Pitch Recognition Quotes

I'm literally tone-deaf with singing. It's unreal.

I am exceedingly lucky that my voice, along with perfect pitch and perfect rhythm, was given me at birth.

I just try to make contact with the ball. It's obvious that I like to swing the bat. I'm not thinking of taking a lot of pitches.

Perfect pitch is genetic. It's 100% genetic.

I was able to play alongside, in my opinion, the best hitter with Miguel Cabrera and kind of watch the way he goes about it and the way he looks at situations, when to try to drive a ball versus when to shoot a ball.

In the split second from the time the ball leaves the pitcher's hand until it reaches the plate you have to think about your stride, your hip action, your wrist action, determine how much, if any the ball is going to break and then decide whether to swing at it.

I consider myself a line drive hitter with power. I just try to put my best swing on the ball every time.

Learn what pitch you can hit good; then wait for that pitch.

I try to be as quiet as I can at the plate, but still aggressive.

There is no doubt that because I am a switch hitter I have one of the best offensive advantages that a hitter can have.

The way those clubs shift against Ted Williams, I can't understand how he can be so stupid not to accept the challenge to him and hit to left field.

Anytime you can see a hitter and face a hitter, you gain knowledge, and you gain that experience. Whether they hit a homerun off you, or you strike them out or whatever it is, it's information.

When I'm at the plate, I'm not thinking about what I'm trying to do with the bat - I'm thinking about what the pitcher is trying to do with the ball.

I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.

I was kind of a slap hitter, trying to get base hits, hit line drives, stay below a certain trajectory with my ball.

I consciously memorized the speed at which every pitcher in the league threw his fastball, curve, and slider. Then, I'd pick up the speed of the ball in the first 30 feet of its flight and knew how it would move once it has crossed the plate.

It's not fun facing a ball going 97 mph, trust me.

The hardest thing to do in baseball is to hit a round baseball with a round bat, squarely.

Basically, hitters fall into a pattern, and once you know what they like, you can set them up for the putout with something else.

Once I found my swing, I feel like if I put a good swing on it, I feel like it's got a good chance to go wherever - left, right, center - it doesn't matter. But I'm not just out here going to swing for home runs of anything. I'm just trying to put a good swing on the baseball.

Hitting is an art, but not an exact science.

You get to the plate and nothing is going through your mind. You see the ball, you see the seams.

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.

I could never overstate the importance of a musician's need to develop his or her ear. Actually, I believe that developing a good 'inner ear' - the art of being able to decipher musical components solely through listening - is the most important element in becoming a good musician.

There's so much attached to playing shortstop that you lose your concentration on hitting, unless you're a natural hitter. There's so much to think about in the field, you don't have time to think about what you did at the plate last time. 'How did he get me out?'