This week I’ve written an exclusive post for my paid subscribers. After a few weeks of only having you know, like my mom and a few close friends sign up, I finally have graduated to having names whom I don’t recognize upgrade to the purchased plan, and damn, now I have promises to deliver on.
Anyway, I appreciate those brave souls who have invested, and most importantly, given me some return to show Sarah on the twenty-plus hours a week I dedicate to this site. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
For my free list, don’t worry, I’m not leaving you hanging. I’ll be back next Tuesday with a new piece for everybody. Until then, be sure to get caught up on past posts that have yet to be archived, including:
The Limitations of Organized Multiple Sports
And an old one from the Vault, Drop the Grind and Flow Instead
For those new to the site or unsure of what the difference is between free/paid content, my intention with paid content is to deliver significantly more in-depth pieces that work deeper into the “how to’s” of my thoughts and theories around the art of hitting, player development, raising ballplayers and aligning mind/body performance. It also includes the option to ask questions and get specific advice, as well as full access to all archived articles.
Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to self-promote a few things, I never realized this was more than half of being a “Writer.” Enjoy the latest articles and thanks to those out there sharing HAVE BAT, WILL TRAVEL.
Keep scrolling down for Defense First, and many of my thoughts and theories around building elite defenders and a lot of what I’ve tried to help instill in my own sons. It’s nearly a four-thousand-word piece, so I hope you’ve got some time.
Alright, here’s my fourth attempt on this piece which I’ve entitled, Defense First, I hope it’s appreciated. If not, I’ve wasted a significant amount of hours. But then again, it does take a lot of bad swings to find your best swing, and perhaps it takes a lot of poorly written ideas to find those that do work. Either way, any time and energy invested — regardless of the result produced that day — is always moving in the direction of success.
With today’s work, my intention is to briefly share some of my ideas about developing elite or “Natural” defenders. I say brief, but you might disagree, the five thoughts are quite lengthy. I suppose I’m attempting to imply I’ve got much more to say on each matter, and I imagine my next step is to write an article on each one with more supportive evidence as to why I’ve come to believe this is “the way” to developing “D”.
That sounds exciting, for me at least. I think I’ll do that. But let’s take a look then at an overview of some of these principles. First, however, it’s a little bit of storytime.
For years now I’ve written under the moniker of HAVE BAT, WILL TRAVEL. Most in the game understand the concept behind that title, but if you don’t, it simply means that if you’re a great hitter, you’ll likely have a job. It goes along the lines of another common baseballism that I hear often these days at the youth and amateur levels as well: that if you can hit, you’ll play.
But is that true?
Well, it is. But after having a fifteen-year career as a professional hitter, let me add a couple of things. If you want to rely on your bat as your sole tool to get in the lineup then you (a) better hit out of the gate, and (b) you better really mash. And trust me, no matter how well-rounded and solid a hitter is, they will get into funks, and you just better hope that the timing of such cold spells doesn’t occur when just joining a new team or being called up to a new level (that you’ve yet proven yourself at).
Actually, that last statement in parentheses isn’t always accurate either. I earned a great reputation as a highly productive hitter in the Latin American winter leagues. In my first four winters (I’d play seven overall), I absolutely raked.
One off-season I took the first half of the winter off, due to my second son being born. I showed up to Puerto Rico (a league I had dominated my second winter) and had an okay-ish start (after not playing for six weeks) accumulating two hits, a line out, and a few walks in three games. After that third game, I got called into the office and was released by the manager, who stated something along the lines “The team president wanted more power for the playoff push.”
I was brought into DH and understood what I was expected to deliver, but I couldn’t help but think that if I’d have had the capability to contribute more to the team on defense or on the bases, then I’d likely have received a few more games to get my power stroke going.
However, that one winter season wasn’t the only time I had that thought. It came up often at the major league level, and while I was in Japan too. Being able to play defense at an elite level would have definitely given me a larger window to establish my hitting.
And then of course there was one winter ball season (my sixth) where I was released before the playoffs began despite absolutely murdering the ball for two months straight. What was the reason for being fired in that instance? Basically, I was replaced with a hitter that the team thought might be able to hit nearly as well but for half the salary. What can I say? Being a professional is a wild journey.