He stood 5 toes 7 inches tall and had an unforgettably French Canadian identify — Pierre LePage — however his talent with a bat was what made a long-lasting impression. His hand-eye coordination beggared perception, and it was matched together with his barrel management. In three seasons on the College of Connecticut, he batted .336. In his junior 12 months, he took 248 journeys to the plate and struck out solely 3 times.
LePage by no means made it previous Class A within the minor leagues, however just a few guys within the majors nonetheless bear in mind him fondly. Nick Ahmed, the shortstop of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Pete Fatse, Boston’s hitting coach, have been LePage’s teammates at UConn and each, occasionally, suppose again on the present that LePage would placed on when he stepped right into a batting cage.
As an alternative of tape-measure blasts, LePage would showcase a way more unorthodox talent.
“He might foul the ball straight again throughout batting follow on command,” Ahmed stated. “Only a completely different stage of bat management.”
Like many school standouts, LePage couldn’t discover his footing in professional ball. Over the past decade, as groups have chased exit velocity and the lengthy ball, the worth of such high-contact, low-impact hitters has tanked. Luis Arraez of the Miami Marlins has tantalized the baseball world this season by flirting with a .400 batting common, however his singularity solely emphasizes a actuality noticed by almost each different hitter: adapt or be left behind.
Ahmed, who nonetheless marvels at LePage, is among the batters who tailored. The place he as soon as emphasised contact, he’s now “attempting to maneuver to the opposite finish of the spectrum.”
With the sluggish elimination of the nettlesome contact hitter, it appears, the sport has additionally misplaced one among its extra esoteric arts. It was as soon as frequent for batters to deliberately battle off pitches on the fringe of the strike zone, sending them into the gang as foul balls to maintain themselves alive and look ahead to one thing they may hit extra cleanly. Now, fewer hitters of that stripe earn common at-bats, and others have modified their ways in a sport awash with batted-ball information.
The power has survived — maybe not on LePage’s stage — however the willingness has evaporated.
“The sport is making us change our approaches,” stated Wilmer Flores, an infielder for the San Francisco Giants. “My strategy was to not strike out and put the ball in play with two strikes. Put it in play wherever it’s. Then I’d chase unhealthy pitches. This recreation, if you happen to slug or if you happen to take a borderline pitch, it’s OK. In the event you stroll, it’s a victory. On the finish of the 12 months, nobody’s going to see ‘He put the ball in play with two strikes and introduced the runner residence from third base.’”
Twenty years in the past, even through the coronary heart of baseball’s steroid age, priorities have been completely different.
“In my period, we have been embarrassed if we struck out,” stated Mark Grace, a Chicago Cubs star who retired in 2003 after a 16-year profession. With two strikes, hitters would choke up and defend the plate. “Barry Bonds choked up, Barry Larkin choked up,” Grace stated.
A lot of at the moment’s hitters, against this, really feel uncomfortable and not using a finger or two on the knob of the bat.
Grace just isn’t bemoaning the state of the fashionable recreation as a lot as appraising the shift in its cost-benefit evaluation. Across the time he retired, groups started to worth on-base share greater than batting common. Extra not too long ago, know-how has allowed groups to boil down hitting to its part components. The metric with the tightest correlation to offensive manufacturing is exit velocity. So, even with two strikes, why take a distinct swing that’s engineered to make worse contact?
“The concept is to sq. the ball up,” Ahmed stated. “Going up there with a defensive mentality to attempt to spoil pitches just isn’t productive.”
To make certain, spoiling pitches nonetheless occurs. In actual fact, foul-ball charges have been remarkably constant since pitch information first grew to become out there in 1988, and lengthy plate appearances have turn out to be much more frequent over time. However some fashionable hitters query if any of these foul balls are actually being hit deliberately.
If a hitter nicks a borderline pitch to increase an at-bat, that will say extra in regards to the pitcher than the hitter. “It’s simply the character of the pitch,” Flores stated. “It’s laborious to sq. up.” Batters could shorten their strides or react only a bit later in these conditions to maximise their probabilities at contact, however they’re nonetheless trying to hit the ball laborious, not deflect it out of play.
“From what I find out about hitting,” stated Christian Walker, a power-hitting first baseman for the Diamondbacks, “it appears inconceivable that any individual’s doing that on objective.”
Older hitters beg to vary. The previous big-leaguer Jon Jay, now a coach with the Marlins, stated he used to work on spoiling pitches within the batting cage. Grace admitted he generally swung for foul territory as a participant, although with restricted effectiveness.
“I put extra balls in play attempting to foul balls off than I truly fouled balls off,” he stated.
Tony Gwynn was one of the best at it, Grace famous, although Ahmed argued that Gwynn had it simpler than at the moment’s hitters. Gwynn “wasn’t dealing with guys who have been throwing 95 to 100 m.p.h. each evening,” he stated.
The one energetic hitter (with the possible exception of Arraez) that a number of big-leaguers say might nonetheless do it’s Joey Votto, a stalwart veteran on a Cincinnati Reds squad crammed with gifted kids.
“I can,” Votto stated in a cellphone interview, “however I don’t do it as a lot.”
Again when the front-hip sinker was “part of right-handed tradition,” Votto, a left-handed batter, stated he would purposefully foul off these pitches so he might cowl the remainder of the plate. Nobody assaults him that method anymore, so he’s shelved the celebration trick. He bets lots might nonetheless do it — in the event that they wished, big-leaguers might “try and hit bases” throughout a recreation, he stated — however the possible consequence wouldn’t be definitely worth the effort. There could be one plate look a collection, he thinks, when it might repay.
If such a feisty, contact-oriented strategy has ebbed, will it ever return? Some, like Ahmed and Flores, who’ve deserted that type of hitting, suppose it is not going to.
“It doesn’t get you paid wherever now,” Flores stated.
However baseball has undergone vital change this 12 months, with the introduction of the pitch clock and restrictions limiting how groups place their infielders. In consequence, the sport is quicker, stolen bases are up and holes as soon as lined by a shift sit open. For that motive, Votto predicts a return of the pesky, indefatigable contact hitter.
“There shall be a requirement for guys who can management the bat and bunt and get guys over within the not-too-distant future,” he stated.
Fatse agrees. The house-run hitter won’t ever exit of favor, however a superb lineup is numerous in its talent units.
“It’s not a misplaced artwork,” he stated.
There are many guys who can do it. He watched one in school.
LePage might foul them off with one of the best of them. Reached by cellphone, the previous infielder revealed it was a talent he’d follow. Outdoors of crew exercises, he’d head to a neighborhood batting cage, feeding quarters within the machine after which simulating completely different pitch places by standing in a wide range of spots. His solely objective: to foul every pitch again.
“Folks watching in all probability thought I used to be fairly unhealthy,” LePage stated.
Removed from it. A Thirteenth-round draft decide in 2010, he performed two season within the minors, hitting .303 however not offering a lot pop. Then he bought damage, was launched and wrapped up his enjoying profession with one season in unbiased ball, the place he as soon as once more teamed with Fatse.
LePage, who works in insurance coverage as of late, has few regrets. However baseball’s homer- and strikeout-happy flip has left him puzzled.
“In the event you get a slider low and away,” he stated, “as a substitute of swinging by way of it, wouldn’t you need one other pitch?”
Then once more, fouling a ball off was simpler for him than it was for almost anybody else.