Brandon Belt Finally Listens to Someone
As all of you probably know, Brandon Belt won the National League Player of the Week. I’ve been gone and I missed the news about the changes he’s made in the batters box. This morning, I read an article at the Merc that detailed the changes he’s made, mostly in his grip as well as a move back in the box. Apparently, our esteemed batting coach Sir Hen had to beg Belt to talk with Dominic Brown, of all people, who finally convinced him to make these changes. If you haven’t read the story, here’s the link:
http://www.mercurynews.com/giants/ci_23844229/giants-brandon-belt-gets-grip-new-swing
My question: Why does our batting coach have to seek out a player from another team to convince this guy to change his batting approach? He’s nearly completed his 2nd full year in the bigs and he won’t do what he’s told until Dominic Freaking Brown says to do it?
Well thank God for Dominic Brown. I mean, what a guy. If this big league outfielder thing doesn’t work out for him there’s always a warm spot as SF Giants batting coach waiting for him…….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Good for Belt for finally making changes that help his production. Too bad it took so long. As for former batting coaches, old Jack Clark got the axe for opening his big mouth on a radio show. I remember that guy was always critical of Giants management in his playing days and didn’t hide it.
Belt’s wife said he needed to change his “GRIP” as well.
🙂
And I hear Tim has been helped with insights/advice from …Gaudin?!?!
Whatever works.
But I wonder why Zito Vogey Rags…wouldn’t have the same insights /advice.
To clarify, Gaudin has helped with handling disappointment, studying hitters …
I just read that article. Very interesting.
Well, it states pretty clearly that Belt was hesitant because he had had a lot of success in the minors with his original grip/swing. And I think ball players in these situations can be hesitant and stubborn in their resistance to change (again, especially if they have had good success with their previous mechanics).
So, I don’t see it as a big deal. I am guessing that Belt could more relate to Brown as he was a player who had just recently tweaked his grip and suddenly saw big results.
This was during the time Belt got 3 days off and Bochy had said it would take time for him to be comfortable with it. My exp has been that you can work with someone on mechanics and they can be fine with it in practice but tend to revert back to what is more comfortable for them in heat of game. Success and confidence tend to go hand in hand and re-inforce each other.
Belt’s hot streak, esp when so many around him are struggling, is impressive. Props to him for making the adjustment and making it work.
Hitting coach is a thankless job. Firing Meulens isn’t going to help Giants score more runs–is he to blame for Posey’s slump?. Everyone seems to love Chili Davis, but there are some A’s who have struggled mightily this year (Young Cespedes and Reddick are all under .225 here in august) and it ain’t his fault.
Went back and caught-up on yesterday’s thread/comments.
snarkk mentioned he’d like to see Gaudin have a start (maybe during Flapalooza). The way the rotation is currently set, we would see Cain on that Saturday. But this late in the year, who knows.
Also, there was a bit of talk about signing Pence for 5/75. I would prefer three with an option, or four with an option, but the Giants may not be in a position of strength re: negotiating a deal. If push came to shove, I would do 5/75. And as SanDawg mentioned, truly, who else is there that is comparable? Beltran, Granderson, and Ellsbury are about it. And I think that Pence may give them somewhat of a hometown discount (he has actively said that he wants to stay in SF).
I think he’s saying that just for PR purposes. It certainly doesn’t hurt him to say it and it sounds good to the fans. If he’s giving anyone a *hometown* discount it’ll be Texas (his home town state). But we’ll see. I wouldn’t give Hunter Pence 5/75 if you held a gun to my head and it wasn’t my money. I’d give him the qualifying offer to get the pick and pray that someone else signed him. But that’s just me.
So, you are saying that you want to fill not only one black hole (LF) but TWO?
And seriously, I listed the only three FAs that come close to matching his numbers.
Like I said…I would prefer 3/option or 4/option, but given the slim pickings on FA OFers…I just don’t track your logic, Flav. Can you tell me what you would do to fill RF if Pence was to walk?
well, free agency isn’t the only way to acquire a player, as you know. I would hope that Sabean, without a trade date deadline looming as he had this year, would make some good moves in the off season via trade to fill our two outfield spots (and I wouldn’t be averse at all to giving Kieshneck one of the spots)
last year they said he was resistant to change but he relented and he was ‘fixed’, i think they changed his stance that time. they also totally reworked his swing coming out of college. and bochy personally worked with him and repaired his swing-there was also a big deal made of that. now the brown thing. belt sure seems to have done a lot to try and be better- especially for a guy who has been said to refuse help. even he is saying he was resistent before.
here’s just one of the times he’s made changes asked of him- may 27, 2012
‘Bochy took aside Belt and asked him to be more open-minded to making some adjustments that he’s resisted since the spring. The coaching staff has tried to get him to be more upright and open up his stance, thereby freeing up his hips and allowing him to turn on inside pitches.
