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But he's gonna have 4000 hits doing it. He'd make an American instructor cry - doesn't mean it can't work for him.
Sometimes physical freaks can get away with things they "should not" do. That was Clemente. He did this bizarre back-shoulder lunge with a wrist hack at ball that should have gone about 60 feet as a pop up, and would clear the fence. I would never tell a young hitter, "Hey man, swing like Clemente" because most kids aren't physical freaks.
But then Vlad Guerrero shows up with a torqued arm swing designed to rip up his back and a strike zone the size of the Taj Mahal and he hits .318 CAREER with ridiculous power. Some guys do bad things to good purpose.
I agree with moe, as long as he hits like this you change nothing. He seems too big for 2B, but he only played it because of the busted arm that required him not to be throwing all the way across the diamond as he recovered. If and when he moves to 3B full-time, the bat plays there now.
Romero doesn't have Gary Sheffield batspeed, but he's closer to that side of the scale. It allows for head movement (or the harsh bat movement like Sheffield loved) because the lead time to get the bat launched is much reduced. The ball is closer to the hitter when all that movement starts happening so it has less time to break away from them. With a slow launch you're starting the movement with the ball several feet further away.
He also stands at the back of the box - he's not exactly straddling the plate. His front foot is on the plate and he his back leg is almost in the catcher's lap. That gives the ball all kinds of time to break. You'd think he'd stand up in the box, take the break out of it and relying on his batspeed to compensate for the loss of time to react, but he has the opposite approach. I'd love to ask him whether he likes hitting breaking balls and gears up for them while then relying on the batspeed and extra step backward in the batter's box to let him catch up to heaters.
He seems more of an artist type. We'll see if he can keep the quality work coming as the fastballs get faster and the pitchers get more talented.
~G