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View the profileLike every major-league player, Davidson has access to an incredible trove of video. On his iPad he could watch every pitch from his 2017 season and he did. Over the course of several days last October, he watched every pitch from his 2017 season — the video edited to erase the dead time between tosses. He was particularly interested in those 1,014 pitches thrown out of the zone against him and how he reacted. “I looked at all my at-bats last year and kind of realized that there were so many pitches that I had no business in swinging at,” Davidson told FanGraphs. “I’m fine getting beat in the zone. I’ll swing and miss at a pitch that’s in the strike zone. But if a ball is out of the zone, I don’t want to swing at that. I’ve taken some called first strikes that are maybe borderline balls. I would rather do that than swing at a ball out of the zone. That has kind of been my focus.”
Jeff Sullivan wrote about how Davidson was one of the — if not the — most improved hitter in baseball earlier this month. That label is tied largely to gains made in plate discipline. Davidson, who should return from the DL soon, has gone from ranking 153rd in out-of-zone swing rate (33.8%) last season to 18th (21.5%) this season.
Davidson needed a way to create more consistent timing, to consistently begin his swing earlier. Over the winter, he made the short trip to Arizona to work with White Sox minor-league hitting coordinator Mike Gellinger at the club’s facility in Phoenix. When Davidson reaches the on-deck circles he creates a count in his head, “1… 2… 3,” a clock, to sync up with the pitcher’s delivery. Hitting is timing,” Davidson said. “Last year I struggled a lot with timing. I knew that was happening; I just didn’t know how to get to that spot… [T]hat timing mechanism really helped me to do that, to get that every single [time]. When you are going good, you are seeing it good. How can I manipulate myself to get to that spot every time?”
It appears Davidson has found a way. …
Maybe Davidson's season has some reality to it. He could always hit HR's. Doubt with his high K rate that he'll ever hit for much of an average even
if he doesn't swing at as many bad pitches. But he could be one "salvage" from this year's wreckage.
Jeff Sullivan wrote about how Davidson was one of the — if not the — most improved hitter in baseball earlier this month. That label is tied largely to gains made in plate discipline. Davidson, who should return from the DL soon, has gone from ranking 153rd in out-of-zone swing rate (33.8%) last season to 18th (21.5%) this season.
Davidson needed a way to create more consistent timing, to consistently begin his swing earlier. Over the winter, he made the short trip to Arizona to work with White Sox minor-league hitting coordinator Mike Gellinger at the club’s facility in Phoenix. When Davidson reaches the on-deck circles he creates a count in his head, “1… 2… 3,” a clock, to sync up with the pitcher’s delivery. Hitting is timing,” Davidson said. “Last year I struggled a lot with timing. I knew that was happening; I just didn’t know how to get to that spot… [T]hat timing mechanism really helped me to do that, to get that every single [time]. When you are going good, you are seeing it good. How can I manipulate myself to get to that spot every time?”
It appears Davidson has found a way. …
Maybe Davidson's season has some reality to it. He could always hit HR's. Doubt with his high K rate that he'll ever hit for much of an average even
if he doesn't swing at as many bad pitches. But he could be one "salvage" from this year's wreckage.
