And Doc, here's a dunce's question: if he's clearing his knees but still crushing to dead center, is that an issue? Or can we say "hey man more power to ya if you can pull that off." The failed versions of Saunders the past couple of years only had a prayer's hope of ever going away/center with authority.
If he's hitting the ball back through the box, well, that's one of Teddy Ballgame's four golden principles. Highest margin for error that way. In a vacuum, hitting up the middle ... that's one good thing.
Earlier in the spring, Saunders was all like "I'm a long-lever guy! I need to stay compact!" and now he gets away from that and everybody goes, "Who cares. He has two hits."
It's like a basketball player is shooting with his elbow flying out and his forearm at a skewed angle, and he shoots 7-for-11, and people go "As long as he's making the shots!" Soon he won't be.
Coach's nightmare: the kid goes back to street, has a good game that way, and starts styling to his buddies. Two weeks later he'll be crying on your shoulder.
...............
The shot to CF ... well, I'm not saying that Saunders is back to square one. I'm just a little tweaked that things are STARTING to revert for him.
Would simply like to know if he still spends time in the cage with the 60-oz bat, and if he's still focused on keeping a "short-throw" dynamic in the knees.