Hanser Alberto provides a few hitting tips

On the Orioles Twitter account yesterday, they showed a video of Hanser Alberto doing some hitting drills. Drills designed to help others make better and more consistent contact hitting a baseball.

I'll post the tweet at the end of this entry and, of course, there is never a bad time to hear from happy Hanser.

Alberto has certainly made putting the ball in play a big part of his game. His strikeouts are low and his contact rate is high. That helped him last year post a batting average that rated eighth-best in the American League and 16th-best in all of baseball.

Among players in the majors with 500 or more plate appearances in 2019, Alberto had the best strikeout rate at 9.1 percent, ahead of the Angels' David Fletcher at 9.8 percent and Houston's Michael Brantley at 10.4 percent.

Alberto became the first Oriole since Deivi Cruz in 2003, and only the second since 1992, with at least 500 at-bats and 50 strikeouts or fewer, producing the 18th such season in Orioles history.

Get bat to ball and something good could happen.

Last season, over 139 games and 550 plate appearances, he batted .305/.329/.422 with a .751 OPS. Those numbers were very close to what he produced over four seasons at the Triple-A level when he batted a combined .309/.330/.438 with a .768 OPS. Some players' numbers will fall off from Triple-A. Alberto's did not.

Last summer, he got his chance and he ran with it. In parts of three previous seasons and 192 plate appearances with Texas, Alberto hit .192. Given a bigger chance in Baltimore last year, he produced numbers more like what he showed in the high minors.

I've enjoyed talking to Hanser and he has explained some of his philosophies about hitting to me a few times. One big aspect of his plan is to attack early in the count.

"I look mostly fastball up to two strikes," he said. "Some days, you are feeling different, and you can get a hanger and you feel good. But often I stay up there looking fastball up to two strikes. There are some pitchers that may throw curves in any count. You need to be ready for that, but most of the time I'm looking fastball."

When Alberto had the edge early in the count, he was extremely good in 2019. Among many impressive stats Alberto posted last season was this: He hit .440 with a 1-0 count, while the major league average was .351. Yep, be aggressive with fastballs early in the count. He hit .364 on a 2-0 count, which was actually a few ticks below the big league average of .367.

But the low strikeout totals and putting the ball in play when down in the count were big, too. And he didn't just put the ball in play. In fact, Alberto hit .291 when the count was 0-2. Pretty remarkable, since the major league average was .149.

So when he talks about contact drills, we should listen!

Episode three of 5 Tool Player has dropped! 🚨@elpotroalberto shows us two drills to help you hit for average: https://t.co/SlOc7MOHAG pic.twitter.com/eR3fBkR69f

-- Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 30, 2020