One of these things is not like the others...
Apologies if this has been covered, but I couldn't find any discussions on VEB regarding Colby Rasmus' batter's box positioning...
note how pretty much everyone else stands at or near the back of the box...
Photo courtesy of Dustin Mattison, via Whiteyball
Now follow his move to the front in 2009...
4/7/09 (big league debut)
5/6/09
7/1/09
7/1/09
7/29/09
9/2/09
I suppose there are certain advantages to standing in the front of the box, but it would appear that most professional hitters have concluded it's best to trade those advantages for that extra fraction of a second's worth of reaction time that comes with standing in the back of the box...
It would appear that Colby's been hitting from the front of the batter's box since his June hot streak. Honestly, if he's more comfortable up there and that makes him a better major league hitter for this 2009 club, great - but if Colby wants to evolve into an elite lefthanded hitter, he'd be wise to emulate the best...
photo courtesy: Baseball Historian
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great pics!
it’ll be interesting to pay attention about where colby is setting up in the box now.
....my quick smells like french toast...
cool, nice post
is that utley 2nd from the bottom?
I’m sure there are arguments for it – I suspect it must be a conscious decision. Perhaps the feeling is that he’s got good batspeed (so rarely gets round too slow on a FB) but struggled earlier in the year with breaking balls and off-speed stuff, so perhaps this is to reduce the break before the ball reaches him? Of course, that’s also trading off reaction time to actually recognise the pitch, so I suppose it cuts both ways.
Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008
that would seem to be the only reason....
wonder if he does it against both LHP and RHP.
by Willie McGee's Twin on Sep 8, 2009 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
This...
this is to reduce the break before the ball reaches him?
…would be a foolish exercise. The best way to hit a breaking ball is when it’s near the end of it’s breaking motion, because it’s much easier to predict where the ball will end up. Once the break has started, your brain can coordinate with your hands where the ball is going, and get the bat to the appropriate spot. The key is being able to stay back long enough to recognize the pitch, and moving back in the box would be instrumental to that, which is why most hitters stand on the back line of the box.
Also, it’s much easier to keep inside pitches fair when you’re back in the box farther, and that’s something that Colby has had difficulty with this season.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
but
the break begins the moments the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand. the ball ends it’s break motion when it hits the bat, dirt or catcher’s mitt
Of course, hope means being cut down on some street corner, as you run like mad, by a random bullet.
Yeah that's what I'd have said
I can’t see how a ball can gain more spin by magic as it’s travelling through the air.
When you look at PitchFX traces of pitchers’ traces from the 1B side, you’ll see that the rate at which (say) a curveball “breaks” is constant, with the angle travelling down in an arc. There’s no point at which it “starts” or “stops” breaking, that I can make out. In fact, the further the ball travels, the more it deviates from the “normal” flightpath, due to gravity.
The difference in height between a fastball and a breaking ball will be greater at the back of the box than it will at the front. The kicker to that is that you have less time to recognise the breaking ball at the front of the box than you do at the back, and also that the balls will reach you at a higher velocity as they’ve had less far to travel.
I think it’s a really interesting area, actually, and I’m not aware of it being very well studied – cricket players (different game, I know) move around on the crease a lot and (against the slower bowlers) often actually advance a couple of steps down towards them as the ball is bowled; this is to reduce the ability of the ball to spin off the pitch (or to try and hit it before it bounces), so it’s kinda different, but I wonder if there maybe are advantages to be had in baseball of an analogous sort – moving around subtly in the batter’s box in order to nullify certain pitchers. The only time I’m aware that hitters ever do that is when they slightly crowd the plate – it’s an interesting hypothetical to wonder what might happen if they sometimes moved towards or away from the pitcher in different at-bats in the same game (or even on individual pitches).
Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008
by Felonius_Monk on Sep 10, 2009 5:41 AM EDT up reply actions
All Curveballs aren't created equal
Some people seem to think that all curveballs are created equal, but that’s not the case. Yes, they all follow arcs, but those arcs are going to be different depending on a couple of things.
