To expound on what I was talking about in the game thread, I think the mechanics of Drew's swing is causing him to miss wayyyy to many pitches.
Keep in mind, Stubss was a K machine before he ever played in the Reds system. At UT, Stubbs led the team in strikeouts for three years. "04, 05, and 06" And when I say led, I don't mean by a couple strikeouts. I'm talking nearly double the guy behind him.
http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-...ebl-stats.html
Okay, we know that he didn't improve much with the K's in the Reds Minor League System.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/mi...d=stubbs001and
Obviously, we know nothing has changed since he's been with the major league team. So how to fix this? Many will say, he is what he is. He's a guy with Rickey Henderson speed with the plate approach of Mark Reynolds. However, Drew doesn't hit homeruns like Reynolds. He's striking out every 3.2 at bats compared to the MLB average of nearly 5.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...dr01-bat.shtml
Now, someone brought up the fact that if Drew only learned how to make contact, the chances of him getting on base were that much better because of his speed to 1st base. Brantley mentioned today that there is a certain sway in Drew's swing. I did some research and looked at some video on MLB.com. I already knew what Brantley meant, (seen it live in Dayton) but I wanted to be sure I just wasn't imagining it. It is there.
I tried to find a GIF of his swing to post but couldn't. If anyone knows of a good site, please PM and let me know. It's so much easier to describe mechanics when its in slow motion.
Anyways, Drew's "sway" is him overextending himself on his step towards the pitcher. When he steps, his body comes with the weight transfer. This causes his hands to drag behind him, causing a bit of a dip on the level of his hands. By throwing the hands back at various levels, (depending on weight transfer) Drew is constantly swinging from a different hand level. His slight uppercut in his swing only makes this worse. This causes the swing to be extremely long in the zone causing A TON of swings and misses.
I searched the web to back up this information and found this message board.
http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/forums/...962#9611025962
They talk about frames in a swing. I guess Drew's swing is 5.5 frames long, which is crazy long for a blue chip prospect. From what I understand, the frames actually correspond to the video frames during Drew's swing on Quicktime.
Now my prescription would be too to start Drew's Swing sooner with a kickback like Gary Sheffield or a no step like Chase Utley. Each would dramatically reduce the moving parts in Stubbs swing. I've always been a huge fan of the no step since it is pure weight transfer and leaves almost nothing to chance.
Okay..... now back to work.