DJ and Hines

[shoeless joe]

IMO if these two can ever be situationally big we may be playin for a while this summer. i have my doubts about that happening tho. I know they are both high draft guys, and am not questioning that. but both will have to make adjustments in the pros.

i think of fred mcgriff and ron gant when i watch these two. not necessarily the results...but with hines his swing reminds me of mcgriff, especially a young crime dog. i also think he could learn a thing or two from mcgriff's slower more deliberate load. but the ability and power to all fields, his ability to square up pitches in all quadrants....this is also what makes him frustrating because he has the habit of not squaring them up as well.

as far as the gant comparison to DJ that obviously a little more tools based. although their set-ups at the plate lend to that comparison as well. i do wish, and think he will at the next level, he'd adopt some of the same approach that gant used. get on the plate and be ready to yank. he's vulnerable to a well place wrinkle as it is so that won't make that much of a difference anyway. and he's strong enough that once he learns to recognize it decently early he can still make solid contact by keeping his hands back. the most frustrating swing i saw last nite was his third strike. dude was pounding fastballs and it looked like DJ was trying to hit a grounder to the right side with his approach. be ready...get started...dont rush...and get the bat head out front. exactly what hujsak did in his AB.

anyway...just some thought from what i've seen of these two. and man...if they can both get hot...look out.

[TNDawg35]

DJ hit one to center that is gone out of any other ballpark… that ball was hammered…

[StarkVegasSteve]

DJ's problem has always been that he comes up there trying to hit it 500 ft every time. He then gets to pressing and it just exacerbates the situation. Hines is, and always will be, a pull hitter. If you pitch him outside, he's going to roll over on it.

[Goldendawg]

Need to put Hujsak between them in batting order. Jordan leads SEC in strikeouts and Hines about 3 for his last 34. They don't need to continue to bat back to back. JMO, not a baseball coach, just an observation by a fan of 60 plus years.

[bulldogcountry1]

Anyone can get hot, but you either have the ability to rise to the occasion and hit, situationally, or you don?t.

[bulldogcountry1]

Need to put Hujsak between them in batting order. Jordan leads SEC in strikeouts and Hines about 3 for his last 34. They don't need to continue to bat back to back. JMO, not a baseball coach, just an observation by a fan of 60 plus years.

Lemonis loves to alternate RLRLR?. About all we can expect is for him to flip DJ and Hujsak.

[Commercecomet24]

I haven't looked it up but Dakota's BABIP has to be insanely high because when he makes contact he hits absolute bullets. If he could understand that with his extremely high exit velo if he would focus on just contact when he gets 2 strikes his ceiling would almost become limitless. It seems like every ball he hits he hits extremely hard, he just doesn't make enough contact. If we play in post season long enough he has the potential to reach almost 100 k's for the season and that's insane. He's 100% got the tools but he's got a lot of work to do to become a professional hitter.

[Commercecomet24]

Lemonis loves to alternate RLRLR?. About all we can expect is for him to flip DJ and Hujsak.

And this is what i was talking about 6-8 weeks ago. Hujsak needs to hit in the 3 hole because he's a more complete hitter than DJ or Hines and doesn't strikeout. More than once this year we just needed contact from DJ or Hines to possibly win a game and they've struckout. DJ does have the highest team avg with RISP but most of that has come against OOC. Watch Hujsak when he gets to 2 strike, he actually chokes up on the bat and just tries to put the ball in play. No one chokes up on the bat anymore. It's apparent that Hujsak had some old school coaching growing up.