Michigan Muddogs: HITTING - JETER STYLE
HITTING - JETER STYLEEarly in Derek Jeter's career, Tim Raines predicted the Yankees' shortstop
would evolve into a power hitter of enormous production. He certainly has
the strength, Raines noted, mentioning how Jeter could hit titanic home runs
to straightaway center field, and he makes consistent contact. With a little
experience, Raines suggested, Jeter might average 30 to 40 homers a year.
Raines backed off that prediction the next spring -- completely. The problem
is, Raines explained, is that Jeter loves to hit too much.
Derek Jeter is batting just .195 with two home runs in 36 games this season.
It's an instinct that probably rooted within Jeter when he was a boy: See
the ball, hit the ball. Attack. Be aggressive. He learned to smack line
drives to all fields, fighting off inside pitches and banging them to right
field, an extraordinary skill for a right-handed hitter.
And Jeter continues to be the same type of hitter he was when he established
himself with the Yankees in 1996. See the ball, hit the ball. Attack. Be
aggressive. He loves to hit, swinging confidently, the approach that made
him an All-Star.
What he did not do as a rookie in '96, when he hit .314, and what he does
not do now, when he's hitting .195, is stalk pitchers in the ball-strike
count. He does not wait for the count to ripen into his favor; he is not apt
to see many 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 counts, when the hitter can lay back and wait to
ambush a pitch in a particular part of the strike zone. That's what many
great hitters do.
That's what Barry Bonds does. Somewhere along the way, Bonds conquered that
instinct for hitting -- the love for swinging the bat -- and will wait for
pitchers to throw strikes. Other players marvel at Bonds' discipline; no
matter long it's been since a pitcher actually threw him a strike, no matter
how good he's feeling at the plate, Bonds has tamed that desire to swing. If
the pitch is out of the strike zone, Bonds will almost never swing.
Jeter does not have that discipline. He's had 159 at-bats this season, 54 of
which -- about a third -- have been resolved within the first two pitches.
He has 10 walks. By comparison, the Royals' Carlos Beltran has had 24
at-bats of two or fewer pitches among 131 at-bats, less than 18 percent.
As a hitter, Jeter has not evolved in the way Bonds or even Yankees teammate
Jorge Posada have -- they've learned to corner pitchers with the count, and
jump them when they fall behind.
When pitchers work to Bonds, they know they must operate precisely, as if
driving a Hummer on a mountain ledge. Pitching to Jeter, by comparison, is
like steering a dune buggy across the Sahara. Lots of room to maneuver.
Jeter will swing at pitches low and inside, low and outside, up and in.
Pitchers know this. He loves to swing, and he gets his hits. Jeter has
racked up 190 or more hits six times, and by the time he reaches his 30th
birthday in June, Jeter will approach 1,650 hits for his career.
Jeter also had 99 or more strikeouts in seven seasons, and his on-base
percentage has mostly ranged between .370 and .400. With the exception of
1999, when Jeter drew 91 walks, he has accumulated about 45 to 75 walks per
season.
Jeter's at-bats tend to get more focused in the postseason; his plate
discipline improves as he picks and chooses from pitch to pitch. During the
regular season, however, he is what he is, and what he probably will always
be, without evolution. He's an aggressive hitter who swings away, a hitter
whose offensive valleys -- like that in which he currently resides -- will
be made deeper because of his lack of discipline.