hitting philosophy Quotes

We try to exert a Ted Williams kind of discipline. In his book The Science of Hitting, Ted explains that he carved the strike zone into 77 cells, each the size of a baseball. Swinging only at balls in his "best" cell, he knew, would allow him to bat .400; reaching for balls in his "worst" spot, the low outside corner of the strike zone, would reduce him to .230. In other words, waiting for the fat pitch would mean a trip to the Hall of Fame; swinging indiscriminately would mean a ticket to the minors.

I know I'm good when I'm hitting the ball the other way - that's Albert Pujols.

I'm the kind of a player who, if you give me something good to hit, I'm going to swing at it. Otherwise, there's nothing else you can do.

For me, the strike zone has always been, If it's something I can drive, it's most likely a strike. I feel like if it's a ball I really can't do much with, it's most likely a ball. So that's just always been my approach.

I don't try to hit the ball 500 feet. It looks good when you hit it 500 feet, but as long as it goes over the fence, it's a home run. When you swing hard, it takes a little bit of recognition away from you. The power you're trying to increase - you're not all the way through it with your vision.

Contrary to everyone's belief of 'J.D. is a launch-angle guy. He wants to get the ball in the air and this and that.' This is true, but you're not trying to force situations, trying to force things.

I don't try to hit home runs. I just try to meet the ball and get base hits.

The simple approach is that if I stay aggressive, I'll hit less often with two strikes in the count. I've been aggressive, but I've missed pitches. If I can put them in play earlier in the count, I eliminate the two-strike approach.

Eddie Haas talked a lot about not hitting the ball in the air.

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.