Borrowing Dansby Swanson’s Heavier Bat May Key Alex Bregman Breakout
Baseball players are notoriously superstitious, and they’ll often change up their routines or even their clothing in an attempt to bust a slump. Not all were as committed to the bit as former Mayor of Wrigleyville Mark Grace, but we’ve heard of teams sharing a gold thong or maybe just not washing a pair of socks as less salacious ways of warding off bad vibes. Perhaps the most common way to spur improvement at the plate is for a hitter to switch his bat, whether that’s just for the hell of it or because a different piece of lumber could yield mechanical changes.
Early in the 197 season, his 16th in MLB despite missing nearly four full years while serving as a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, Ted Williams was struggling to find hits against the shift. His solution was to move to a 34 1/2 ounce bat that was two ounces heavier than his normal model. The result was a slower swing that caught the ball a little deeper and drove it more up the middle and to the opposite field. After batting .474 with nine homers in two weeks following the switch, defenses began playing him straight-up and he moved back to his normal bat.
I’ll get back to the lecture at hand in a moment, but can we just marvel at the idea of a 38-year-old batting .388 with 38 homers?
Ever the tinkerer, Alex Bregman has been seeking a fix throughout most of his debut season in Chicago. That may have finally come in the form of swinging a heavier bat borrowed from Dansby Swanson. Bregman was talking hitting with several of his teammates because that’s what Bregman does, and Michael Conforto was telling stories about Barry Bonds trying to “catch” the ball with his barrel. That’s a concept more in line with bunting, to the extent that some coaches will have batters use lacrosse sticks to make it literal.
In any case, the talk turned to Swanson suggesting that Bregman try his bat. Both are Marucci guys, but Swanson swings a 34-inch model that weighs either 31 1/2 or 32 ounces. Bregman’s standard equipment measures 33 1/2 inches and 31 ounces, so we’re talking about pretty nominal differences on paper. The differences in swing feel, however, can be significant. Without getting into the weeds on moment of inertia, MOI to bat-heads, a bat’s distribution of mass can create significant variations in how heavy it swings.
That’s important to consider, because just going with a heavier bat might seem like a detriment to a guy who’s swinging slower than ever this year. At 69.8 mph, Bregman is down 1.2 ticks from last season in Boston and 1.5 from his final year in Houston. He’s also standing a little deeper in the box, which might not be a great combination with that reduced bat speed. Though Bregman’s attack angle remains unchanged from last season, it’s still a little steep at 14 degrees.
Changes to his stance and swing, which have been in a state of flux, have led to him generating more grounders and more infield flies than usual. That’s because he’s not consistently meeting the plane of the pitch, whether it’s getting out early and being on top of breaking and offspeed pitches or being late and under fastballs. By going with a heavier bat, then choking up and pre-setting his hands a little deeper, he’s mitigating any weight differences while also encouraging a better path through the zone.
“More behind me, actually, which is a weird thought, not being super direct and short to the ball,” Bregman explained to reporters. “It’s kind of getting on plane deeper. Hopefully, the heavy bat and also my hands being further back kind of holds me back more, because I’ve been kind of flying forward and cutting the corner and cutting everything. That’s why I’m popping up a lot and missing pitches in the middle.”
Most people have probably heard the idea of “short to, long through” with hitting, and Bregman was really only making good on the first part. Because he was not getting on plane as early, he was limiting his ability to make solid contact across a wider segment of his swing. The switch seems to be working, as he’s gone 7-for-10 with a homer, three doubles and five runs scored over the first two games in St. Louis.
But is that really about the bat?
I’d say Swanson’s personal model has about as much to do with Bregman’s hot stretch as a feather did to Dumbo’s ability to fly. Still, a placebo that achieves the desired effect for the user will seem like a wonder drug; just ask the folks at Prevagen, who keep making enough money to be one of Marquee’s biggest sponsors. While there are some potential physical triggers involved for Bregman, this is almost certainly more about flipping a mental breaker.
Not to mention we’re talking about only two games of production that could easily be negated by a subsequent slump. But if this is legit, and I tend to think it can be based on Bregman’s track record, everything should stay on track even after the gimmicks are eliminated. Or he can just keep swinging someone else’s bat if that stokes confidence in his ability to catch barrels.
