Question about Wes Rea?

[BogeyGolfer]

I'm not a baseball guy, please explain to me how Wes was killing the ball last post-season and seemed to struggle this year? Do opposing teams study film and find tendencies? How do you have that large of a " drop"? Is it a combination of both? We really missed that one guy who could hit a double or homer at just the right time.

[Martianlander]

Other teams do study for tendencies and weaknesses. Rae should have worked on his weaknesses in the off-season. I can't speak to if he did or not, but if he did he didn't make enough progress for sure.

[Pioneer Dawg]

He's currently 1-5 with a K in Bethesda. We should expect high numbers in this league.

[junctiondawg]

Because he has no future in baseball whatsoever... Im sorry but he should have played football... he had a bright future on the offensive line

[MarketingBully01]

He needs to back off the plate. Crowding the plate with a guy his size really limits what he can do. If he backed off the plate, they wouldn't jam him inside and with his reach he could still hit the ball when it is away. I am not sure why he crowds the plate like he does but that could be most of why he struggles.

[MsStateBaseball]

For one, they throw a breaking ball inside on him and he can't hit it. Second, it seems to me when he does hit the first pitch or second pitch fastball, he hits hit good. He is trying to kill it.

[starkvegasdawg]

He needs to back off the plate. Crowding the plate with a guy his size really limits what he can do. If he backed off the plate, they wouldn't jam him inside and with his reach he could still hit the ball when it is away. I am not sure why he crowds the plate like he does but that could be most of why he struggles.

If this is the main cause then shouldn't a hitting coach or head coach see this and correct it in about 30 seconds?

[RougeDawg]

He needs to back off the plate. Crowding the plate with a guy his size really limits what he can do. If he backed off the plate, they wouldn't jam him inside and with his reach he could still hit the ball when it is away. I am not sure why he crowds the plate like he does but that could be most of why he struggles.

This. His feet should be no closer to the plate than a foot away. Probably two feet would still work. He could still reach the outside pitch, with work and proper hitting instruction. Another reason he struggles with anything but fastballs in fastball counts are his swing mechanics. Believe me, you can hit some balls off and inside the plate that you never thought you could, if you just practice it. Best practice for Rea would be hitting off a tee after someone alters his swing.

He swings around his body which only keeps the bat in the "hitting zone" for a split second, reducing the chance for contact and greatly reducing power. His hands also start too close to the middle of his body. He should move his hands back around his arm pit or a few inches back from that. Also widen his stance and cut his stride. All of these would dramatically help, but all of these require adequate coachin from a "mechanics oriented" hitting coach. Cohen is a "situationally oriented" hitting coach. Having one or the other can make you an above average team, but you need both mechanically and mentally capable hitters to dominate pitching. Just look at our situational hitting. We normally bunt and hit and run in situations that it is called for, but our mechanics aren't good enough to execute well, especially hit and run. We should also have hitters like Demarcus and CT getting 10-15% of their hits on push/drag bunts. We don't know how to do these properly, but if we could our entire lineup would be dangerous. How many times do we try a hit and run and the batter actually hit the ball opposite field between the infielders on the ground?

All of this falls back to fundamental coaching. So it's not all Rea's fault that his mechanics and approach are sub par. It's a combination. Hopefully someone this summer will work with him and change a few things with his swing.

[msstate7]

He's currently 1-5 with a K in Bethesda. We should expect high numbers in this league.

Right where he left off. I hope rea wins the starting job at 1st, but I want it to be an open competition. He did nothing this year to be a lock at 1b

[BossDawg]

If this is the main cause then shouldn't a hitting coach or head coach see this and correct it in about 30 seconds?

Exactly. Why isn't this being questioned? If it's something that can be corrected, why wasn't it corrected? That's what worries me.

[MsStateBaseball]

He will have plenty of competition at 1B. See my 2015 preview on my blog. msstatebaseball1.blogspot.com

[Percho]

I'm not a baseball guy, please explain to me how Wes was killing the ball last post-season and seemed to struggle this year? Do opposing teams study film and find tendencies? How do you have that large of a " drop"? Is it a combination of both? We really missed that one guy who could hit a double or homer at just the right time.


Started using a sorry (legal) bat? *****

[Todd4State]

I'm not a baseball guy, please explain to me how Wes was killing the ball last post-season and seemed to struggle this year? Do opposing teams study film and find tendencies? How do you have that large of a " drop"? Is it a combination of both? We really missed that one guy who could hit a double or homer at just the right time.

I think a lot of it was Wes trying to do too much and also him not adjusting to what other teams were doing. When he uses the whole field, he is much more dangerous and more difficult to pitch to. The problem is he tries to pull everything- and then he expands the zone way too much and gets himself in bad counts.

[breazy]

This. His feet should be no closer to the plate than a foot away. Probably two feet would still work. He could still reach the outside pitch, with work and proper hitting instruction. Another reason he struggles with anything but fastballs in fastball counts are his swing mechanics. Believe me, you can hit some balls off and inside the plate that you never thought you could, if you just practice it. Best practice for Rea would be hitting off a tee after someone alters his swing.




I agree and to take it a step further, home plate is 17"x17" and the inside of the batters box is 6" away from home plate. Thats a paltry 23 inches to cover. Considering his size i'm going to assume that he's swinging a 34 inch bat and I would be willing to bet that he has about a 75-80" wingspan which would likely give him around 30"+ arms. There's absolutely no way for a man that size with that size bat to get the meat of the bat on the ball on an inside pitch without turning on it pulling it foul or inside outing it. For that matter I find it hard to believe he's getting full extension out of his arms especially on anything middle to inside

[CottonDog]

Dude cant hit a breaking ball

[bannedwayne]

I'm not a baseball guy, please explain to me how Wes was killing the ball last post-season and seemed to struggle this year? Do opposing teams study film and find tendencies? How do you have that large of a " drop"? Is it a combination of both? We really missed that one guy who could hit a double or homer at just the right time.

I hear they took his dented bats.... :-(