Kevin Long breaks it down
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- June
- 15
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The Yankees didn’t take batting practice before the game tonight. They arrived in Houston around 6 a.m. on Friday, so Joe Girardi wisely decided to give his players some extra time to rest.
But there is rarely any rest for the coaching staff. Those guys were in the clubhouse long before the media was allowed in three and a half hours before the game.
When the writers saw that Robinson Cano was out of the lineup, it made sense to ask hitting coach Kevin Long what he thought was going on.
Like anybody else who is very good at what they do for a living, Kevin is a passionate guy. He was literally getting into a stance and showing what Robbie has been doing right and wrong.
Here’s the audio:
If you’re interested in the mechanics of hitting, you should enjoy the conversation.
Beyond the hitting X’s and O’s, what I found interesting was that Long said he called Don Mattingly to get some advice. D. Baseball voiced concern that Cano was pressing because of his new contract. Cano has denied that, but it certainly would explain a lot.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 1:17 am by Peter Abraham.
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Cano has never been great with bases loaded or in other similar pressure situations. If he’s feeling the weight of his contract, it would explain things for sure.
breathe. Keep your head down. Keep your eyes on the ball. Breathe. Then let ability and talent take control.
That had to be the worst audio I ever hear from you Pete. Seriously IDK who it was, but someone kept knocking your recorder, elbow them next time.
Anyway his balance is off we’ve been knowing that, believe it or not his patience is improving, now he has to figure out how not to expand his zone plus keep his lower half sound, because it looks like he’s dancing bachata before he swings. I still believe he’ll figure it out but now it might take atleast another month if his balance is off to get it corrected.
he needs to not swing at the first freakin pitch every at bat.
Hey Brandon, im not pickin an argument, but were u one of the guys who said veras wasnt for real a few weeks ago when I said it?
Now whats ure opinion? I think he’s def for real, I give Girardi for kudos for puttin him out there in situations
How’s Donnie doing? Is Kim doing better, too?
They both deserve their privacy but it’d be nice to know if things have stabilized a bit.
Hey Brandon, im not pickin an argument, but were u one of the guys who said veras wasnt for real a few weeks ago when I said it?
Now whats ure opinion? I think he’s def for real, I give Girardi for kudos for puttin him out there in situations
No you misinterpreted what I said, I said and this was when he was in AAA he strikes out a ton of people, but may not be for real, the one thing that always makes me worried about a pitcher being legit is his GO/AO when I see more airballs I question thier ability, even more when they throw a bad % of strikes to ball. This is where Veras was early in the season, but it seems like he has learned a bit from Rafael Chaves how to throw the slider for groundouts and selling the curveball as a fastball. Take for instance the pitch to Carlos Lee last night he threw a knee buckling curveball that he didn’t swing at because he thought it was a fastball w/ the armspeed he threw it at.
Now the book on Veras is not done, when he throws strikes he can be a dominant type reliever. When he throws balls and gets bat shy he can be the worst thing you ever layed eyes on. When he cracks it usually consist of BB on 6 pitches, BB on 5, BB on 6 and then because he wastes so much energy throwing balls fastball down the middle and before you know it grandslam..He’s that type of guy. I’m hoping he continues on this new approach path of pitching because he can be a very important weapon if it all pans out for him, but again consistancy, throwing strikes, can he do it ? IDK and he has to have faith in his offspeed pitches those usually will settle his approach to the plate.
Yanks should trade Cano and Kennedy to Seattle for Erik Bedard. Good trade for both teams.
perhaps Cano needs glasses or ADHD stuff
No it isn’t.
Yanks should trade Cano and Kennedy to Seattle for Erik Bedard. Good trade for both teams.
ur stupid
bedard? i don’t think so. he couldn’t even beat the Nats.
Peter,
Is Kevin concerned about Jeter? He simply does not look the same. The HR the other night not withstanding, he is really struggling. I wonder about the dynamics of a relatively new hitting coach dealing with an aging star – is he able to “go there”?
Interesting that Long called Mattingly. Especially considering people like Michael Kay where whining about Torre calling Posada & Jeter earlier this year.
IMHO (which, I realize, counts for literally nothing), it is not just cano’s bottom half that is causing him problems, but his upper half too. His elbows come down as the pitch is being delivered, forcing him to bring them up again to load. This is giving him no time to judge the pitch since if he wants to hit it he needs to swing as soon as he gets his hands back up. With the bottom half, there is obviously just too much swinging. He needs to keep his hips loaded just like his elbows – from the getgo. Then he can get back to his old style of just waiting on the pitch and getting more time to judge it. He’s also not squaring up the balls that he does time right, which tells me that his hands are swinging around to the ball, rather than coming straight through the ball. These are among the simplest, most fundamental aspects of hitting, though, so I’m sure KLong has picked up on them too (or else I’m just not seeing things right). But I really haven’t noticed a difference so far, even when cano had a brief semi-hotstreak i knew it wouldn’t last b/c his swing just didn’t look like it used to. Now obviously there’s a reason Kevin Long is a MLB hitting coach, but the one thing I have noticed over the last 2 years is that players have seemingly gone through very long and clearly (at least part) mechanical slumps. Cano and especially Abreu last year, when Bobby was falling out towards first waaaayyy too early and thus could never hit a lefty curve or righty changeup.
CanIGetAMooseCall
Yanks should trade Cano and Kennedy to Seattle for Erik Bedard. Good trade for both teams.
reallystupid
Sounds like it was a great conversation, Pete, but I couldn’t listen to it. The audio quality was terrible and all the knocking around was giving me a headache. Step your game up a notch!