To Orioles outfielder Austin Hays, the imbalance of his 2022 season is greatest ascribed to that of his hitting mechanics.
Hays was Baltimore’s most efficient hitter via the season’s first three months, culminating with a cycle June 22 in opposition to the Washington Nationals that raised his batting line to .287/.347/.482. But the subsequent day, he injured his proper wrist on a dive throughout the fitting subject line in Chicago, an damage that started a downswing that continued via the tip of the yr. After his cycle, the 27–year-old hit .210 with a .624 OPS, greater than 200 factors beneath the earlier stretch.
“I felt like I did a good job every day of coming in and preparing for who was on the mound, developing a strong plan with our hitting coaches of what I wanted to do that day to try to get the best of whoever was on the mound,” Hays mentioned. “But at times, where I was mechanically wasn’t allowing what I was trying to do out there to show up.”
In analyzing the tape of his season’s juxtaposing halves, Hays found that within the latter, he started leaning towards the pitcher too early. The shift in weight towards his left leg triggered him to open up too quickly, prompting a flattened swing that went across the ball as a substitute of driving it.
“I’ve got a good understanding of why I was going really good and then why I went through some tough patches,” Hays mentioned. “My body started to swing really before I’ve decided to swing, so then that leads to my pitch selection being not as good as it was when I was balanced and fouling off a lot more pitches that are in the heart of the plate, getting to two strikes more often, and then seeing nastier stuff with two strikes.”
He’ll spend this offseason at dwelling in Florida working to rediscover the correct stability and make it sustainable for a full season, hoping to handle a problem that triggered his percentages of foul balls, pitches seen with two strikes and strikeouts to extend after his cycle. Before, he felt he was driving the pitch he was on the lookout for when he bought it. Through the cycle, Hays’ common exit velocity of 89.6 mph ranked fifteenth among the many 40 gamers who put at the least 199 balls in play throughout that span, in keeping with Baseball Savant. It dropped to 85.6 mph afterward, the 18th lowest out of the 137 gamers who made contact at the least 200 occasions.
“When I was in a more balanced position, I’d get the pitch that I want and the pitch that I’m looking for, I drive it — whether it’s a hit or not, I hit that pitch hard, it’s in play and the at-bat is over,” Hays mentioned. “I was doing a lot of that earlier in the year, and it was just inconsistent with being able to do damage on the pitch that I should do damage on in the second half.”
The dichotomy of Hays’ season is probably greatest outlined by him getting a number of begins in each spot of supervisor Brandon Hyde’s lineup however ninth. In a stretch of 57 begins from April 27 to July 3, he batted decrease than cleanup solely as soon as. He then spent extra video games out of the beginning lineup (16) than in its prime 4 spots (10) after the 162-game season’s midpoint.
But he took the constant potential to be within the lineup as solace in his season. After breaking into the majors late in 2017, Hays started to construct a fame as damage susceptible as he missed in depth time with illnesses in every of the subsequent 4 seasons. He was on the lively roster all of 2022, although, and hasn’t had an injured record stint since June 2021.
Arbitration eligible for the primary time this offseason, Hays is due for a increase however may be a non-tender candidate, given the Orioles might give elevated taking part in time to 1 outfield prospect who has already arrived in Kyle Stowers with one other who might quickly attain the majors in 2021 first-rounder Colton Cowser. But regardless of his late-season struggles, Hays was efficient sufficient early that he nonetheless ranked as an above-average offensive producer by each OPS+ and weighted runs created plus, each of which measure a hitter’s efficiency relative to the league.
“Overall, I am happy with my season because I was able to set career highs in games played this year, and that was my No. 1 goal moving forward,” Hays mentioned. “I used to be simply going to be on the sphere each day, present up able to play, play to win and see the place the numbers have been on the finish of the yr.
“There’s a lot of learning that goes into that, too. When you don’t feel good, you don’t feel good offensively, there’s no day off or there’s no week off or month off to just reset things. The games keep coming. That’s a learning experience in itself, so I’m glad that I’ve had the time that I have to just continue to learn in this game and continue to grow.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com