First, they are going to move more if they are spinning faster. Wainer’s curveball is going to be spinning 3 to 4 times faster than a little league curveball. Second, they are going to break differently depending on how hard they are thrown. Third, is the issue of tilt; the more vertical the break the harder it is for the human eye to process and predict the movement of the pitch.
Some of this is aerodynamics and some of this is due to interactions with the human perceptual system.
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
A good, though atypical example of this is the knuckleball
If you throw a knuckleball much harder than Tim Wakefield, the viscosity effects that make it flutter will stop working, it it becomes just a slow, non-breaking fastball. Same thing if you throw it too slowly. A lot of the underlying physics of breaking balls is massively velocity-dependent, and not just in the harder = better sense.
They say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger...
Absolutely
People make fun of Wakefield and say, “Look at the guy. What a wuss. He can only throw 72 or so,” without realizing that he HAS to throw his knuckler at that speed to get it to move the most.
I have this same problem with my volleyballers and their floater serves. They to try hit them too hard, thinking that more is better, and end up losing much of the flutter.
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
you coach vb too?
I play at national league level over here (3rd division, mind you). I’m kinda the ryan franklin server of my team – I have about 3 or 4 serves that I experiment with but none of them are especially great. Float serve, low drive serve, kinda inconsistent jumper which I pretty much never use in games and a hard top-spinner with a kinda funny toss.
Quality serving really is underrated in vb, IMO.
I think azru might be a volleyball player too.
Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008
by Felonius_Monk on Sep 11, 2009 6:27 AM EDT up reply actions
They are a bunch of 7th grade girls who aren't very good but who have fun
I wish they would stop doing cheer routines during volleyball practice.
Kind of annoying.
My son is a good player and could play in HS if he wanted to.
"Before every at bat I picture myself reaching down the hitter's throat and ripping his still beating heart from his chest, devouring it before his eyes and the eyes of his wailing wife, children, and entire family, and letting the blood pour down the front of my uniform to stain the now-hallowed ground from which I will deliver the first pitch." - Chris Carpenter
every team needs someone to serve Franklins
though maybe not the 7th grade girls’ team
by brackenthebox on Sep 11, 2009 9:21 AM EDT up reply actions
I just play sand volleyball casually with my friends
though we play often enough and with the same group of people so we’re generally the best team.
Future Redbirds - tracking Cardinal prospects for Cardinal Nation
True, by physics
Not true, by perception. A average or better breaking ball is going to be perceived as breaking late, because the eye is going to perceive it having more arc the closer it gets to you. Now, if that’s the case, then standing forward in the batters box gives you less time to see the breaking ball and adjust to it’s arc.
Seriously, if you want to see someone swing and miss at breaking balls every time, tell them to move up in the box and “hit it before it breaks”. They’ll be out in front and the ball will fall under the plane of their swing, because they can’t conceptualize where the ball will be when it gets to the plate. Again, you can’t think physics all the time, because perception has more to do with it. Stephen Hawking is going to be able to explain physics better than Don Baylor, but I certainly wouldn’t want him as the hitting coach for my baseball team.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
...
A average or better breaking ball is going to be perceived as breaking late, because the eye is going to perceive it having more arc the closer it gets to you.
Wouldn’t that lend credence to the notion that you should stand closer in the box so that your eyes have less time to fool you?
Smoltz.
by vivaelpujols on Sep 13, 2009 3:10 AM EDT up reply actions
No b/c then you are more vulnerable to the FB
"Before every AB I picture myself reaching down the hitter's throat and ripping his still beating heart from his chest, devouring it before his eyes and the eyes of his wailing family, and letting the blood pour down the front of my uniform to stain the now-hallowed ground from which I will deliver the first pitch." - Chris Carpenter
Tradeoff
If Rasmus has good bat speed, he can afford to do that and it would probably be a net positive.
Smoltz.
by vivaelpujols on Sep 13, 2009 4:01 PM EDT up reply actions
No
For three reasons:
- It leaves you much more susceptible to the fastball.
- You have less time to recognize the pitch.
