Whether regarding his revised swing, his approach at the plate, his bunny-rabbit terror when stepping in against the hawks on the mound...
It's all gone.
He wiped the slate clean. I said after seeing him for the first time this Spring that it looked like whatever sports psychologist he went to got him straightened out, and I stand by that. He may have been his own sports psychologist, I dunno - but he admitted he spent a LOT of time working on his mental game this winter as much as his swing, and I admire that.
He also moved to Denver and Mike Bard, Josh's brother, became his swing coach. I thought what he said about that was one of the most interesting things of that interview. Rough estimated quote: "I've have several hitting coaches trying to get me to make my swing compact, but you know how you can hear the same thing from two people but it just has to be said differently for you to get it? Mike helped me get SHORT TO THE BALL."
That's where he brought up long-levers as well, but it seems like his other hitting coaches made him more passive and told him (in his mind) to take the power out of his swing. Compact. Remove your leverage. That's what it looked like in his sickly swing last year, and that's how Saunders felt about it.
Whereas Bard re-stated it as, "See all that power you have? You don't need a long swing. The levers will do it for you. Get short to the ball, explode out the back of it, and it'll fly. Be aggressive."
And that re-kindled his approach. I liked seeing the fire of a competitor in his belly. Because Saunders hasn't competed at the plate in years. If he goes to Tacoma this year it looks like he's gonna destroy people.
He's definitely back on the radar as a player to watch, and if he keeps hitting like that, he's not locked into CF either. He's been 100% aggressive at the plate without giving away at-bats. He's exactly Wedge's kind of player. Wedge's motto is, "If they give you a pitch you'd better not take it and hope the guy after you can drive in a run. You do it." Saunders has taken that to heart. He looks great.
BTW, Catricala is looking like Matt Kemp at the plate. How do you send Matt Kemp back to the minors? He crushed a pulled double down the line that was foul by 6 inches, took a walk, fought two 95 mph pitches off for a bloop single and a hard-hit single the other way, he's shown his home run power in previous games...
He also gloved a couple of nice plays down there. Look out for Vinnie.
And did you see Peguero take a walk AND hit a single the other way, two things that almost never happened last year? He's still fast around the bases for a mountain with legs and he's got a good arm too. His approach isn't perfect but it's improving. I'm proud of him.
Felix might finally get some run support this year. The kids look like the game has slowed down to their speed.
~G
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