East Longmeadow’s own Nick Ahmed‘s improvement this year came from laying off the low pitch.
Last season, Ahmed’s low-pitch swing rate ranked in the highest 12% of all hitters. So far this season, it ranks in the lowest 5% of all hitters. This is something Ahmed has implemented almost instantly, which seems to reflect a discerning batter’s eye. Ahmed is seeing the pitches he doesn’t like out of the hand, and now, for the most part, he’s spitting on them. This is reminiscent of one of Aaron Hicks‘ big 2017 adjustments, and it’s also an interesting change in an era in which more pitchers are trying to avoid throwing low sinkers to begin with. Ahmed wants to swing at pitches up. That’s where he finds his pop and line drives. For one month, at least, he has clearly been successful.
Nice to see a local product make good. The area did well that year, as a student from rival Longmeadow, my home town, is now the Nationals beat writer.
from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2w5SWeK
No comments:
Post a Comment