock's group] taught almost all of them is my swing, but there are some little things that I think I used to do better than I do now," Braun said. "It's fun to get back to the drawing board and see if I can make some of the adjustments I need to. The offseason is when you have the time to do that stuff.

 

"There's really good drills that they introduced me to that I've never done before, that I think help get you back to a good place with your swing. There's a ton of drills, but the biggest thing is getting my bat path to a place where I'm staying through the ball better instead of coming around the ball and cutting it off a little bit. That's kind of what everything is designed to do."

 

Only the keenest eyes will see a change in his swing, Braun said. But he's hoping the work shows up in his results.

[coolhandluke121]

Watch, Braun will have an MVP season in 2019 by hitting .300 with 35-40 bombs

 

http://bloguin.com/wezenball/wp-content/uploads/sites/113/2010/05/grifftonic.jpg

[MNBrew]

The man himself says the changes aren't massive. Which is probably good.

 

"What [Wallenbrock's group] taught almost all of them is my swing, but there are some little things that I think I used to do better than I do now," Braun said. "It's fun to get back to the drawing board and see if I can make some of the adjustments I need to. The offseason is when you have the time to do that stuff.

 

"There's really good drills that they introduced me to that I've never done before, that I think help get you back to a good place with your swing. There's a ton of drills, but the biggest thing is getting my bat path to a place where I'm staying through the ball better instead of coming around the ball and cutting it off a little bit. That's kind of what everything is designed to do."

 

Only the keenest eyes will see a change in his swing, Braun said. But he's hoping the work shows up in his results.

I think the bolded part is the key -- little things he used to do that he needs to get back to doing like he used to do them, not how he's recently done them. It doesn't take much divergence from prior good techniques/habits for the change to be detrimental to the results.

[trwi7]

Watch, Braun will have an MVP season in 2019 by hitting .300 with 35-40 bombs

 

http://bloguin.com/wezenball/wp-content/uploads/sites/113/2010/05/grifftonic.jpg

 

He's not going to get the playing time until he shaves those sideburns.

[JohnBriggs12]

Braun has always used a heavy long bat. He gets great plate coverage and has learned to shoot balls to the right side, but he's always had trouble with hard stuff inside. Since he doesn't turn on the fastballs like he once did, I've always wondered why he didn't go to a lighter bat. No indication that that's part of the plan but realizing he's 35, maybe he should consider a lighter bat?

[Oxy]

Braun has always used a heavy long bat. He gets great plate coverage and has learned to shoot balls to the right side, but he's always had trouble with hard stuff inside. Since he doesn't turn on the fastballs like he once did, I've always wondered why he didn't go to a lighter bat. No indication that that's part of the plan but realizing he's 35, maybe he should consider a lighter bat?

 

This just seems logical. Shorten the bat by 1.5 inches and stand a couple inches closer to the plate.

[KeithStone53151]

Braun struck out in only .5% more of his at bats last season than his career average. He’s still a great hitter, he just smoked the ball right at guys last season.

 

And if a higher percentage of those 100+ exit velocity outs go over the fence...that raises his avg, obp, and slugging.

 

If Braun thinks it's the best thing to do, he's probably right and it will probably be a good adjustment.

 

If only it was that simple. It's not. Altering the plane of your swing is not an automatic positive outcome. Since he was hitting the ball quite hard last year there's plenty of reason to say don't change a thing.

 

Well right, it's not that simple. But a change isn't also a guaranteed bad outcome. It's really tough to argue that the guy JD Martinez hired and transformed him from an upper 800s ops guy to an over 1000 ops star is a bad guy to hire to help you with your swing/mechanics.