'I've Got a Lot of Torque': Kaelen Culpepper on His Swing and His Plan of Attack

By big-league standards, Kaelen Culpepper is not a big guy. When he was drafted, he was listed as 6 feet tall, but after being officially measured (as every hitter has to be, these days, to make the ABS system work), he's now 5-foot-10. He's not scrawny, by any means, but he's also far from stocky. If a player Culpepper's size is going to fit anywhere on the diamond, it's likely to be on the middle infield, but even middle infielders are getting taller and broader-shouldered. Culpepper's size is a constraint on his value. To be great, he has to find ways to make up for being smaller than a lot of the guys to whom one might first be inclined to compare him.

Happily, he knows exactly what those ways are.

"I'm a twitchy athlete," Culpepper said. "I'm explosive. I've got a lot of torque."

In other words (and in more specific terminology), while he might not be huge or conventionally powerful, Culpepper is exactly the kind of athlete who thrives most in the rotational sport that is baseball. He can generate much more bat speed and much stronger throws than you would guess, comparing the physiques or even sheer, linear power measurements between him and players like Royce Lewis or Ryan Kreidler.

Although he's not putting up huge numbers over his first few weeks in the majors, Culpepper has impressed his teammates, coaches and fans with his feel for the game and his poise. He's also flashed the tools that made him a fast-rising prospect on national rankings late in his progression to the big leagues, including an average bat speed of 74 MPH—well above the league average—and some strong throws from the left side of the infield. To understand him better and see where the upside is for the balance of the season, let's take a closer look at Culpepper's swing.

This is a single Culpepper hit Monday night against Atlanta. For reasons we'll break down, it's a good place to start in an effort to understand his moves in the box.

Firstly, note his setup and his stride. For a short guy, he's fairly spread-out in his stance, but the leg kick and stride are especially aggressive. How much a hitter gets into their legs says a lot about what kind of pitches they're trying to hit and what parts of the kinetic chain are most important to them. Notice that Culpepper chooses to slightly outwardly rotate his front knee and point his toe toward the ball as he lands with that front foot, and how much he turns and drops his back knee toward the ground as he does so. That big movement in the lower half is where he gets his power; it's the foundation of the torque that we already touched on.

"I have to clear my hips," Culpepper explained. "I have to make sure I get through there, to get the most out of my swing. I have to keep my back foot down, and open up enough." 

He's not alone among shorter hitters in using his legs to generate power. Shorter levers means that more of one's bat speed has to come from torque, and torque has to come from stretching the bands of the body. While much more thickly built, Andrew Vaughn of the Brewers is also 5-foot-10. Not coincidentally, he also gets deep into his legs when he swings; the low drop of the back knee is the visual giveaway when watching from the center-field camera.

If you're thinking that the upper half works differently for these two hitters, though, you're right. Culpepper lets his hands get away from his body a bit earlier in his swing than Vaughn does. If he wants to generate bat speed as good as Vaughn's or better, despite Vaughn having more raw power in his legs, Culpepper has to allow a bit more length in his swing. He had to lunge slightly at the first hit we looked at, because it was a breaking ball in a two-strike count, but you can really see how proactively he extends his arms early in his swing when watching him attack a fastball.

"I'm trying to stay inside the ball," Culpepper said. "But at the same time, I want to cover a guy's best heater, and then know I can adjust and handle the breaking ball; I've always been able to do that."

When you see a pitch stand him up like that, you can see a slightly different comp, can't you? This one strikes a bit closer to home. Here, look:

Byron Buxton starts and ends taller on most swings than does Culpepper. The younger man said he's never thought of his swing as mapping neatly to Buxton's. However, when it comes to the way they address the ball—and, therefore, to the pitches they handle and the direction in which their best contact tends to go—there are important similarities.

"You're always looking to hit it hard back up the middle," Culpepper said. "I don't try to think about where I'm gonna hit it too much; I want to just see the ball and get the good part to it."

In reality, though, all of Culpepper's hits in his career to date have gone to the pull side, and all but one of them has come on pitches from the middle of the plate out. Buxton is the same way: a rare pull hitter who's hunting for the ball away. Both guys let their hands get away from their bodies relatively early in their swing, and their best contact comes when they catch the ball out front, with their arms extended and the barrel turned slightly toward left field.

Culpepper is even more extreme than Buxton in this regard, though. Taller and with more tilt in his stroke, Buxton can stay through the ball longer and catch it a bit flatter, in terms of attack angle and direction. Culpepper, though not telling himself to do so, succeeds by getting into a slightly steeper move earlier and reaching for the ball in front of his frame more. That's common among hitters who get into their legs the way he does. If you stride that aggressively, you get to a powerful position in your swing later than most hitters, and it's important not to let the ball get too deep into your kitchen.

It comes down, really, to knowing the window within which you're going to make solid contact. Here's Culpepper's first career double, on a changeup left right in the heart of the zone. Watch the way he manages the torque of his swing with the front shoulder and trunk and maximizes his extension with the top hand and back side.

For a smallish guy, Culpepper has great plate coverage, but it takes an unusual form. Given his size, he has great bat speed, but it has to be built from the ground up on every swing. For someone unlikely to post huge exit velocities, he should have plenty of power, and he can bolster the bottom of the Twins' lineup the rest of the way, but he'll have to keep showing the ability to spoil stuff on the inner part of the plate and let non-strikes go, so he can get hold of the mistake out over the plate when opponents make one. He has the right mindset for it, at the very least.

"I'm just trying to do everything with a smile on my face," he said. "It's the same game here [as in the minors], but it's definitely an adjustment. The crowds are so much bigger; there's a lot more adrenaline. I'm way more tired after games. You can feel how important these games are. So I'm just enjoying it."