Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Jul 26 13:50:48 2009

>>> I have a problem. I am a great base hit guy but I have a problem hitting triples and homeruns. It's from not having a very high bat speed. If I can get my bat speed up; It will determine if I go D1 or if I go Jco. I need some advice so I can be a "All-hitter", be able to get doubles and singles, but also be able to hit some out if the pitcher makes a mistake. Any suggestions? <<<

Hi Blaine

You are correct; having a good high school batting average is not enough to gain the attention of D1 schools. Along with a higher level of defensive tools, the players must also demonstrate real "pop" in his bat. The same is true for college players that hope to be drafted in the higher MLB rounds. Many college players have batting averages on par with the top 15 round picks. The main difference was the top picks slugging percentages were several hundred points higher than the average college hitter. Buster Posey (10 mill bonus) and Gordon Beckham (6 mill bonus) each had slugging percentages well over 900.

You are also correct in pointing out that higher bat speeds is a necessary component for hitting the ball with real authority. This site has numerous articles and thousands of posts discussing the swing mechanics that most efficiently generates bat speed. Since it would be out of the scope of this one thread to discuss those mechanics, I would like to bring up another necessary component for achieving higher power numbers.

During the 1996 and 97 college seasons, I recorded many of the games shown on television. From those videos, I performed a frame-by-frame analysis of 436 college hitters. One of those analyses was the bat's trajectory in the contact zone. I found that 'all' the batter's bats with a 550+ slugging percentage were on an up-slope in the contact zone. I counted 73 that were on a down-slope and none exceeded 500 with most in the 350 to 425 ranges.

I could not determine the batters bat speeds from the videos, but it seems reasonable to assume that at least some of those batters with a down-slope had bat speeds equal to the better performers. This may point out one of the reasons why batters with similar bat speeds can produce very different power numbers.

Note : For a given bat speed, a flat or down-slope bat trajectory does not produce the maximum ball flight as a bat on an up-slope at contact.

Jack Mankin

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> >>> I have a problem. I am a great base hit guy but I have a problem hitting triples and homeruns. It's from not having a very high bat speed. If I can get my bat speed up; It will determine if I go D1 or if I go Jco. I need some advice so I can be a "All-hitter", be able to get doubles and singles, but also be able to hit some out if the pitcher makes a mistake. Any suggestions? <<<
> 
> Hi Blaine
> 
> You are correct; having a good high school batting average is not enough to gain the attention of D1 schools. Along with a higher level of defensive tools, the players must also demonstrate real "pop" in his bat. The same is true for college players that hope to be drafted in the higher MLB rounds. Many college players have batting averages on par with the top 15 round picks. The main difference was the top picks slugging percentages were several hundred points higher than the average college hitter. Buster Posey (10 mill bonus) and Gordon Beckham (6 mill bonus) each had slugging percentages well over 900. 
> 
> You are also correct in pointing out that higher bat speeds is a necessary component for hitting the ball with real authority. This site has numerous articles and thousands of posts discussing the swing mechanics that most efficiently generates bat speed. Since it would be out of the scope of this one thread to discuss those mechanics, I would like to bring up another necessary component for achieving higher power numbers. 
> 
> During the 1996 and 97 college seasons, I recorded many of the games shown on television. From those videos, I performed a frame-by-frame analysis of 436 college hitters. One of those analyses was the bat's trajectory in the contact zone. I found that 'all' the batter's bats with a 550+ slugging percentage were on an up-slope in the contact zone. I counted 73 that were on a down-slope and none exceeded 500 with most in the 350 to 425 ranges.  
> 
> I could not determine the batters bat speeds from the videos, but it seems reasonable to assume that at least some of those batters with a down-slope had bat speeds equal to the better performers. This may point out one of the reasons why batters with similar bat speeds can produce very different power numbers. 
> 
> Note : For a given bat speed, a flat or down-slope bat trajectory does not produce the maximum ball flight as a bat on an up-slope at contact. 
> 
> Jack Mankin

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