Frankie Piliere: Jeter’s Troubles Mechanical
Throughout the 2010 season, most Yankee fans have noticed that Derek Jeter’s approach at the plate has been markedly different. He’s swinging at an inordinate amount of first pitches and, as a result, he’s not working the deep counts that tend to lead to more productive at-bats. This is reflected in the 3.59 pitches per plate appearance he is seeing in 2010, down from 3.84 last year and a career average 3.74 beginning in2002 when ESPN began tracking such things. Along the same vein, Jeter is swinging at a career-high percentage of balls (28.5% O-Swing% vs. 20.3% career) and, as a result, is making more contact on these non-strikes (69.4% O-Contact% vs. 60.0% career).
The problem with diminishing plate discipline is that we just can’t tell why a batter’s approach has changed so dramatically. Former scout-turned-baseball blogger Frankie Piliere has one theory on what has happened to Jeter in 2010 and it’s not a pretty assessment. According to Piliere, the problems Jeter has experience in 2010 have been due to a decline in raw skill which have led to a change in his approach at the plate.
Not only are the results not the same, but the way he approaches his at-bats has changed as well. And, whether it is subconscious or not, he has changed his approach to compensate for raw ability that may no longer be there.
Only Jeter knows why he is committing to pitches just a bit earlier this season. And if it’s fixable, you can bet he’ll figure it out. If it’s not, and he truly is compensating for raw tools that are no longer there, this is more along the lines of the player Jeter will be from here on out. Right now, he’s a hitter lacking the quickness in his hands to let pitches track deep so he can read them. And rather than producing those classic inside-out swings, it’s likely that he’ll continue to be tied up inside like a mere mortal hitter.
Right now, the swing is just a little too long and the hands just a bit too sluggish for him to resemble the Jeter of old. You can certainly argue that it’s simply a prolonged mechanical slump, but the potential root of those problems have to at least make you pause and wonder if age is catching up with the Yankee captain.
Jeter’s 2008 campaign sparked some similar discussions on whether the Captain was washed up and, as we saw in 2009, #2 rebounded to have one of the strongest seasons of his career. Unforunately, I don’t recall if any scouting highlighted similar concerns in 2008 as Piliere is pointing out right now.
What I want to know, however, is why or how Jeter and hitting coach Kevin Long aren’t making a noticeable and concerted effort to fix these issues. Even older players can hide some of their flaws but, at present, it looks like all of Jeter’s flaws are right there on the surface for all to see.
If his problems are mechanical, they only seem to be an issue on the road, note his H/A splits this season to date:
Then again, maybe he’s just lucky at home and unlucky on the road?
@ Steve Lombardi:
Piliere’s theory is just that, a theory. I have no idea if he’s correct or not because scouting hitting mechanics is not at all my forte. His home/road splits do seem to show some promise that whatever is troubling him in 2010 might be something other than aging but the lack of plate discipline that suddenly cropped up in 2010 doesn’t completely bear that out either.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
It’s definitely possible.
Overall, Jeter’s 2010 BABIP (.298) is far below his career norm (.356) which, given Jeter’s speed and previously-stable GB% would indicate that there is definitely something to the aging question. If he’s not as fast and he’s hitting a ton more ground balls, it would stand to reason that he’d be grounding into more outs.
I don’t think I can remember 10 times that Jeter ever got an infield hit in his entire career.
Jeter’s grounders don’t go for hits anymore. A-Rod’s flies don’t go for HRs as often. Maybe Nova can give them some B-12 shots?
Jeter only started swinging at the first pitch once he moved to the lead off spot. Last year, it worked and he got a lot of first pitch fastballs that he could do something with.
The league made adjustments this year, and Jeter hasn’t. Perhaps it’s as simple as that?
What really pisses me off is what MJ mentions about K Long and Jeter not doing anything to fix these issues. I read these quotes from Long this morning on my train ride to work and it seems that their approach is that everything will magically work itself out.
“There’s no project in store [for Jeter] and there’s nothing that at this point [where] we’re going to go into some deep waters and try to figure something out,” Long told The Post. “We’re just going to stay the course and come ready to go every day and Derek Jeter will be there.”
“He’s in a place where he’s not been too often,” Long said, “but his spirits are good. I’ve seen enough at-bats where I can say, ‘There’s a lineout. There’s another one that should have dropped.’ We’re just going to stay diligent with our work and keep grinding.
“It’ll be all right.”
@ G.I. Joey:
If taken at face value, yes, those quotes are incredibly frustrating because one wonders why anyone would expect things to magically change without trying something different.
My query about Jeter and Long was somewhat sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek because I imagine that a hard worker like Jeter is definitely trying to figure himself out so I don’t believe that he’s just sitting back and waiting for the genie to pop out of the bottle to make it all better. But, yes, on the overall, I don’t get the feeling that the Yankees are trying EVERYTHING they can to figure Jeter’s troubles out.
@ Steve Lombardi:
Evan3457 mentioned earlier that Jeter’s having a pretty severe platoon split too.
RHB: .243 .312/.320(.632)
LHB: .318 .378/.500(.878)
Steve Lombardi wrote:
I think the more revealing split is the lefty/righty split, just as severe. Whatever Jeter’s problems are, they’re far more pronounced vs. righties than lefties.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Serious or not? I can’t tell. Anyway, Baseball Reference’s Career splits for Jeter say:
Hits, to Outfield: 2495; to Infield: 392
BABIP vs. righties: .281; vs. lefties: .336. So there’s that.
his timing seems to be way off to me… he looks like hes jumping at the ball and not letitng it get deep on him which is why hes rolling over balls and hitting routine grounder to short and third and the pitcher… when hes going at his best like we all know he drives balls to the right side and the rf gap… doesnt seem like its mechanical just his approach… hopefully hell figure it out before the playoffs and we get last years jeter back for the playoffs