Bochy said that Belt incorporated those changes and had better at-bats off the bench Friday, including an RBI single.
‘I like where he’s at right now,” Bochy said today. ‘We talked about a lot of things, hitting approach. … Sometimes you make adjustments and that’s what he’s done.’
i remember that one, and i remember when bochy was said to personally worked with him in the cage. actually belt comes off as a guy who has cooperated a few times and tried to do what’s asked- including saying what they want him to say. here’s an interview with him after he had his swing reworked after college.
http://tinyurl.com/4vhwkem
as it’s always been, hardly a guy who won’t listen.
well in his own words, in the article I posted, he said “I was stubborn in the sense that I had had success a certain way before, and I was assuming I could get back to being successful that way,” Belt said. “It just took a little convincing to change, I guess.”
He then says he made the change because he was told “it would only take a couple of days to change”.
Lots of people take the quick-fix approach if it’s easy to do, I guess Belt is one of those guys. too bad it took him so long to listen. Krukow went off about his grip a month ago on KNBR so it’s obviously something he’s heard about before Brown finally spoke to him.
well, never the less, this has all been said been before- and it was said that he *did* accept the changes offered. i’m not saying that that he didn’t make some changes-again- but it’s simply untrue-unless and he and the team lied before, that he has refused help. he’s done so at least three times.
as i commented, he seems to say what he’s told.
Tough call on Pence. Hate to bring up Rowand, but recall they signed him because they had struck out on a couple of others ( Tori Hunter/Carlos Lee) in a thin yr for OFer’s. Moves made out of desperation rarely a good idea.
I’m not all goo goo over Pence, but the flip side is I would hate to see the team trying to fill two OF spots in the off-season, and I just don’t see the offerings of the free agent pool as significantly better.
Here again is the list of FA OFers…if you don’t bring Pence back, what would you do (asking of all Flappers)?
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/league-info/potential-free-agents-for-2014/
i”m nervous about any long term deal now.it’s funny- i was the most vocal in not liking the pagan trade and craig was one of the most vocal supporters… and craig was one of the few uneasy about pagan’s 4 year deal and i was for it- craig may be right both times. 3 more years of pagan makes me *very* uneasy..i’d like to see him play again this year just to see if last year’s pagan was a mirage…
but at least with pence we shouldn’t have to worry about him laying down until his next contract year. 3 w/club option. otherwise, plan 9.
Bela Lugosi? Problem was, he wasn’t juicing, he was mainlining . . .
“Here again is the list of FA OFers…if you don’t bring Pence back, what would you do (asking of all Flappers)?”
Shoot myself.
that was my ‘plan 9’
What was Plan 8? Do something more traditional and jump off the Golden Gate bridge? 😉
too much trouble. i’m with donleavy on this- ‘an elegantly embellished revolver firing straight into your heart a platinum plated bullet engraved with your armorial bearings is a stylish and dignified finishing stroke.’
if you’re totally bored today….
http://www.milb.com/milb/fans/moniker_madness/y2013/index.jsp?vs=2
For the record, Gaudin is pushing hard for Stone Speer on twitter. Gaudin is a trip man. He’s trollin’ the ER for tits, he’s fixing Lincecum, he’s peddling a freaking minor league name game contest….his wife is hot as fuck. I don’t know what to make of him, lol
regarding Pence, this IS his contract year so you’d expect to see a big push (even though I know that angle is usually more of a belief than it is actual fact). And yet his year has been underwhelming. In fact, you could argue that his entire SF career, excluding the rad speeches, has been underwhelming. 5/75 is a lot to pay for a guy who’s main strength is his gift of gab
I have read that a number of times too. One exception and it has nothing to do with performance – Sandoval. He is going into a contract year next season. He shows up at camp fat, dumb and happy, I say trade the MOFO. I definitely don’t want to watch another “rerun” of this year and 2010.
I was criticized for commenting on Pence’s weird swing last year and his mendoza line batting average. However, he did hit in runs as his RBI total was phenomenal for someone who had such a shitty batting average. In short, I agree with Flav that we don’t hand out a “5” year $75 gazillion dollars to him, unless he makes like Babe Ruth the rest of the season (or a reasonable facsimile of Scoots last year). We need more hitters that can take advantage of triples alley and fergettaboutit the home runs (at least with this bunch).
he has picked it up of late and did have a good first 3 months -after 81 games he was on pace for 26 hr, 84 rbi. we’ll see how he finishes but i think he seems to be a guy to count on for 20-25 hr and 80-90 rbi. and good ‘d’ and that gab. 5 years was what bf was against, not 3. i’m getting to hate all multiyear deals, but we’re not getting anybody in free agency for less than 3. and that might be tough.
