He stood 5 ft 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 yr, he took 248 journeys to the plate and struck out solely thrice.
LePage by no means made it previous Class A within the minor leagues, however a number of 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, every so often, assume 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 exhibit a way more unorthodox talent.
“He may foul the ball straight again throughout batting apply on command,” Ahmed mentioned. “Only a completely different stage of bat management.”
Like many school standouts, LePage couldn’t discover his footing in professional ball. During the last 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 practically 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 gradual 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 combat off pitches on the fringe of the strike zone, sending them into the gang as foul balls to maintain themselves alive and anticipate one thing they might 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 knowledge.
The power has survived — maybe not on LePage’s stage — however the willingness has evaporated.
“The sport is making us change our approaches,” mentioned Wilmer Flores, an infielder for the San Francisco Giants. “My method 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 dangerous pitches. This recreation, in the event you slug or in the event you take a borderline pitch, it’s OK. Should you stroll, it’s a victory. On the finish of the yr, nobody’s going to see ‘He put the ball in play with two strikes and introduced the runner house from third base.’”
Twenty years in the past, even in the course of the coronary heart of baseball’s steroid age, priorities have been completely different.
“In my period, we have been embarrassed if we struck out,” mentioned 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 mentioned.
A lot of at the moment’s hitters, in contrast, really feel uncomfortable with no finger or two on the knob of the bat.
Grace will not be bemoaning the state of the trendy 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 lately, know-how has allowed groups to boil down hitting to its element elements. The metric with the tightest correlation to offensive manufacturing is exit velocity. So, even with two strikes, why take a unique swing that’s engineered to make worse contact?
“The thought is to sq. the ball up,” Ahmed mentioned. “Going up there with a defensive mentality to attempt to spoil pitches will not be productive.”
To make certain, spoiling pitches nonetheless occurs. The truth is, foul-ball charges have been remarkably constant since pitch knowledge first turned out there in 1988, and lengthy plate appearances have grow to be much more frequent over time. However some trendy 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 concerning the pitcher than the hitter. “It’s simply the character of the pitch,” Flores mentioned. “It’s arduous 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 seeking to hit the ball arduous, not deflect it out of play.
“From what I learn about hitting,” mentioned Christian Walker, a power-hitting first baseman for the Diamondbacks, “it appears unattainable 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, mentioned 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 mentioned.
Tony Gwynn was the perfect 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 night time,” he mentioned.
The one energetic hitter (with the probably exception of Arraez) that a number of big-leaguers say may nonetheless do it’s Joey Votto, a stalwart veteran on a Cincinnati Reds squad stuffed with gifted kids.
“I can,” Votto mentioned 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, mentioned he would purposefully foul off these pitches so he may cowl the remainder of the plate. Nobody assaults him that manner anymore, so he’s shelved the social gathering trick. He bets a lot may nonetheless do it — in the event that they wished, big-leaguers may “try and hit bases” throughout a recreation, he mentioned — however the probably end result wouldn’t be definitely worth the effort. There is perhaps one plate look a collection, he thinks, when it might repay.
If such a feisty, contact-oriented method has ebbed, will it ever return? Some, like Ahmed and Flores, who’ve deserted that model of hitting, assume it is not going to.
“It doesn’t get you paid anyplace now,” Flores mentioned.
However baseball has undergone vital change this yr, 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 coated by a shift sit open. For that purpose, Votto predicts a return of the pesky, indefatigable contact hitter.
“There might be a requirement for guys who can management the bat and bunt and get guys over within the not-too-distant future,” he mentioned.
Fatse agrees. The house-run hitter won’t ever exit of favor, however a great lineup is numerous in its talent units.
“It’s not a misplaced artwork,” he mentioned.
There are many guys who can do it. He watched one in school.
LePage may foul them off with the perfect of them. Reached by cellphone, the previous infielder revealed it was a talent he’d apply. Exterior of staff exercises, he’d head to an area batting cage, feeding quarters within the machine after which simulating completely different pitch places by standing in quite a lot of spots. His solely objective: to foul every pitch again.
“Folks watching most likely thought I used to be fairly dangerous,” LePage mentioned.
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 harm, was launched and wrapped up his enjoying profession with one season in impartial 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.
“Should you get a slider low and away,” he mentioned, “as a substitute of swinging via 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.