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He didn't too much MiLB time either, he has never played a game at AAA.
POTD Mike Zunino's Swing Mechanics - AIKI
Snatch the pebble from my hand, grasshopper, er, Teddy
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"Aiki" in Japanese comes from two words, "ki" meaning soul, intentionality, the circulating life energy and breath of your being. "Ai" means harmony. "Aiki" in budo refers to harmonizing yourself, on a subconscious level, with incoming energy that may be hostile.
It emphasizes your center of gravity, since that is the source of your physical intentionality, and is also the paradigm that leads to well-organized movement of head, arms, and legs.
It sounds like mumbo-jumbo to Americans, but is second nature in the Eastern Hemisphere, and you'll hear Americans referring to the ideas with their own vocabulary. However, Americans don't emphasize it enough. America doesn't do everything the best.
;- )
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Teddy Ballgame
He had four golden laws, which he would especially emphasize for slumping hitters. Mike Zunino is automatically a slumping ML hitter; he's confused at the plate. We'll organize our Aiki holistics around Teddy's rules:
- Wait!
- Be Quick!
- Take the ball up the middle (let the pull "take care of itself")
- Get your pitch
We've already broken down Zuumball's swing in American terms, so we can summarize. Zunino does the first three extremely well; the fourth one is a catastrophe.
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He can WAIT because his natural Front Foot - Rear Hand swing is very compact and short to the ball, and because his two-stage swing naturally allows him to hesitate on the offspeed.
Teddy meant, "See the ball first," as Buhner has been saying. Zunino's doing this pretty well. Grade it 7-8 on a scale of 10, based on one game, of course.
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He is QUICK, meaning that he doesn't take forever-and-a-day to lock and load his swing. He's reading the pitch and "swatting" it, as opposed to what Justin Smoak does ... plant the back foot like the strut on a cannon, unload a self-absorbed swing process, and hope that the ball arrives in time with his swing.
No, Zunino is "correcting" his timing to the pitch as it comes in, making sure to get there. Rate it 8 on a scale of 10.
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He is taking the ball up the middle, 10 on a scale of 10. Jose Canseco did also; he would pull 450-foot shots, sure ... but Teddy Ballgame knew that "the pull takes care of itself." Guys like Canseco and Zunino "automatically" jump on mistake pitches, without trying to.
Canseco's "ki," the direction of his intentionality, stayed back through the pitcher. Zunino did not try to "yank" a single pitch in Ackley or Saunders fashion. He's got a gorgeous intentionality back through the incoming energy.
Zunino has a charming lack of subconscious greed. He lets the bat fly, that's for sure. But he's got a nice "sense of danger," a respect for his own limitations.
You saw it, on that liner up the middle, the low-away offspeed.
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So what's the problemo? It's in getting his pitch.
Zunino swung weirdly through fastballs, was obviously 100% surprised by every single pitch thrown. His anticipation was absolutely zero.
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Also, hand-eye coordination. That's not an Aiki issue; it's a physical gifts issue. Mike Cameron's big thing was that he didn't have the hand-eye coordination of an Ichiro, or of a Kyle Seager, for that matter. Cammy was a neat player, but he just did not have the natural gift for bisecting a housefly with a katana.
Best guess? The way that Mike Zunino adjusted so quickly to high-minors pitching, straight out of college, he probably does have real good hand-eye. (Gordon? Spec?)
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Check Him in 1,000 At-Bats, Dept.
I would bet you dollars to Ding-Dongs that the ML scouts told Zduriencik precisely what we're telling you from here to the signoff. "Zunino's fine. He's ready. He can cover the plate. He just needs to see some pitches, and he can see them in Safeco or in Cheney."
You got a kid with a drop-dead gorgeous swing, a 50 or 60 HIT tool (pending the hand-eye coordination), a 75 PWR tool, and ... he just hasn't seen any pro pitches.
This guy is up wayyyy earlier than other catchers arrive, quite a bit earlier even than Buster Posey or Matt Weiters -- who set the standard for fast arrival.
