Are Ground Balls... Good? Carlos Correa's Low-Trajectory Liftoff

If Correa's philosophy is to hit grounders, I don't think he's going to be successful long term as teams will just adapt their fielding positioning to try and take those hits away. Surprising to see his line drive rate at a terrible 10% since June. I guess he's getting it done and his xBA and xwOBA seem to both look good overall. Him putting the ball on the ground last year was the reason so many people felt it was a career low season. Seems risky to me.

Whatever he's doing he needs to keep doing it!

So the moral of the story here is hitting the ball, even if on the ground is better than missing it all together and striking out? I thought most all data points said hard hit line drives were the best way to increase OPS?  Maybe this bat to contact stuff has some value after all.

1 hour ago, Dman said:

So the moral of the story here is hitting the ball, even if on the ground is better than missing it all together and striking out? I thought most all data points said hard hit line drives were the best way to increase OPS?  Maybe this bat to contact stuff has some value after all.

Well, if you can hit it where they ain't, grounders are good, haha.

I've heard very good baseball players talking about how the game has changed over the past decade or two in terms of that approach. Back in the day, you could time things up on a 80mph changeup or a 85-90mph fastball. Today, so many pitchers are throwing their fastballs at 95mph or even 100mph there's just not a lot of leeway in between "just make some contact" and "try to hit it somewhere in particular"

In Correa's case, it's astonishing how many of the pitches he's seeing are "down and away"



Those pitches are extremely hard to lift up into line drives and hard fly balls. It sounds like Correa is trying to find a way to force pitchers to play fair and give him something in the zone. As the Twins lineup gets more and more dangerous, it'll be harder to cheat Correa as well. It's quite a testament to Correa's skills that he's able to find an approach which works. Opposing teams will have to make some decisions.
1. Throw strikes and hope Correa doesn't mash them.
2. Shift fielders to the middle and hope Correa doesn't adjust to pull the ball down the line.
3. Get killed by grounders up the middle.

He's practicing something to overemphasize a feeling that shows different results in real use. My golf instruction has had some similar stuff, I do a drill hitting half driver hooks on the range but in action it becomes a low (for me) fade. I assume he wants to stay on top of the high fastball, lest he hit all pop ups.  Derosa on MLB network did a feature about Miranda and his hand positions the other day.  It's all about the high fastball, the pitch in vouge to counter the fly ball era.

Any trend comes to a logical oversaturation and diminishing returns. High fly balls are outs almost as often as ground balls but only because of more ground to cover. The money has always been in a line drive. Add in the shift restrictions and it evens out a bit.

I've never thought the Popkins way was similar to what Donaldson describes, despite TD lore.  Correa is doing what good hitters do, work the at bat and hit what you're given. Sometimes it's a pitch to turn on, sometimes you go the other way.

Correa's hitting .310 13 HR and 47 RBI.  Throw in great D too.  I wish they had a couple more of him.

Correa carry this team.