I know I'm good when I'm hitting the ball the other way - that's Albert Pujols.
I'm not thinking home run, I just want to put a good swing on the ball. When you go looking for home runs, you get off of your swing. So you don't think of homers when you go up to the plate.
The toughest thing in hitting shouldn't be deciding when to swing. It is, for me, deciding when not to swing. You should be swinging from the time you get into the batter's box until something says don't swing.
That's one thing I learned from watching great hitters hit. A lot of hitters, they're ready to hit from pitch one.
I'm seeing the ball well. I'm not trying for home runs. I'm trying to hit to right field more. When I do that, the home run comes.
In this lineup, anywhere I hit, I don't care. I always go out there and swing the bat the same way.
Every time I step up to the plate, I expect to get a hit. If I don't expect to get a hit, I have no right to step into the batter's box in the first place.
Good hitters don't just go up and swing. They always have a plan. Call it an educated deduction. You visualize. You're like a good negotiator. You know what you have, you know what he has, then you try to work it out.
I think hitting is more a mentality than a philosophy. A philosophy is somebody telling you the way they think it should be. Well, different people believe in different things. My thing is this: Be ready to hit.
I'm glad I don't have to face that guy (Don Mattingly) every day. He has that look that few hitters have. I don't know if it's his stance, his eyes or what, but you can tell he means business.
You can't go up there trying to get hits. You can just go up there trying to put together at-bats and square the baseball up.
