Alex Bregman knows what he wants his swing to look like, but he’s not there yet

CHICAGO — Alex Bregman is most incessantly seen, by media no less than, hustling someplace with his bat. Whether it is heading to the cages or batting observe, it looks like Bregman is at all times on the transfer and at all times trying to work.

That could also be how he’s constructed. Perhaps that’s how he at all times goes about enterprise. But early this season, Bregman is targeted on fixing one thing very particular. After a 1-for-3 efficiency in Sunday’s thrilling 2-1 walkoff victory over the New York Mets — his lone hit was an infield single — Bregman’s .233/.309/.314 line is definitely not what anybody anticipated of him.

The staff is performing effectively. In reality, the offense as a complete is, too. So Bregman has some respiration room and time to get proper. But it has been a little bit of a slog.

Lots of what Bregman is at present doing on the plate usually leads to success. He’s not chasing or swinging and lacking, each at an elite price. He’s squaring the ball up incessantly, and his hard-hit price is the very best it is ever been.

Still, the outcomes simply aren’t coming. It’s not arduous to discover the blame. Bregman’s groundball price of 47.8 p.c is sort of a dozen factors larger than his profession common.

One can hardly get the query out earlier than Bregman chimes in.

“Way too high,” Bregman stated when his groundball price was introduced up. “Get the ball off the ground! Disconnected, bats being left behind me, contact point is deep. When I’m good, I get the ball out front. It’s poor mechanics right now that I’m working through. But I’m going to get it.”

Nobody round him doubts that. Manager Craig Counsell appears unbothered by the shortage of outcomes. After some stable outcomes from Bregman throughout a latest sport, Counsell made it appear to be these hits had been simply inevitable.

“There was no question it was coming,” Counsell stated. “Bregman needed it, but it was coming.”

But even in that sport, a three-hit night time almost two weeks in the past in opposition to the Tampa Bay Rays, Bregman felt he was leaving further bases on the desk. He missed a sinker he thought he ought to have sat over the fence and, normally, he did not assume he was making the kind of contact he may.

“You take it one at-bat at a time,” Bregman stated on the time. “Try to get a good pitch to hit and hit it hard. I feel like there’s stuff that I still need to clean up. I’ve been hitting the ball hard, but I feel like the bat path can be improved a little bit.”

Hitting coach Dustin Kelly defined that what Bregman refers to as “bat path” is not what most observers are excited about. For him, it is not about his swing arc, but relatively the place he’s launching from and the path his fingers are going.

“A lot of this is he feels like his hands are getting pretty far away from his body and working uphill,” Kelly stated. “When he’s at his best, hands stay tighter to his body and it’s a direct, straight path inside the ball. He wants to feel like he’s throwing a jab, not an uppercut.”

And what has that achieved?

“It’s pushed the contact point back a little bit,” Kelly stated. “He’s not getting to the balls where he wants to. It’s gotten better. We’re tightening up. Trying to keep the hands a little higher, but it’s in progress.”

When Bregman is not catching the ball out entrance and the contact level is deeper, that is going to lead to an elevated groundball price. So Bregman continues to work. In the cage, Kelly will arrange the pitching machine so it is nearly directing balls at his again hip. This forces Bregman to be direct with his fingers and catch the ball out entrance.

Kelly additionally identified that Bregman’s work is not the norm for hitters.

“He’s different from a lot of guys,” Kelly stated. “He doesn’t necessarily care if it feels bad, it needs to look right. Other guys won’t care what it looks like as long as it’s feeling good. He’s on the other side.”

Bregman is extra of a visible learner on this manner. He says he’d relatively be informed or see what he’s doing flawed relatively than have it really feel proper. Because with sufficient work, he can get what would not really feel proper to really feel extra pure.

“It’s going to feel bad when I make the change to hit a certain way,” Bregman stated. “It’s going to feel off. But I’m going to try and make the ‘off feel’ feel right. Then build off that, and then get the feel. What I’m doing right now is off. I want to know what I’m doing wrong, then get a cue that will put me in the right spot even if it feels bad, then make that ‘feel bad’ feel good by doing it over and over again.”

Bregman nonetheless is not the place he wants to be. He’s not as productive as he expects to be. But he’s recognized the issue and is doing what he wants to discover the mechanics that lead to success.

“Just work at it,” Bregman stated. “It’s programmed in right now. I gotta reprogram something else in.”