PABaseball posted:I tend to agree with this as well. Ideally, you want line drive HRs. There is now an emphasis on getting the ball over the fence, which is fine. What is not fine is the K rate and the amount of lazy fly balls that come with that approach. When the hitter just misses the ball it results in a 360 ft pop out, not a hard hit.
But I'd also rather have a .300 hitter with 15 HRs than a .260 hitter with 30 HRs. Many would rather have the latter. It is a matter of preference, but FWIW I don't like the way MLB is trending.
The MLB SO/HR ratio is worth discussion, along with The Shift, emphasis on launch angles, and many other things in the current game. But the OP was asking about a kid who is just starting middle school, so it seems appropriate to talk about what kind of training is going to give such a kid the best shot at being an impact player on his HS team in a couple years, and the way HS baseball is played, except maybe among the very top schools in the country, is a world away from MLB baseball.
In my experience watching a good number of HS games, the fact of the matter is that the long ball is very, very rarely the deciding factor in a win. Sac bunts, line drives up the middle, doubles in the gap or down the line, and ground balls in the 5-6 hole are all far, far more likely to be the winning plays in a game than a HR. Sadly, I suppose, errors, wild pitches, passed balls, blown pick-off attempts, balks, and brain farts are all also far more likely to cause a loss than giving up a bomb.
If the OP's kid is a true stud who will play higher level college and/or pro, once puberty arrives he'll know that soon enough. In the meantime, I would focus on the kid being ready to play the HS game. That means knowing how to bunt, how to hit behind a runner on 2b, how to execute the hit-and-run, how to run the bases, and many other things that don't involve hitting a ball over the fence.