Calhoun said the Angels have also increased the volume of swings they’ve taken under Baylor. The Angels have also returned to having hitters taking live batting practice, although that’s more for the benefit of the pitchers.
One of Baylor’s stated goals when he was hired last year was to help the Angels decrease their strikeouts, although they were about average last year in terms of striking out.
Manager Mike Scioscia said Baylor has worked with hitters on both the mentality and the technique of putting the ball in play with two strikes when the situations arise.
The Angels stressed situational hitting in Spring Training, with hitting coach Don Baylor calling out specific situations during batting practice.
Lansford, 53, wants the Rockies to execute better on offense.
"I am really going to emphasize fundamental baseball," he said. "Moving runners over, being unselfish, using the entire field. And we are going to talk about the expectation of winning, of showing up that first day with the mindset of how are we going to win the World Series. I want the guys to get that winning attitude."
P-D: How do you define a quality at-bat — a hard hit is a quality at-bat obviously, but there’s so much more to it than that, right?
Mabry: A quality at-bat could be a damn grand slam. That’s high quality! We read the stuff you guys say. We’re not against home runs. You just can’t go up there and swing from your bottom and expect to drive balls out of the ballpark with any consistency. You have to have a quality approach, which a lot of these guys do. There isn’t a “home run hitter” where all he does is hit home runs and strike out. We want guys to drive the ball in the gap, drive the ball out of the park, move the runners along, play the game the right way, and have a quality at-bat. That means getting pitches in your zone, and understanding what your zone is.
P-D: Do you think you put a greater emphasis on situational hitting than McGwire did?
Mabry: No. McGwire put a focus on situational hitting as well. Situational hitting is used to score runs when you can’t otherwise produce runs. … So if we get a leadoff double — go back and look last year how many times did we ground the ball to the right side to get the runner to third. We’re trying to do that so we create a scoring opportunity. If we get a ball through the hole, it’s a bonus. At the least we want the guy at third with one out so we can get a sacrifice fly, a passed ball, an error, a chopper to the infield so that anything scores a run. Every team does this so they can create scoring opportunities. That’s the name of the game.