How To Never Strike Out (Featuring Luis Arraez)

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• Pitch Tipping
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• Educational Content

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You shouldn't copy Luis Arraez 

• His approach 
• His drills 

You should copy the why behind it

Luis Arraez is the modern day Tony Gwynn. 

He just went an entire month in the MLB without striking out 1 time.

That was 141 plate appearances. 

I would celebrate if I went a game without striking out, much less 140 plate appearances. 

I wouldn't teach the Arraez approach to everyone, because he has a unique skill set.

"If I had power, maybe I would try to hit homers, but I just try to hit the ball to the SS or the left fielder" - Arraez. 

Notice how he said "if" this is why you shouldn't solely copy someone else.

Luis Arraez has the SLOWEST bat speed in the major leagues.

The slowest

That's important to know because he has built his game around knowing that he doesn't have bat speed. 

If he's in a slump?

"If I'm struggling, I just try to hit a ground ball to the pitcher"

Bat to Ball skills. 

He has the highest squared up % in the MLB.

That is defined per MLB as...

"How much exit velocity did you get as a share of how much exit velocity was possible based on your swing speed"

The interesting thing is Luis's plate discipline isn't amazing. 

His chase rate is 35.4%

MLB Avg: 28.4%

The biggest difference is his ability to hit with 2ks. 

Arraez Batting Avg with 2ks:

.274

MLB Batting Avg with 2ks:

.168

Having confidence to hit with 2ks combined with a compact swing leads to his batting average that is over 100 points more than league average!

Now, let's talk about his mechanics. 

MLB recently started publicly giving out swing length data on all hitters. 

Simply put all that means is how long the swing is from starting point to contact. 

MLB avg swing length: 7.3

Luis Arraez swing length: 5.9

This makes sense.

If you know you don't have bat speed, you shouldn't try to force the issue and "try harder"

You should hone in on your strengths.

Arraez knows he doesn't have high bat speed, so he built his swing to be as short and compact to the ball.

Leading him to having the shortest swing length in MLB.

Big takeway:

Luis Arraez has built his game around his strengths.

He doesn't have:

• Bat Speed
• Power

He does have

• Elite bat to ball skills
• High confidence

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

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