- Most any hitter will tell you that it’s easier to hit a breaking ball near the end of it’s ball flight, because you have a better idea of where it’s going. Yes, you perceive more arc on the ball than what is physically there, but the longer your brain can perceive the arc, the better it’s going to be able to predict where that ball is going.
For instance, watch any hitter who clobbers a hanging breaking ball (the best breaking ball to hit) — they do three things:
- Recognize pitch…
- Stay back with their hands…
- Hit the ball after it breaks, not before.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
Didn't you just say that staying back on the breaking ball gives your minds more time to fool you?
by vivaelpujols on Sep 16, 2009 11:59 PM EDT up reply actions
I guess it depends. Colby's mind is probably too dumb to get the better of him in a battle of wills.
Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008
by Felonius_Monk on Sep 17, 2009 5:47 AM EDT up reply actions
No, I didn't
A average or better breaking ball is going to be perceived as breaking late, because the eye is going to perceive it having more arc the closer it gets to you. Now, if that’s the case, then standing forward in the batters box gives you less time to see the breaking ball and adjust to it’s arc.
if you want to see someone swing and miss at breaking balls every time, tell them to move up in the box and "hit it before it breaks". They’ll be out in front and the ball will fall under the plane of their swing, because they can’t conceptualize where the ball will be when it gets to the plate.
Yes, you perceive more arc on the ball than what is physically there, but the longer your brain can perceive the arc, the better it’s going to be able to predict where that ball is going.
All of these say basically the same thing.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
Do you have any proof that letting the breaking ball travel more will let you see it better?
It seems like the opposite to me.
by vivaelpujols on Sep 17, 2009 11:47 AM EDT up reply actions
The deeper it travels, the better you can judge its break
You can tell whether it’s going to be a sharp breaker or a hanger.
Just what
every hitting coach and player has told me, and seeing really good breaking stuff with my own eyes in the batter’s box.
If you’re trying to hit it before it breaks, you’re essentially guessing where it will begin to break and trying to hit it before that point. Isn’t it intuitive to you that if you wait for it to break it’s easier to judge where the break will be after that point than trying to judge when the ball will break? Especially since you also have more time to realize that it’s a breaking ball.
If this is not intuitive to you, then I don’t know how else to prove it other than to stand you in a batter’s box against a pitching machine throwing curveballs and let you try it both ways.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
Gotta love the Rasmus socks
"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work"
-Mark Twain
I love the caption on the Musial photo
I don’t know why but it made me laugh…
Albert Pujols is ridiculous.
Those pics
where the bat is shattered by contact are unbelievable. Rec’d!
"I believe he’s been reincarnated, that he played before, in the twenties and thirties, and he’s back to prove something." - Former teammate Mark McGwire about Albert Pujols
Is that a regular thing or is that against a certain type of pitcher?
It could be that he moves forward for pitchers with a slower fastball. I was always taught that growing up playing ball. Granted the difference in little league-high school fastball’s are a lot different than pro ball (at most 10mph), but this would obviously help him for the occasional 100mph fastball (sitting back in the box for that type of pitcher would result in a more similar reaction time). I like it…to me it shows that Rasmus is making adjustments rather than just standing up there and swinging.
Good points - you inspired me to look further into this...
re: fastballs
That broken bat shot from 7/29 was vs Broxton – who throws harder than anyone in the NL. If he’s not moving back for Broxton’s fastball, he’s not moving back for anyone.
re: lefties
Here he is on 9/2/09 vs lefty Narveson

As far as I can tell, he’s not standing any differently against hard throwers or lefties.
While this works at the LL level, it doesn't work in the bigs
Except maybe against Jamie Moyer or a REAL soft tosser.
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
If you can't time pitchers accordingly
you’re never going to be a big league hitter, ever. This works with kids because they haven’t developed the skill of doing that yet.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
true, but...
that doesn’t address the point I was trying to make. I was theorizing that it could help his reaction time when he faces a 100mph throwing phenom.
it could
but what if that guy only throws 94 to him the entire AB, and then pumps a 100 mph heater by him to strike him out? Big league pitchers change speeds all the time as a way to keep hitters off balance.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
My guess is that has more to do with Colby wanting to be more of an OBP player than a SLG player. The extra fraction of a second is more crucial to a power hitter than it would be to a hitter who is looking to get on base and a player with the speed like Rasmus benefits more by being closer to the pitcher than say a Manny Ramirez.
