The Toronto Blue Jays were in tough against the Washington Nationals and their ace Max Scherzer on Tuesday night, especially after the team chose to be extra cautious with George Springer, who was not activated off the injured list as expected.
There probably was good reason to talk about launch angles before, though, since it's one of the major improvements he's made so far (10.9 this year compared 6.5 for his career).
Obviously he's made a lot of improvements but that one stands out to me. I assume you just meant it's nice to just watch him mash and not worry about things like that, but Buck brought it up last night in (at least how I heard it) a dismissive way. Kinda like, "see baseball nerds, who cares about launch angles."
But improved launch angle and improved results happening together aren't exactly surprising considering how hard he hits the ball.
Well, I think what Buck likely meant is that he hasn’t changed his swing to chase better launch angles, it seems that the increased balance and ability to repeat the swing because he’s in better shape has naturally kept him from all the bad swings that ended up sending the ball into the carpet. Something Dante Bichette talked about last fall, I remember.
Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Has anyone asked if he actually made any technical/swing changes? It seems like all the focus has been on weight and conditioning.
This season has been frustrating to watch at times, but Vlad has been the obvious exception. And not just on the field...there have been a bunch of other little things that have made him so fun to watch:
- sitting in the dugout with his arm around Bo, gently squeezing Bo's shoulder
- introducing Espinal to Pujols
- coming up from behind Kirk and others in the dugout to give them bear hugs
There probably was good reason to talk about launch angles before, though, since it's one of the major improvements he's made so far (10.9 this year compared 6.5 for his career).
Obviously he's made a lot of improvements but that one stands out to me. I assume you just meant it's nice to just watch him mash and not worry about things like that, but Buck brought it up last night in (at least how I heard it) a dismissive way. Kinda like, "see baseball nerds, who cares about launch angles."
But improved launch angle and improved results happening together aren't exactly surprising considering how hard he hits the ball.
Well, I think what Buck likely meant is that he hasn’t changed his swing to chase better launch angles, it seems that the increased balance and ability to repeat the swing because he’s in better shape has naturally kept him from all the bad swings that ended up sending the ball into the carpet. Something Dante Bichette talked about last fall, I remember.
Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Has anyone asked if he actually made any technical/swing changes? It seems like all the focus has been on weight and conditioning.
This season has been frustrating to watch at times, but Vlad has been the obvious exception. And not just on the field...there have been a bunch of other little things that have made him so fun to watch:
- sitting in the dugout with his arm around Bo, gently squeezing Bo's shoulder
- introducing Espinal to Pujols
- coming up from behind Kirk and others in the dugout to give them bear hugs
We love Vlad!!
You love to see it!