I agree with Twin in that “whoever” you get as an OFer via FA, it will be for a minimum three years.
Ahh. Typo. HAHAHA – I wouldn’t give him that either.
Underwhelming? He isn’t too far off his normal pace, which is (lifetime averages):
.285 .337 .472 .809 with 24 bombs and 91 RBIs.
Here are career stats for what I believe are the other top three FA OFers:
Ellsbury:
.298 .351 .440 .792 – 15/71 (HRs/RBIs)
Beltran:
.283 .359 .497 .856 – 28/105
Granderson
.262 .341 .491 .833 – 30/84
Granderson will be 33 next year. Beltran 37. Ellsbury will be 30 and his other upside is he can swipe some bases for you. Pence will be 31.
So, the only one I see who provides any lift is Ellsbury.
And again…Pence may be slightly off his averages for this year, but underwhelming? I disagree…and we can agree to disagree.
I still don’t think there are that many better options.
I don’t like Beltran. Next. What about Choo Chi (I like that . . . or, Chi, you like Choo?)? Granderson and Ellsbury I am down with.
Unless we get some sort of monster like Stanton that can hit it out of any park, I want players that can hit singles, doubles and triples. This was the key to our 2nd half last year with Crazy Horse and Scutaro setting the table. Correct me if I am wrong, but weren’t we last in HRs last year? I know we were low – so a World Series can be had with slap and gap hitters, with the occasional moon shot.
we were 31 at home, 72 away. this year we’re 32 at home and 37 away so far. but it’s been shown over and over here that rh pull hitters do well hitting hrs at att. in 2010 burrell and uribe showed that again. no reason we can’t have both kinds of hitters, imo.
Okay, I’ll bite…WTF, when you’re down to talking options 8 and 9 if you don’t sign Pence…
chi-i’m sorry, i didn’t mean it to be anything more than a touch of light hearted jibber jabber. there are plenty of options out there, including trades, as bf noted. but i’d leave left field open for internal options- which do exist, imo. no frigging way i’d tie up all 3 outfield spots to long term deals.
I wish the Giants would mend fences with Chili Davis.Rather have him as our hitting coach over Bam Bam.
Dump Roberto Kelly as well.Bring back Matt Williams also.
Last weekend I think Krukow explained that the change in Belt’s grip amounted to holding the bat the way every hitter is taught to hold it, from age 4 on. In fact, Belt was wearing orange batting gloves that had white spots on the knuckles so that he could be sure he was aligning them, top hand and bottom hand, properly. Little Leaguers wear those gloves.
the spots are on the middle knuckles.
i’m out for awhile, with the lu, another tidbit from donleavy and his ‘unexpurgated code…’
‘upon encountering happiness: be wary at such times since most of life’s blows fall then.’
Gametime Forecast: 79°F • Mostly Cloudy • 19%PoP
1. Andres Torres (S) CF
2. Marco Scutaro (R) 2B
3. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
4. Buster Posey (R) C
5. Hunter Pence (R) RF
6. Pablo Sandoval (S) 3B
7. Jeff Francoeur (R) LF
8. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
9. Madison Bumgarner (R) P
Well Ellsbury is the guy the Giants really need to go after.Perfect lead- off hitter that we haven’t had since Brett Butler and with more power and speed.Guy is a big- time player and a pro like Scoots hitting behind him they would make a perfect match.IMO
Blade – agree…Choo belongs on the list of potential FA OFers.
.274 .409 .449 .858 – 20/81.
Twin – in regards to your 12:13, I didn’t even mention trades, as we have beat that horse to death. The Giants are not really in a solid position to make a trade for a top-flight OFer, IMO. That is why I was focusing on FA OFers.
chi- i was trying to be agreeable with what bf posted plus i completely disagree that we don’t have enough to offer to get top flight players. but i think that free agents should always be the first place to look in the off season. and whether it’s fa or trade, no way they should tie up all 3 spots with multiyear deals, imo. pence or the best they can get for a 3 year deal- and maybe another platoon in left- ‘quiche’ and ‘pegs’. if the money guys perform, they can deal with that. my ride is here, have a nice day.
I agree, Michael. I too would not agree with tying up all there OF spots with multi-year deals. If you sign Pence (or name any of the top FA OFers) to a 3 year or so contact, now you have 2 of 3 OF spots tied-up in LT deals (Pence/FA and Crazy Horse). LF will probably have to be a platoon again, unless someone comes into ST and just knocks everyone’s socks off.
