He stood 5 toes 7 inches tall and had an unforgettably French Canadian title — Pierre LePage — however his talent with a bat was what made an enduring impression. His hand-eye coordination beggared perception, and it was matched along with his barrel management. In three seasons on the College of Connecticut, he batted .336. In his junior 12 months, he took 248 journeys to the plate and struck out solely 3 times.
LePage by no means made it previous Class A within the minor leagues, however just a few guys within the majors nonetheless bear in mind him fondly. Nick Ahmed, the shortstop of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Pete Fatse, Boston’s hitting coach, have been LePage’s teammates at UConn and each, sometimes, suppose again on the present that LePage would placed on when he stepped right into a batting cage.
As a substitute of tape-measure blasts, LePage would showcase a way more unorthodox talent.
“He may foul the ball straight again throughout batting apply on command,” Ahmed mentioned. “Only a completely different stage of bat management.”
Like many faculty standouts, LePage couldn’t discover his footing in professional ball. During the last decade, as groups have chased exit velocity and the lengthy ball, the worth of such high-contact, low-impact hitters has tanked. Luis Arraez of the Miami Marlins has tantalized the baseball world this season by flirting with a .400 batting common, however his singularity solely emphasizes a actuality noticed by practically each different hitter: adapt or be left behind.
Ahmed, who nonetheless marvels at LePage, is without doubt one of the batters who tailored. The place he as soon as emphasised contact, he’s now “attempting to maneuver to the opposite finish of the spectrum.”
With the sluggish elimination of the nettlesome contact hitter, it appears, the sport has additionally misplaced considered one of its extra esoteric arts. It was as soon as frequent for batters to deliberately battle off pitches on the fringe of the strike zone, sending them into the gang as foul balls to maintain themselves alive and await one thing they may hit extra cleanly. Now, fewer hitters of that stripe earn common at-bats, and others have modified their ways in a sport awash with batted-ball knowledge.
The flexibility has survived — maybe not on LePage’s stage — however the willingness has evaporated.
“The sport is making us change our approaches,” mentioned Wilmer Flores, an infielder for the San Francisco Giants. “My strategy was to not strike out and put the ball in play with two strikes. Put it in play wherever it’s. Then I might chase dangerous pitches. This sport, when you slug or when you take a borderline pitch, it’s OK. For those who stroll, it’s a victory. On the finish of the 12 months, nobody’s going to see ‘He put the ball in play with two strikes and introduced the runner residence from third base.’”
Twenty years in the past, even in the course of the coronary heart of baseball’s steroid age, priorities have been completely different.
“In my period, we have been embarrassed if we struck out,” mentioned Mark Grace, a Chicago Cubs star who retired in 2003 after a 16-year profession. With two strikes, hitters would choke up and shield the plate. “Barry Bonds choked up, Barry Larkin choked up,” Grace mentioned.
Lots of right now’s hitters, in contrast, really feel uncomfortable and not using a finger or two on the knob of the bat.
Grace isn’t bemoaning the state of the fashionable sport as a lot as appraising the shift in its cost-benefit evaluation. Across the time he retired, groups started to worth on-base proportion greater than batting common. Extra not too long ago, know-how has allowed groups to boil down hitting to its part components. The metric with the tightest correlation to offensive manufacturing is exit velocity. So, even with two strikes, why take a special swing that’s engineered to make worse contact?
“The thought is to sq. the ball up,” Ahmed mentioned. “Going up there with a defensive mentality to attempt to spoil pitches isn’t productive.”
To make sure, spoiling pitches nonetheless occurs. The truth is, foul-ball charges have been remarkably constant since pitch knowledge first grew to become accessible in 1988, and lengthy plate appearances have turn into much more frequent over time. However some fashionable hitters query if any of these foul balls are actually being hit deliberately.
If a hitter nicks a borderline pitch to increase an at-bat, which will say extra concerning the pitcher than the hitter. “It’s simply the character of the pitch,” Flores mentioned. “It’s onerous to sq. up.” Batters could shorten their strides or react only a bit later in these conditions to maximise their probabilities at contact, however they’re nonetheless trying to hit the ball onerous, not deflect it out of play.
“From what I learn about hitting,” mentioned Christian Walker, a power-hitting first baseman for the Diamondbacks, “it appears unimaginable that someone’s doing that on objective.”
Older hitters beg to vary. The previous big-leaguer Jon Jay, now a coach with the Marlins, mentioned he used to work on spoiling pitches within the batting cage. Grace admitted he typically swung for foul territory as a participant, although with restricted effectiveness.
“I put extra balls in play attempting to foul balls off than I really fouled balls off,” he mentioned.
Tony Gwynn was one of the best at it, Grace famous, although Ahmed argued that Gwynn had it simpler than right now’s hitters. Gwynn “wasn’t going through guys who have been throwing 95 to 100 m.p.h. each night time,” he mentioned.
The one lively hitter (with the probably exception of Arraez) that a number of big-leaguers say may nonetheless do it’s Joey Votto, a stalwart veteran on a Cincinnati Reds squad full of gifted kids.
“I can,” Votto mentioned in a cellphone interview, “however I don’t do it as a lot.”
Again when the front-hip sinker was “part of right-handed tradition,” Votto, a left-handed batter, mentioned he would purposefully foul off these pitches so he may cowl the remainder of the plate. Nobody assaults him that manner anymore, so he’s shelved the occasion trick. He bets loads may nonetheless do it — in the event that they wished, big-leaguers may “try to hit bases” throughout a sport, he mentioned — however the probably final result wouldn’t be definitely worth the effort. There may be one plate look a collection, he thinks, when it might repay.
If such a feisty, contact-oriented strategy has ebbed, will it ever return? Some, like Ahmed and Flores, who’ve deserted that fashion of hitting, suppose it is not going to.
“It doesn’t get you paid wherever now,” Flores mentioned.
However baseball has undergone vital change this 12 months, with the introduction of the pitch clock and restrictions limiting how groups place their infielders. Because of this, the sport is quicker, stolen bases are up and holes as soon as lined by a shift sit open. For that motive, Votto predicts a return of the pesky, indefatigable contact hitter.
“There will probably be a requirement for guys who can management the bat and bunt and get guys over within the not-too-distant future,” he mentioned.
Fatse agrees. The house-run hitter won’t ever exit of fashion, however an excellent lineup is numerous in its talent units.
“It’s not a misplaced artwork,” he mentioned.
There are many guys who can do it. He watched one in faculty.
LePage may foul them off with one of the best of them. Reached by cellphone, the previous infielder revealed it was a talent he’d apply. Exterior of crew exercises, he’d head to a neighborhood batting cage, feeding quarters within the machine after which simulating completely different pitch places by standing in a wide range of spots. His solely aim: to foul every pitch again.
“Folks watching most likely thought I used to be fairly dangerous,” LePage mentioned.
Removed from it. A Thirteenth-round draft decide in 2010, he performed two season within the minors, hitting .303 however not offering a lot pop. Then he received damage, was launched and wrapped up his enjoying profession with one season in unbiased ball, the place he as soon as once more teamed with Fatse.
LePage, who works in insurance coverage today, has few regrets. However baseball’s homer- and strikeout-happy flip has left him puzzled.
“For those who get a slider low and away,” he mentioned, “as a substitute of swinging via it, wouldn’t you need one other pitch?”
Then once more, fouling a ball off was simpler for him than it was for nearly anybody else.