Right
I’m almost certain that’s why Musial did it—get that extra bit of time head start on the run to first.
They say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger...
Except Musial is set up in the back of the box...
"Of course Kolby Rasmus was going deep! That’s what Kolby Rasmus does! You don’t give Kolby Rasmus second chances!" -Kolby Rasmus
but he's 2/3 of the way to the front by the time his swing is over
though that is apples to oranges
They say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger...
I dunno
from what I’ve seen of his approach and his attitude this year, it seems to me that Rasmus is pretty preoccupied with hitting for power, as opposed to average/OBP. He has a fairly whippy uppercut (or so it seems) has said several times he likes hitting and swinging as opposed to taking balls. He also seems to hit a lot of flyballs for someone trying to maximise his average (46% of his batted balls are of the aerial variety).
It’s a fair explanation but I’m not sure it tallies with the evidence.
Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008
by Felonius_Monk on Sep 8, 2009 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Since most CVs tend to land a bit short on the plate, if not bounce...
…he’s probably trying to move up to match the plane of his swing to the plane of the pitch.
However, he’s increasing his vulnerability to the FB and CH.
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
Interesting hypothesis
and one that I think makes more sense than the “trying to hit for average” one. Maybe he’s always struggled against breaking pitches, but times the straighter ones well with his quick swing and natural talent.
Annoyingly, I could find out how well he’s done vs CV, FB, CH, SL etc. by looking at Fangraphs’ “linear weights” – they grade out the number of runs above or below average an individual player has been against each class of pitch. The slight issue with that will be sample size – he’s only been around half a season or so of at-bats, and so just a couple of outs against a certain type of pitch would hurt his scores quite a lot. However, Fangraphs is currently telling me no such player exists. Rather coolly, it’s given me a nice long list of possible pseudonyms we can use in the game threads though:
No Baseball Players Found – Showing Possible Baseball Players
Bobby Ramos 1978 – 1984 C
Colby Ward 1990 – 1990 P
Colby Lewis 2002 – 2007 P
Bobby Reis 1931 – 1938 P/OF
Bobby Rose 1989 – 1992 2B
Cal Abrams 1949 – 1956 OF
Robby Hammock 2003 – 2008 C
Cody Ransom 2001 – 2009 SS
Bobby Coombs 1933 – 1943 P
Bobby Reeves 1926 – 1931 3B/SS
Cole Hamels 2006 – 2009 P
Bobby Castillo 1977 – 1985 P
John Ramos 1991 – 1991 C/DH
Leroy Reams 1969 – 1969 PH/PR
Bobby Cargo 1892 – 1892 SS
Bobby Rhawn 1947 – 1949 3B/SS
Chucho Ramos 1944 – 1944 OF
Bobby Richardson 1955 – 1966 2B
Domingo Ramos 1978 – 1990 3B/SS
Dick Calmus 1963 – 1967 P
Cal Crum 1917 – 1918 P
Robby Thompson 1986 – 1996 2B
Bobby Rothermel 1899 – 1899 2B/3B
Ray Cosey 1980 – 1980 PH/PR
Ray Foley 1928 – 1928 PH/PR
Cory Rasmus 11/6/1987 P
Bobby Rauh 11/25/1987 OF
Coby Mavroulis 2/7/1983 P
Colt Adams 5/23/1985 P
Colby Beach 7/9/1985 P
Coltyn Simmons 12/4/1983 C/DH
Corey Bass 2/8/1985 P
Cody Adams 11/26/1986 P
Bobby Cassevah 9/11/1985 P
Colby Miller 3/19/1982 P
Bobby Cramer 10/28/1979 P
Roberto Ramos 9/4/1988 3B
Cody Hams 11/23/1989 P
Cesar Ramos 6/22/1984 P
Julio Ramos 2/13/1988 P
Marquise Cody 10/7/1984 OF
Corey Adamson 2/23/1992 DH/OF
Wilson Ramos 8/10/1987 C/DH
Dominic Ramos 3/10/1983 2B
Corey Hamman 4/12/1980 P
Valentin Ramos 7/21/1988 SS
Cole Armstrong 8/24/1983 C
Coby Smith 9/21/1980 OF
Rob Cosby 4/2/1981 1B/3B
Corey Ragsdale 11/10/1982 SS
I think “Corey Ragsdale”, “Coby Mavroulis”, “Chucho Ramos” and “Bobby Casevah” might be my new favourites.
Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008
by Felonius_Monk on Sep 10, 2009 5:47 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Isn't this something a
“hitting coach” would look for and discuss w/ a player? Could this be the result of work w/ McRae?
Proud sponsor of the Official 2009 StL Cardinal theme song: Reason to Believe
wait,
we have a hitting coach?
"Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it." - Whitey Herzog
by Bring Back Tommy Herr! on Sep 9, 2009 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions
This is really interesting stuff,
though I’m not sure what it signifies- is there evidence that being further up in the box helps or hurts any specific kind of approach? Or, is it just a comfort thing that Colby probably just does because it’s the way he’s always done it?
"Of course Kolby Rasmus was going deep! That’s what Kolby Rasmus does! You don’t give Kolby Rasmus second chances!" -Kolby Rasmus
At first...
I was going to say, Hazel, look at the oldschool high sock Rasmus’ pic to see that this something that he just started, but as I looked at it – it appears that his back foot is standing in a similar spot as it is in 09…maybe he has always done that.
Just wondering, do we know of anyone else that bats toward the front of the batter’s box?
Well, the perspective is different,
and he has a definite step forward into his swing, so looking at him pre/post swing it you can see he’s moved nearly to the top of the box. Not sure…
"Of course Kolby Rasmus was going deep! That’s what Kolby Rasmus does! You don’t give Kolby Rasmus second chances!" -Kolby Rasmus
Thoughts
The “logic” behind this, and I emphasize the quotes, is usually to catch a breaking ball before it breaks, especially if it’s a late breaker. Of course, the Pitch F/X folks have established that a late breaker is mostly (and I stress mostly) an optical illusion, so this is of dubious merit.
Sometimes this is also done to put you a step closer to 1B.
However, moving this far up in the box has the effect of increasing the effective velocity of the pitch by a significant amount, by not giving you as much time to read the pitch, so I don’t think it’s worth it.
If I ran the zoo, I would put Cobe on the back line like everyone else.
P.S. Rec’d
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
Mike Epstein talks about this being a dumb idea in his book (p. 82)
Guys were moving up in the box to try to hit Randy Johnson’s slider before it broke. All this did was reduce the hitter’s reaction time from .25 second to .21 seconds, which is a 15% difference.
P.S. Who was the pitching coach for the team who did the math on this: Dave Duncan.
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
Doesn't sound right (to me at least)...
Assuming a pitch is averaging 85 mph from release to the plate:
60.5 ft * hr / 85 mi * 3600 sec / hr * mi / 5280 ft = 0.485 seconds.
Since the batter must decide to swing when the pitch is about half wayy to the plate, the .25 seconds jibes. But the batter’s box is only 6 feet deep and the difference between being up in the box is only about 3 feet, which gives ~0.024 seconds less reaction time.
The St. Louis Cardinals- 11 time World Champions!
Maybe, but...
…some of your math assumptions aren’t quite right.
For example, the release point is going to be closer to the plate than 60.5 feet. It will be more like 55 feet, depending on the pitcher and the length of the stride.
I do think the difference is probably smaller than cited. Probably the maximum forward difference is 2 feet.
55/2 = 27.5 and 2/27.5 yields a 7% difference which is smaller by half, but probably still significant (since it’s greater than 5%).
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
The difference between the front of the batters box and the back of the batters box
really should only depend on the pitch speed, though. ((6 ft)/(100 mph))(3600 s/1 hr)(1 mi/5280 ft) = .041 s. Once you start assigning smaller and more accurate fractions of the batters’ box, it’s only going to go down. It’s going to be a small fraction of reaction time.