“Amish Mafia?” WTF? As many of you know, I no longer have DirectTv hooked up, but when I open up a popular website like ESPN, I occasionally get ad/commercial dialog box popups and Amish Mafia was advertised. LOL. I am not missing television at all.
Ellsbury is too much of a health risk for me. He gets hurt bending over and then takes like 5 times longer than he needs to recover. Last thing I would do is give that guy a big contract—I’d give Pence a big deal before Ellsbury.
I agree.
Let’s Go Giants! Off to see live music again tonight. Have a good evening Flappers.
Maybe The Gripper will win one for The Groper this series!
With Grip and Grope, we got hope!
Belt’s holding that bat like its a wounded dove. Maybe he took those changes too far? 🙂
Pretty sure that Kuip is pronouncing “Span’s” last name wrong. It’s a soft “a”
Gio G needs to dial it down. Werth looked like he didn’t have a grip on that ball (to me) and really had no shot anyway to get him
Bochy sticking with Frenchie is one of the great mysteries of the world. I know he has “decent” BvP stats but not enough to make it statistically significant enough to start him
As for the hoo hah re: Belt’s changes, whatever. He’s changed lots since he’s been up here the first time, then back down, and up again. I agree with Oracle, this isn’t the first time he’s changed. The kid wants to be agreeable, so he’s not going to say in public that “shit, I’ve changed so much crap since I got up here, it’s a wonder I know WTF I’m doing”. Maybe this is the first time what they told him to do and he did, actually worked. And, as I’ve said ad nauseum, he’s getting to the point where he’s had enough MLB ABs to start settling in and get comfortable at the plate. Not everybody is like #22 — come up after 62 games in the minors and immediately start cranking shots off Nolan Ryan…
A much simpler and far more likely explanation. When he goes on his next strikeout binge and slumps, this grip nonsense will be forgotten.
Was Bum hoofing it or was he nonchalant? Hard to tell on a 4X5 inch pc dialog box.
Hi all,
Just a quick break for some 2012 basking! I was at the MGM sportsbook last June while in Vegas for a convention. I watched the end of a game and saw Giants in 2nd place, yet 18-1 while Philly in last (under .500) at 6-1. I asked the guy is that for real? He said yes so I bet $20 in the Gmen to win it all.
Last week at same convention. Cashed in for my $380 and toasted the Giants with my wife…Bet on them again this year (only $10) to keep the Karma going:)
Nice score. I got 12-1 on them just b4 playoffs started in 2010, didn’t bet on them last year
You guys that don’t think Belt changed anything to improve his swing are ignoring what everyone on the team is saying, the announcers, and Belt himself.
To call it “nonsense” is ludicrous. He just won the NL Player of the Week because of those changes.
See what he was doing before the changes?
Kruk is a crack up sometimes. He said “if Werth had any luck he’d be hitting .500.”
Um, dude, he’s batting .327 and his babip is .373–
Does Frenchy have any hits outside of the infield?
You guys have seen all these games in Aug, I haven’t. Sandoval’s swings look off balance and awful. And I see that he’s scored 1 run in Aug with no rbi’s and he’s hitting .103 for the month.
My question is, has it been a “hard” .103 or a soft one? Any info would be appreciated
It’s been a robust .103 . . . 😉
Thanks. I was hoping it was a hard one. Sadly, he’s 0-2 tonight– that’s not gonna solidify the hardness of that .103. 😦
Actually Flav . . . umm, sorry to break it to ya, but I was kidding.* 🙂
I’m adamant about trading his ass if he comes into camp as El Blimpo or worse.
* Can’t tell by the pixels if you were kidding or serious. Grin.
I knew you were kidding.
Now the Giants seem to have gotten Belt right with his swing, grip, etc., can they maybe take on Pence next? Or is that too big a reclamation project.
Looks all screwed up to me too. I have sen at least 5-6 games and haven’t seen him hit a ball hard yet.
Shit, a bit exhausted and now a rain delay. Damn. May be a short evening.
Panda needs to change his grip…
A lot of Pablo’s hits in the last month were bloopers. He’s not getting much lower body in his swings for some reason. Seems like a similar thing has happened to Pence. Pablo hits bloopers, and Pence hits dribblers.
That short-arm effort by Torres on that flyball on the warning track is not going to help his cause. He’s playing for a roster spot in 2014. This season might be the end of the MLB road for him.
For sure, Frenchy is DONE.
