He stood 5 feet 7 inches high and had an unforgettably French Canadian name– Pierre LePage– however his ability with a bat was what made a long lasting impression. His hand-eye coordination beggared belief, and it was matched with his barrel control. In 3 seasons at the University of Connecticut, he batted.336. In his junior year, he took 248 journeys to the plate and set out just 3 times.
LePage never ever made it past Class A in the minors, however a couple of people in the majors still remember him fondly. Nick Ahmed, the shortstop of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Pete Fatse, Boston’s striking coach, were LePage’s colleagues at UConn, and both, from time to time, reflect on the program that LePage would place on when he entered a batting cage.
Rather of tape-measure blasts, LePage would display a far more unconventional ability.
” He might nasty the ball directly back throughout batting practice on command,” Ahmed stated. “Simply a various level of bat control.”
Like numerous college standouts, LePage might not discover his footing in professional ball. Over the last years, as groups have actually gone after exit speed and the long ball, the worth of such high-contact, low-impact players has actually tanked. Luis Arraez of the Miami Marlins has enticed the baseball world this season by flirting with a. 400 batting average, however his singularity just highlights a truth observed by almost every other player: adjust or be left.
Ahmed, who still admire LePage, is among the batters who adjusted. Where he when highlighted contact, he is now “attempting to transfer to the other end of the spectrum.”
With the sluggish removal of the nettlesome contact player, it appears, the video game has actually likewise lost among its more mystical arts. It was when typical for batters to purposefully eradicate pitches at the edge of the strike zone, sending them into the crowd as nasty balls to keep themselves alive and wait on something they might strike more easily. Now, less players of that stripe make routine at-bats, and others have actually altered their strategies in a sport awash with batted-ball information.
The capability has actually made it through– maybe not on LePage’s level– however the determination has actually vaporized.
” The video game is making us alter our techniques,” stated Wilmer Flores, an infielder for the San Francisco Giants. “My method was not to start out and put the ball in play with 2 strikes. Put it in play any place it is. Then I would chase after bad pitches. This video game, if you punch or if you take a borderline pitch, it’s okay. If you stroll, it’s a triumph. At the end of the year, nobody’s visiting ‘He put the ball in play with 2 strikes and brought the runner house from 3rd base.'”
Twenty years earlier, even throughout the heart of baseball’s steroid age, concerns were various.
” In my age, we were humiliated if we set out,” stated Mark Grace, a Chicago Cubs star who retired in 2003 after a 16-year profession. With 2 strikes, players would choke up and secure the plate. “Barry Bonds choked up, Barry Larkin choked up,” Grace stated.
Much of today’s players, by contrast, feel uneasy without a finger or 2 on the knob of the bat.
Grace is not complaining the state of the modern-day video game as much as evaluating the shift in its cost-benefit analysis. Around the time he retired, groups started to worth on-base portion more than batting average. More just recently, innovation has actually permitted groups to condense striking to its part. The metric with the tightest connection to offending production is exit speed. So, even with 2 strikes, why take a various swing that is crafted to intensify contact?
” The concept is to square the ball up,” Ahmed stated. “Increasing there with a protective mindset to attempt to ruin pitches is not efficient.”
To be sure, ruining pitches still takes place. In reality, foul-ball rates have actually been extremely constant considering that pitch information very first appeared in 1988, and long plate looks have actually ended up being much more typical gradually. However some modern-day players question if any of those nasty balls are actually being struck purposefully.
If a player nicks a borderline pitch to extend an at-bat, that might state more about the pitcher than the player. “It’s simply the nature of the pitch,” Flores stated. “It’s difficult to square up.” Batters might reduce their strides or respond simply a bit later on in those scenarios to optimize their opportunities at contact, however they are still wanting to strike the ball hard, not deflect it out of play.
” From what I learn about striking,” stated Christian Walker, a power-hitting very first baseman for the Diamondbacks, “it appears difficult that someone’s doing that on function.”
Older players plead to vary. The previous big-leaguer Jon Jay, now a coach with the Marlins, stated he utilized to deal with ruining pitches in the batting cage. Grace confessed he often swung for nasty area as a gamer, though with restricted efficiency.
” I put more balls in play attempting to nasty balls off than I really fouled balls off,” he stated.
Tony Gwynn was the very best at it, Grace kept in mind, though Ahmed argued that Gwynn had it simpler than today’s players. Gwynn “wasn’t dealing with people who were tossing 95 to 100 m.p.h. every night,” he stated.
The one active player (with the most likely exception of Arraez) that several big-leaguers state might still do it is Joey Votto, a stalwart veteran on a Cincinnati Reds team filled with skilled children.
” I can,” Votto stated in a phone interview, “however I do not do it as much.”
Back when the front-hip sinker was “a part of right-handed culture,” Votto, a left-handed batter, stated he would actively nasty off those pitches so he might cover the remainder of the plate. Nobody assaults him that method any longer, so he’s shelved the celebration technique. He bets plenty might still do it– if they desired, big-leaguers might “try to strike bases” throughout a video game, he stated– however the most likely result would not deserve the effort. There may be one plate look a series, he believes, when it would settle.
If such a lively, contact-oriented method has receded, will it ever return? Some, like Ahmed and Flores, who have actually deserted that design of striking, believe it will not.
” It does not get you paid anywhere now,” Flores stated.
However baseball has actually gone through substantial modification this year, with the intro of the pitch clock and limitations restricting how groups place their infielders. As an outcome, the video game is much faster, taken bases are up and holes when covered by a shift sit open. Because of that, Votto forecasts a return of the pesky, indefatigable contact player.
” There will be a need for people who can manage the bat and bunt and get people over in the not-too-distant future,” he stated.
Fatse concurs. The crowning achievement player will never ever head out of design, however a great lineup varies in its ability.
” It’s not a lost art,” he stated.
There are lots of people who can do it. He saw one in college.
LePage might nasty them off with the very best of them. Reached by phone, the previous infielder exposed it was an ability he had actually practice. Beyond group exercises, he ‘d head to a regional batting cage, feeding quarters in the maker and after that replicating various pitch areas by standing in a range of areas. His only objective: to nasty each pitch back.
” Individuals viewing most likely believed I was quite bad,” LePage stated.
Vice Versa. A 13th-round draft choice in 2010, he played 2 seasons in the minors, striking.303 however not offering much pop. Then he got injured, was launched and concluded his playing profession with one season in independent ball, where he when again teamed with Fatse.
LePage, who operates in insurance coverage nowadays, has couple of remorses. However baseball’s homer- and strikeout-happy turn has actually left him puzzled.
” If you get a slider low and away,” he stated, “rather of swinging through it, would not you desire another pitch?”
However, fouling a ball off was simpler for him than it was for almost anybody else.