They say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger...
Small, but maybe not insignificant
Remember that the ball is also losing speed as it nears the plate.
I’m not sure if this decay is linear or exponential, but a ball caught 5 feet in front of the plate will be coming in harder than the same ball caught at the standard catcher’s position.
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
It's exponential
air resistance is typically modeled as being proportional to velocity. Of course, a baseball is much more complicated than that, but to first order, you’d expect some sort of exponential decay in the velocity.
They say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger...
but I'd still expect that effect to be pretty small over the course of time that the pitch is moving
The change in speed just due to gravity in this short of a time is miniscule—(.4 m/s ~ .9 mi/h) And I certainly wouldn’t expect air resistance to be more than a factor of two greater than the force due to gravity.
If we’re talking deceleration from the pitcher’s release point to the plate, that can be significant. But over this short of a time frame, much less so.
They say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger...
stick your hand out the window of a car some time
while driving 85 miles per hour.
it's Clydesdales vs Goats. Actually sums up Cards vs. Cubs quite nicely. -all4tookie
actually, my sarcastic answer here is pretty wrong
Using the drag coefficient of ~0.3 from this link, at 85 MPH, the drag force on a baseball is about 1.11 N. The force due to gravity is about 1.39 N. From the link, it says that D_air > D_gravity at about 95 mph.
Sigh.
it's Clydesdales vs Goats. Actually sums up Cards vs. Cubs quite nicely. -all4tookie
that and
my hand is not a nice sphere
Of course, hope means being cut down on some street corner, as you run like mad, by a random bullet.
And the award for "strangest comment of the thread if read with absolutely no context" goes toooooo.....
Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008
by Felonius_Monk on Sep 17, 2009 5:48 AM EDT up reply actions
that was my first thought too
it would help him on breaking balls. that’s the only reason he should be that far forward in the batters box. and since he’s a rook & seeing many of these pitchers for the first time, i can’t argue against it. it just makes sense to me.
pretzels pretzels pretzels pretzels
I was coached to be a front of the box hitter
And part of it was to change the angle that you’re hitting out onto the field to get more balls in play. This is assuming that you’re not afraid of catching up to a fastball, which I’m guessing Colby isn’t going to have problems with.
by Expatcardfan on Sep 13, 2009 11:03 PM EDT up reply actions
I don't think is true either
And part of it was to change the angle that you’re hitting out onto the field to get more balls in play
You’re actually going to have a better chance of keeping balls fair by sitting deeper in the box because you have a larger angle of the field to play with off the angle of the bat in the hitting zone.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
no you don't, it's the opposite.
Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008
by Felonius_Monk on Sep 17, 2009 5:49 AM EDT up reply actions
Actually
upon further research, it’s about even, because of where you end up striking the ball in relation to the foul lines, and where you end up striking the ball in relation to your swing. Regardless, moving up in the box reduces the amount of time you have to see the ball and adjust to it, making it a foolish adjustment, imo.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller
I checked my clips from ST and Kobe has definitely moved forward over the year
During ST he would start with his front foot even with the front of the plate.
For some reason he’s moved forward about 1 foot as the year has gone on.
I assume it’s to try to help him hit breaking balls or increase his OBP.
Well, I'm from Texas and my mama taught me to not piss all over myself.
huh
interesting.
Great post, nice work with the photos. The shots of the bats breaking are very well done.
Read thru the thread, and after kicking it around a little bit I’m not sure we’re any wiser on why he stands forward in the box like that. Can anybody think of anybody else in MLB that does that consistently?
Maybe Goold or somebody can ask Rasmus (HI GUYS IN THE TRUCK!).
I believe Ichiro stands in the front/middle of the box
but his hitting style is a complete departure from what anyone else does, so I’m not sure that’s a good example. Unless, of course, Colby starts running to first while stabbing balls into the dirt.
"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller





