This is the end for Torres at the MLB level, I’m betting. But who knows, if we don’t sign Pence it’ll come down to him or Blanco as the 4. And I’m not certain about this, but I think blanco is still controllable. If so, bye bye Torres
Blanco and Torres can’t hit consistently, but at least Blanco gives dependable defense. Something happened to Torres’ defense. Torres had a great 2010, making a big contribution to the championship. He has a lot to be proud of.
There’s a nicely written and fair article in today’s U.S.A. Today’s sports section about the disappointing seasons of 5 teams that had high hopes for this season. The Giants, Nationals. Angels, Yankees, and Phillies. I don’t think I would include the Phillies in that group. They weren’t necessarily a true contender going into this season.
If nothing else, the article is a nice reminder that some bad stuff happens to many other teams, too.
Can you post the link? It might be part of a thread I’m thinking about tomorrow. If not no biggie, I’ll find it when I get home
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/08/12/losing-seasons-nationals-giants-phillies-yankees-angels/2646727/
Hilarious and awesome.
“Every season is different. The years players have, the way the ball bounces,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy says. “We were one of those teams; when you’re playing well, you win those (close) games. And when it’s on the other side, it seems like it’s a battle to get a break.”
I’ll preface my comment by saying that I love Bochy and the way he manages . . . However, what the fuck is he talking about in this article? He goes on to say, “It just goes to show you how every season is different, the years players have, the way the ball bounces,” Holy frickin’ hell – it sounds like he thinks that what happened this season was bad luck. Huh?
However, Pablo’s comment really ticked me off, “You’re not going to finish in first place every year,” Sandoval said. “You want to learn from this and use it as motivation.” Hey dude, look in the fucking mirror and use that gut that done lapped over your belt as motivation.
Good column Zum . . . Thanks! 🙂
To Panda, I’d say “you aren’t gonna get an 18 million dollar contract every year either.”
He slept through this season, I hope he gets it going in the contract year
Moscoso Tiempo. Um…nevermind.
Flav–your Gaudin post cracked me up. I just played about 10 minutes of Moniker Madness and thoroughly enjoyed myself. A little bummed that Stone Spear never came up in any of my match-ups. Wirfin Obispo and Cheslor Cuthbert were 2 of my favorites.
10 minutes? That’s awesome. I played about 3 and then felt like bad for doing something so lame. And then I had to stop myself from going back for more!
Rock Shoulders? Seth Schwindenhammer? Names like these are a death sentence for a minor league player. Except Didi Gregorious. He overcame the name game and made it…..
I love the format where they just keep throwing pairs at you.
Didi played in that Aces game I was at a couple of months ago. Great name.
fyi Miller just said Nate hit #16 tonight. Pleasantly surprised.
Pfffft! The losing is wearing on me. How I long to bask again. Sigh.
Nevertheless, still loving blade’s patented—Pfffft!
Hope we see ya at the Flapalooza fest Ted. 🙂
Have you ever corrected the spelling?
My post game thoughts…….
I’m, once again, drawing a blank
Let’s have a post from you that says you’re meeting us at the game for Flapalooza 3.0
What’s the day again, Captain?
Sept 7th. Orange Drunken Sombrero Night. Blade, Pawlie and SanDiggityDawg are flying in among other Flappers who will take the train. Give me a knowing dude head nod as an rsvp….
I fucking knew there was a reason I was an asshole in this whole thing.
I’m in a play that night. I’m in a play that evening. But I can possibly meet all ya’lls before the game just to give knowing dude head nods and bro hugs, chest bumps and shit somewhere around the, as George Carlin would say, the Park.
Doable, gentlemen?
(And now a word from an incredibly cynical Giants fan)
Or hell, just skip the game and go see me in the play instead. It may suck but at least your disappoint won’t have any emotional value
(rimshot)
Seriously, bros, I want to get together but I’ll have to miss the game so can we meet beforehand at Momo’s or something?
yes, that would be great. We’ll be in touch.
Read an article in today’s SFChronicle that lead me to Google images. This made me remember that it’s wonderful to be alive and breathing in a world full of sad, sad things. This is kinda sad as well…but in a happy, yet pathetic, kinda way
Sometimes, I wish I had a different hobby. Oh to be a comic book geek:
http://www.google.com/search?aq=&rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS396US396&q=yaya+han&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=Mv4KUtr5OfKByQHTm4HoCQ&biw=1366&bih=624&sei=Pv4KUrWOG-KMyQGY6oDoDA
I’d comment on the game, but at this point, it’d be a waste of bits and bytes.
Onto the Hitching Post Pinot…
I wish MacDog, PaulinAsia, Ed, and WilcoJoe were coming in as well. Anyone who is from in or out of the SF bay area. This scene from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles keeps resonating in my brain housing unit . . .