What Ben Zobrist Brings to the Oakland Athletics
Ben Zobrist has had a fantastic spring statistically, batting .347 with a home run, 14 rbi (leads the team), six doubles and more walks (3) than strikeouts (2). Yet, he brings more than just fancy numbers to the Oakland Athletics. After watching some of his at bats this spring, you really get a sense of why he was so coveted this offseason.
In a recent article published by Sports Illustrated, Ben Reiter caught up with San Francisco Giants’ hitting coach, Hensley Meulens. In the article, Meulens describes one technique that he’s used with the Giants “feared” hitters since he came aboard in 2010, where he brings a portable pitching machine on the road, cranks it up as high as it will go, and then has the batter get the barrel on the ball. Sounds easy right? From home plate, it is. That’s why after every pitch Meulens has the player take a step towards the machine and try again and again. The key is to just make contact, therefore, when facing the heat from further away (home plate), making contact should be much easier.
Say what you will about Giants hitters, but they ranked 3rd in baseball against fastballs last year, hitting a combined .276 against pitches thrown at 95 mph and up. The moral of this story? Sometimes making contact is better than swinging for the fences.
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We’ve all heard about the A’s perceived lack of power heading into this season, but one attribute that the team has gained is some good contact hitters. Nobody encapsulates that better than Ben Zobrist. In one of the games I attended at Hohokam, there was a runner on second with one out. Zobrist had a professional at bat, and simply hit the ball to the right side of the infield, moving the runner to third. A couple of pitches later, the run scored on a wild pitch.
Of course this (probably) won’t be the outcome every time, but simply moving the runner over does set the team up for success, opposed to just missing a pitch and flying out to right.
This team may not be what we’ve become accustomed to in recent years offensively, but they do have the tools to succeed. Ben Zobrist hitting in the middle of the lineup may seem like a joke to some clubs that have players that will hit 30 or 40 home runs in their three spot. Yet, if this team does what the Oakland Athletics always do and get on base, Zobrist can handle the bat extremely well and bring them in, or at the very least move them over for Billy Butler and Brett Lawrie.
This year’s team has been built around pitching and has a solid mix of youngsters and veterans. Zobrist could have a huge influence on a player like Tyler Ladendorf this season, who is also a super utility player. If he teaches others some of his tricks, we could be feeling the effects of this offseason acquisition for years to come in Oakland.