For Young Hitters The Struggle Is Real

Of course the Twins have players who are not far removed from being where those hitters are now and have come out on the other side in good shape.

Third baseman Trevor Plouffe discovered that trying to perform consistently at the major league level was a daunting task as an inexperienced hitter. After scuffling through several stretches of feeling overmatched, Plouffe would piece together a handful of at bats that would feed his confidence. It would be a fleeting feeling as opponents would introduce a new wrinkle that would send him back to the cages searching for answers.

“You have to show you can hit the four-spot fastball,” Plouffe said. “Once you do that, then teams start to make adjustments on you. That’s how this game works. As a hitter, you have to make adjustments to counteract those.”

The adjustments came easier after multiple seasons with steady playing time. The three-year stretch from 2012 through 2014 provided him with 1,500 plate appearances in which to learn what adjustments he needed to make. Plouffe’s results in that span showed an uptick in power and patience and a slight reduction in walks.

Plouffe did not just ground to second or flare one to right, he was able to do more damage last year going the other way than he had in previous seasons. He collected 13 doubles when driving the ball to the opposite field. That, he said, was the result of knowing how pitchers were approaching him.

“I know for me they like to show me [fastball] in and then go soft away,” Plouffe explained. “In those big situations where there’s runners on base, last year Bruno and I talked about using that whole field, just take what they give. When you get up there you are going to want to get those runs in no matter what, any way you can. If that means I gotta hit a groundball to second base or I gotta fly one out to right, that’s what I've got to do. Once I got the hang of that it was ‘alright, let’s drive some balls over there’. I think that makes you a more complete hitter.”

On the right side of the infield, teammate Brian Dozier experienced a similar learning curve in the majors. His first season with the Twins was an exercise in weak contact and an overeagerness that led to the count often being in the pitcher’s favor. Dozier leaned on the teachings of Brunansky as well as the guys in the clubhouse that had seen it all.

“One of the big things, especially coming up, a lot of different guys -- Morneau, Willingham and those guys -- that they could do a lot of good things hitting a fastball in this league,” Dozier said. “Always hunt the fastball.”

Dozier, an avid hunter off the field of all types of game, has been quite the marksman with the bat on the field. Over the past two seasons he has compiled a .509 slugging percentage while smacking 32 of his 41 home runs versus the heat. In addition to repeated hard hit balls, Dozier also has increased his zone awareness and getting deeper into the count and drawing more walks as of late.

“It might be geared towards pitchers tipping pitches or just knowing what’s coming,” Dozier said about his ability to ambush his opponent at the plate. “That’s another thing: a feel for the game. Knowing what the pitcher is trying do to you. Is he trying to elevate? Is he trying to come inside? Once you figure that out, it makes it a lot easier.”

Plouffe and Dozier were once overmatched kids trying to maintain at the majors. Now the lineup is filled with similarly promising talent that is striving for consistency. Oswaldo Arcia is one such talent who has shown flashes of light-tower power interspersed in periods of prolonged droughts. It is early in the 2015 season but the Twins left fielder is leading the league in striking out and faking like he is going to break his bat over his knee. But Brunansky believes the outfielder has made significant improvements to his approach and mechanics that will allow him to avoid those extended pitfalls.

“Cleaner. Cleaner is a good word,” Brunansky said of the left-handed power hitter’s current swing. “Any young hitter that comes up and has the ability to be here, there's always kind of movement that goes on that they're going to have to clean up a little bit once they get used to the league and the pace of the league and the league shows them as hitters what they need to do. That's where we are at right now.”

When he first arrived barely old enough to enjoy an adult beverage, Arcia displayed impressive power promise. In 2013, he launched 14 home runs including four to the opposite field. It was difficult to not envision a world in which a mature Arcia could mash two or three times that number over a full season. Of course, it didn’t take long for opponents to begin to use his aggressiveness against him.

“The first time he came up he was swinging at everything and we talked and worked on cleaning up the zone,” said Brunansky. “I didn't even talk mechanics to him. It was more about pitch awareness. That helped, he did better. And once he got that under control then we went to the next part. We went to the hands that got too low and never got back up in the zone which helped promote the uppercut so now we're trying to clean the bat path.”

Dropping his hands played a key role in how teams began to adjust to Arcia. As it became increasingly apparent that the Venezuelan could not handle pitches up in the zone, that became the target for pitchers to exploit. In his first season, Arcia did a lot of his damage in hitter’s counts. Now when pitchers fell behind, they would just go upstairs and avoid his powerful swing.

Brunansky said that he did not want to change Arcia’s swing to counter the attack but rather instill the notion that he should simply lay off those pitches. As appetizing as a high fastball looks coming in, Arcia’s game is down in the zone. To correct Brunansky would occasionally flip him a high pitch in their front toss drills. If Arcia chased, the Twins’ hitting coach would remind him that that is not his real zone.

Arcia’s ability to perform against left-handed pitching was another deteriorating skill set that needed attention. After hitting a serviceable .254 against the sinister in 2013, he turned in a .198 batting line last year. Brunansky said the issue is pitch awareness. Pitch awareness and the point of contact.

“I think his bat path that we see against the left side it is kind of long and he pulls off just because he thinks he's going to hit the ball out here,” Brunansky said while gesturing to an imaginary location well out in front of himself. “And by the time the ball and bat should meet he's long gone.”

For a solution, this spring, Brunansky had Arcia do tee work and toss drills while using a fungo bat. The longer and end-loaded bat helped create a better feel for the barrel path for Arcia which Brunansky said he sees as much improved.

One of the more frustrating examples of a player unable to break through on the field has been the switch-hitting Aaron Hicks. Over the last few years Brunansky said the pair would drill endlessly during spring training or during practice on things that they felt needed to be fixed. In those conditions, Hicks would appear strong and ready. Once in the game, he would move back into bad habits that they spent so many man-hours to correct.

“The first couple years it was inconsistent,” Brunansky said about Hicks’ swing. “He couldn't find and then he'd find it and lose it and then he'd get frustrated. I think he's more mature and he's got an idea both right-handed and left-handed what his swing feels like and what it should feel like -- which should help make it repeatable. Which he has been in the cage. It's just the consistency in the game.”

Brunansky believes that they may have finally found something that could give Hicks sustained success: the leg kick.

“Hicksy moved his head a lot,” said Brunansky. “What's going to stop your head movement is a strong base. What's a strong base is your legs and core. So you have to get that under control to keep everything strong here which will stop your head from movement.”

In a small sample size at Rochester, Hicks has collected six hits so far this year, four of which went for extra bases. It is still too early to tell if the improved swing is paying off for Hicks but the takeaway for Brunansky is that those types of returns help a hitter trust the process and believe in themselves.

It may sound cliche but Brunansky and the Twins emphasize trusting the process with their young hitters. And Brunansky will be busy spreading that message. Beyond Arcia and Hicks, the lineup features rookie Kennys Vargas and Danny Santana in his sophomore season. Behind them, Josmil Pinto, Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton. They will come up, fail at some point and that is when it is time to go to work.

As Brunansky said, process, process, process.