Hitting the low pitch key for higher levels?

Have you hit off a "rising" fastball?

Bob

Consultant posted:

Have you hit off a "rising" fastball?

Bob

I have seen it a couple times but as a lefty I try to stay away from it. hard to make any contact that is not a popup with it. For me the top part of the Zone is maybe 3 inches above the belly button, anything higher and usually a swing won't be productive.

My son's game yesterday the ump had a very tight zone and was not giving the low strike. 

former pro Player and hitting Coach Homer Bush has brought out a book called "hitting low in the Zone" were he proposes that hitters should Zone low in the Zone because that is were most pitches are and try to lift them in the air.

The book brings up some good Points while citing a lot of stats like using a slight Uppercut to lift those pitches (although Overall the mechanics part is not very detailed).

http://hittinglowinthezone.com/

however the book also makes some very outrageous Claims, for example he says that with his Approach (the mike trout Approach basically) good pitching doesn't have an edge anymore and that too much walks are bad and Clog the bases (he proposes to put the low pitch in Play hard in the air early in the Count and that this would make Baseball more attractive because that means more power and less walks which are boring in his opinion).

some good Points in that book but also some questionable stuff, I would also have liked him doing a Little more Research on modern batting mechanics, he said he did a lot of Research for the book but Overall it basically was old School teaching couple with a couple "new" cues like angling the bat down and Swinging up.

Title of thread is - Hitting the low pitch key for higher levels?

My response based on the simple question is - yes.

That is a simpleton response and like with most questions there are be many levels of conversation but based on the stated question and the truth of baseball at higher levels - yes hitting the low pitch is a huge key for success.

the bottom 3rd of the strike zone gets lived in by good pitching at the HS varsity level, I could search the batting averages by zones but I don't need to know the exact numbers to be aware of this. if you are going to be an elite hitter in HS or higher you are going to need to learn to hit the bottom of the effectively. I didn't mean to be to be smart ass but the man asked a simple question.

you son obviously has some power, if he continues with your stated results he is going to get more and more of the offspeed...so he better learn to adapt. I have watched my son learn the same way, until he hurts them something soft that is what he is going to get.

the fact is every batter almost always gets at least one good pitch hit during an at bat...the higher the level you go the fewer of those pitches you get. if you watch replays of counts, even in the majors, there is almost always at least one good pitch to hit.

I've always thought if you can stay through a low and away fast ball to opposite field consistently you got the tough part licked.