He ain't striking out because he's Mark Reynolds. He's striking out because most guys are in class A+ baseball, given 346 pro at-bats.
He's a defensive specialist. Live with his next 1,000 AB's and bask in the catching. And if he should pull a miracle and hit real early, like Bench and Pudge and Carter did, it's okay wif us.
Enjoy,
Dr D
Comments
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But the dude has lights-out power. You think he should be bigger. I mean, he LOOKS big back there, but even in person he seems height challenged. His height is supposed to be 6'2, but in person he doesn't look bigger than 6'-even (though broad across the shoulders and thick through the chest and legs), but swaggers and hits like a 6'4 behemoth.
He swings like a 6'4 dude too.
He's so comfortable as a catcher tho it's ridiculous. There was a hint of envy from Dan Wilson in the booth talking about how comfortable Zunino looks just sitting in his crouch like it's a rocking chair on a porch.
And seeing him come out of that crouch and rip a throw to second is always a treat, isn't it?
I agree with you, Doc, he either doesn't wait for enough of his pitches or he doesn't recognize which ones he can handle yet with wood. That happens with the aluminum-to-wood transition, as well as better competition. He'll get it.
I expect him to get busted inside a lot. The back-foot slider looks like an early weakness, and I dunno that he can get his hands in enough to truly punish inner heat without being overly succeptible to soft stuff away. He might well prove me wrong, though.
I still see him as a .270ish hitter with healthy walk totals, fairly (but reasonably) high Ks, and around a .200 ISO. Is anybody turning down .265/.340/.460 from the catcher? I don't expect that this year, but he was hitting .240/.305/.505 in AAA.
It's not too much of a stretch.
And my advice to pitchers trying to get him out with breaking stuff: don't miss. If you do, be sure to bury it in front of the plate (he does swing at those at the moment) rather than hanging one over the plate. He'll drive it to the moon if you leave it over the plate.
Ask the AAA pitchers.
~G
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That's what I meant. The way he lets the bat fly, you're not going to be able to ask more than that. ... well, David Wright could; using the same swing he's a lifetime .300 hitter. Obviously Wright has always had outstanding pitch recog.
Interesting heads-ups on the back-foot slider and the curve bouncing in front of the plate. Will keep an eye.
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With his defense? Without question.
# of catchers with an OPS+ over 130, career: three. Piazza, Mauer and Tenace (maybe not the names you were expecting)
# of catchers with and OPS+ over 120, career: 15 (a couple of whom are V-Mart and Mauer, the rest of whom are Berra and Campanella and Posada, et al).
David Wright's .300/.380/.500 is worth a 135 career OPS+. He hasn't hit his decline phase yet, but that kind of performance at catcher, especially in the post-ish PED era would be... astonishing.
.270/.340/.460 with Safeco as a home park? That makes him Posada, and still a HOF candidate, so maybe I'm optimistic. But to put some completely inaccurate probabilities to it, he's a 40% shot at Wieters/Charles Johnson and a, what, 15 % shot at some Posada years?
Totally fine with me.
~G
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Also, he's totally blind: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/a/19409
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According to my quick search, if you set single season minimums of, 500 PA's, 20 homers, .240/.300/.400, you find that it has been done a total of 156 times in MLB history by catchers.
500 PA's is what, 120 starts? Quite a few, I suppose. 3 out of 4 games, anyway. But it shows just how rare that level of performance is for a catcher.
At 450 PA's it has been done 180 times.
OK, now up the minimums to 20/.260/.320/.420 and you find that it has been done (500 PA's) 133 times.
To give you a sense of that level of performance, in the history of the game guys have hit 45+ homers in a season 136 times.
If Zunino is anything like his early scouting report, he's already in rarified air.
Hey, Brandon Brantz has only 2 fewer career PA's than Zunino which shows just how premature this kind of speculation may be......but it is interesting number-crunching, all the same.
moe