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I had written Trayvon off, but if the eyesight is to blame for his wierd pitch-recognition flaws.. he get interesting. Still a bit skeptical, but hopeful. Should be something to look for in ST.
Eyesight and Hitting - Trayvon
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This was one of two HR's he hit that day, but what is Teddy doing standing where he is? After his career, he preached constantly about not giving six inches to the pitcher that you didn't have to...
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=== Hardest Act in Sports ===
It's a whole other conversation, but Bill James has made a convincing argument that baseball players are the most freakishly-gifted athletes there are...
If you sit and ponder just how hard it is to hit baseballs thrown by an MLB pitcher, you'll probably agree, and James isn't talking about batting only. But the point is, in order to hit a ball that is in the air 0.40 seconds, that might break any of several ways, that might pop a parachute, etc., etc., you can imagine how much INTUITION is required to perform this task.
That 0.20-second intuition never begins unless the batter has razor-sharp vision in the first place, vision so sharp that he can see differences in spin rate, "pink spots," differences in release point down to one-half inch...
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Some of you young pokeys may not have heard the story about when Ted Williams came back from fighter-pilot duty in WWII. (You might not have heard that he was in WWII, and in the Korean War, missing five years right out of the middle of his prime.) He stepped in for BP, and complained that home plate was off line. They surveyed it and found it was a fraction of an inch off...
"Got to take care of my eyes," said Babe Ruth one time about going to the movies. "If my eyesight went bad even a little bit, I couldn't hit home runs."
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=== Trayvon ===
In principle, Dr. D absolutely agrees that any improvement in vision could result in better stats -- if and only if the athlete possesses the talent to start with. A Rob Johnson might get Lasiked but still run into the natural problem of his launch reflexes...
In Trayvon's specific case, there were many times last year when he swung and missed, or swung late, and I frowned. It did indeed look like something had gotten into his eye, or something. ... there is being naturally overmatched, being defeated in natural flow, but then there is the guy swinging weirdly through a pitch that he shouldn't have had trouble with.
Personally, I'm excited to watch Trayvon this spring and find out whether he is seeing the low pitches better.
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Here's my favorite Trayvon video from last year. Tick off the attitudes (or, intangibles) as he riffles through them:
- Toughness, in the speed at which he hits the wall,
- Determination, in the way he sticks his face and eyes into danger),
- Humility, in the non-Cespedian tone of the ball presentation to the umpire,
- Alertness, to the play going on, and
- Consideration, for the fans.