Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 27, 2008
Hill Drills

The more I read about Trey Hillman, the more I like him:

"OBP," he said. "It's a no-brainer. OBP, then drive them in. On-base percentage before average. Take your walks because you are aggressively disciplined in the strike zone. But take your walks.

"If they're going to pitch around you, and try to get you to bite, be disciplined enough to take your walk."

The Royals ranked 13th among 14 AL teams last year in walks and on-base percentage.

But on top of that, Hillman is really concerned about how to drive those runs in. Without big boppers on the team, he's drilling players on situational hitting. He's working on improving their bunting, their squeeze plays, what to do in a hit and run situation. On top of that, it looks like he knows when to call for these strategies:

"When am I going to ask you to bunt?" Hillman questioned. "If you're not bunting for a base hit, when am I going to ask you to bunt? Generally, it will be the seventh, eighth or ninth inning.

"That's when you have the setup man or the closer in the game. The point is, the stuff you're facing is nasty. It's going to be high-velocity with sink, slide, split or a serious hammer.

"Those guys aren't easy to bunt off of. You'd better be fundamentally sound and plan on getting the ball down in the right location. Simplify your technique."

He knows when he needs these kinds of plays, and he wants to make sure his batters (and his fielders) are prepared to handle these situations.


Posted by David Pinto at 01:19 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Wow, a real baseball manager. With a brain and everything. I thought they were outlawed by Landis years ago?

Posted by: Harry Pavlidis at February 27, 2008 09:09 PM
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