Seattle B Team 5 ...
=== Ryan Langerhans ===
TIMELINE.
ca. 2009 A.D. -- SSI books Langerhans as having a slider-speed bat. Fangraphs concurs. (Their data section, not their articles section.)
2011. Langerhans has a whale of a spring training. SSI cares not a whit.
Later 2011. M's coaches make noises about overhauling his swing. See above.
March 23, 2011. Ryan Langerhans, on TV for the first time since milestones II and III, pulls a Jorge DeLa Rosa fastball into the bleachers. This pitch was:
- 94 mph
- LHP
- Very high
- Pulled
- With Authority
- Replayed from three angles, all showing a swing that is very impressive
March 23, 2011. Langerhans pulls a 83-mph DeLa Rosa pitch for a double. Dr. D prepares to write up a post with the headline *LANGERHANS ADVISORY.*
March 23, 2011. Dr. D breaks down Langerhans' HR swing and is very surprised at its dynamics.
March 23, 2011. Dr. D checks Langerhans' swing against 2010 and ... finds that he had a real pretty swing in 2010 also.
March 23, 2011. Dr. D ponders, not for the first time, how much Sandy-Raleigh knows about baseball. Considerable much.
........
So Langerhans' swing is wonderful, something I'd never noticed before... but it appears to have been wonderful in 2010, too, and in 2010 he fanned 51 times in 107 at-bats. *Doug Fister* wouldn't fan 51 times in 107 at-bats.
So, now we're more confused than ever. Perhaps Geoff Baker will take mercy on our plight, and ask Chris Chambliss what is different about Ryan Langerhans' swing.
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=== Michael Saunders ===
Lined a nice base hit up the middle for an RBI.
The difference in his swing? This time, they told us .... he doesn't wrap the bat around his head, when he's in the address position. He's much shorter to the ball.
..........
Yeah, we could see that. Logical and the difference it makes is easy to make out.
In slo-mo, he still gets a pretty good windup, but overall he's much cleaner to the ball -- and still puts good torque on it.
They say that Saunders is 7-for-16 since the adjustment, or something. Blowers liked the adjustment very much. Huson did too. Dr. D does too.
90% of these advertised adjustments we dismiss as noise; this specific adjustment goes in the 10%. Eyes slideways. Worth a check-out, homey.
Look - if Saunders changed org's, would anybody be shocked if somebody gave him a tweak and he became the next Shin-Soo Choo? Course not. So why be shocked if Chris "Six-Ring" Chambliss found the tweak?....
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=== Chris Chambliss ===
Chambliss was with the Yanx for a bunch of their championships. Whatever else you think about the Yanx, never doubt for a second that their coaching and advance scouting is the best there is.
We wonder, idly, whether he might be the kind of coach who can find difference-making changes. There are a few guys around baseball who can do this.
Would be nice, wouldn't it?
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