Friday, June 8, 2018

Is Benintendi's Renaissance Due To A More "Open" Approach At The Plate?

(Getty Images)
Thanks to an article by Sports Illustrated's Michael Beller, it seems as if Andrew Benintendi's resurgence since May 12th of this year may be due to a clear change in batting stance. In the first six weeks of the season, Benny Ballgame struggled—hitting just .243 with 2 HRs, despite sitting near the top of the most dynamic line-up in baseball. Then, he adopted a more open stance, lowered his hands and started using a more prominent leg-kick. Since May 12th, these three alterations have resulted in him hitting almost .380 with 9 HRs and 26 RBIs. Not bad. Overall now, he's at .299 with 11 HRs and 44 RBIs, with a .932 OPS. Clearly, he has figured out how to overcome an early "sophomore slump" and is back on track as a dominating force in the Boston line-up. In his article, Beller goes into far more detail about the changes—citing geeky stuff like "swing rates". We don't care. Benny is back. That's all we need to know.