Orioles preaching same hitting approach with different voices

SARASOTA, Fla. – The transition is in such a young phase that some players don’t know whether changes are forthcoming in the way that the Orioles teach hitting or to what extent. Whether the general philosophy will be tweaked. If the approach will be scrambled a bit from the past.

The full squad didn’t have its first workout until Tuesday. Meetings are on the docket. But the early impressions are that the key attributes will go untouched.

Co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte are gone. Fuller is the White Sox’s director of hitting and Borgschulte returned to the Twins as hitting coach. The entire setup is scrambled with Cody Asche promoted to offensive strategy coach and the Orioles employing Tommy Joseph and Sherman Johnson as co-coaches. Johnson also remains in his role as upper-level hitting coordinator. Joseph is the lone outsider after spending last summer with the Mariners.

“I think we’ve got a good lineup, so I think they’re just gonna let us do most of our own thing but give us some feedback here and there and whatever information they can to help us succeed,” said first baseman Ryan Mountcastle. “I think last year they did a really good job of it and I’m sure this group will, too.”

“Obviously, one new face,” said shortstop Gunnar Henderson. “Asche and Sherm, they’ve been here It’s familiar to us. We still have kind of a core of the same teachings, but just other things we’re going to try out and continue to work at.”

Asche offered assurances that the basic principles remain in place. The big three - make hard contact, hit line drives and control the strike zone. The only chasing should be done for a playoff berth.

“We want to make pitchers pay when they don’t pitch to us,” Asche said. “A lot of those things kind of come together in OPS and run scoring. For me, the goal is always going to be the goal. It’s to score the most runs in the major leagues. We almost did it last year. You start from there, you work backward, you see where guys can fit in, where they can get better. But you know, a big part of that is, we want to control the zone. We want to do that a little bit better.

“I think we have players that are ready to take the next step in the big leagues in doing that. You see it throughout the playoffs, the Yankees and Dodgers control the zone really well, they hit a lot of balls hard. They slug, we slug. There’s probably some room for improvement in that aspect.”

The post-break decline in offense last season, which led to a 33-33 record, didn’t entice the Orioles to scrap their plan, but they’re open to modifications. They won't perform a complete overhaul. They never considered it.

“You look at our team and our offensive season last year was full of a lot of success,” Asche said. “There were parts of the year where they weren’t as successful. I think the benefit of the Orioles is we’re just kind of never satisfied from the top down. We’re always looking for room to grow. That’s why we’re good and why we’ve been on this upward trajectory for the better part of six, seven years here starting when Mike (Elias) took over.

“I think at the end of the day you want to make sure every individual has what they need and they have the information to make sure that their skill set is first and foremost taken advantage of in the right way. But from a team perspective, you just want to make sure they’re emphasizing the right part of our process.”

The Orioles ranked second in the majors in home runs last season with 235, just two behind the Yankees, but Asche is bothered by the perception that the team became too reliant on them and kept hacking from the heels.

“We’re shaping swings that, when the ball is in the middle of the plate, we hit those balls hard, and when we hit those balls hard, they go at productive angles, and those productive angles are line drives,” Asche said. “We are very fortunate here that a lot of our hitters have huge ceilings, that their line drives go over the wall quite a bit. I know at times that might look like we’re only trying to hit home runs. We’re trying to launch the ball. But I think if you asked a lot of our guys, I think a strength of mine is seeing the game from the players’ perspective and understanding that simple wins a lot, and I think our players resonate with simple messaging.

“A lot of times, it’s, ‘Get a good pitch, hit a line drive. Let’s not over-complicate things.’ I think our guys really take to that. Whether it looks like that or not, that’s for everybody else to decide. But fans at home, I promise you we’re preaching sound baseball philosophy and things that have worked in this game for 200 years, from Ted Williams to Pete Rose to Tony Gwynn. We’re all trying to get a good pitch. We’re all trying to hit hard line drives.

“We have the benefit of Gunnar Hendersons of the world. He hits a lot of line drives, he’s probably going to hit 40 home runs. Same with Adley Rutschmans and Jordan Westburgs. That’s what really excites me about our group and just their overall commitment to the process that they’ve kind of laid the groundwork from since the day they’ve been drafted and kind of inundated into this org.”

The batting practice sessions aren’t meant to be a home run derby, but balls are barreled and they soar. Young catcher Samuel Basallo keeps flexing his power, but he’s far from alone.

“They all do.” Joseph said. “It’s a unique group. You guys get to watch them every day and you get spoiled, because they are a really good, young, exciting group. It’s not like this everywhere.”

Tyler O’Neill, the son of a bodybuilder, and prospect Coby Mayo had some tape-measure blasts yesterday. Mayo cleared the left field seats at least four times. Take a line drive swing and demolish anything in the hot zone.

These are the basic tenets, and it doesn’t really matter which voices announce them.

“We haven’t had our sit down meeting yet with the hitting staff as a whole, but from what I’ve gathered just individually in the cage and stuff, we have a plan individually as well as a team and I think the way they present things, it’s some of the same stuff but also there’s things they want differently as a team. I think the way that they present that message has been great so far,” said outfielder Colton Cowser.

“I know whenever we have our meeting, I’m sure they’re going to go further into it, but I’ve done some individual stuff with them and I think the philosophy is a lot of the same stuff. Just comes down to hitting the ball hard, getting on base, controlling the zone. Those things. Just continuing to preach those things has been huge and I think it’s something that everyone in this clubhouse can do.”

“I think it will probably be slightly different,” said second baseman Jackson Holliday. “I mean, there’s two different hitting coaches with two different perspectives on hitting. Fuller and Borgs were awesome, and I enjoyed working with them. Now it’s Sherman and Tommy, and I’ve really enjoyed working with them so far. Had a chance to work with Sherm pretty much a whole year in Double-A and I’m excited to work with Tommy. Already the stuff that we’ve been able to talk about and his understanding of baseball is pretty cool, and I’m excited.”

“Cody was the coordinator whenever I got drafted, so he was down here and I’ve been able to work with him ever since I’ve been in the org. It’s been a pretty easy transition.”

“For right now it’s just more about getting to meet everybody and taking some swings,” Mountcastle said. “I’m trying to get ready, so nothing too crazy yet. I’m excited to see what they bring to the table. The guys we had last year were really good, too. It seems like a good group of guys in there, so it should be fun.”