Orioles walking toward a new hitting approach

A hitting philosophy can be created and shared at every level of the organization, from the lowest rungs of the system to the major league team. Coaches and instructors trained in it arriving in waves. Out with the old, in with the new breed that’s lauded as progressive and innovative.

Swing decisions are the foundation. The plan crumbles if players don’t adapt, if they don’t buy into it. Or if they don’t start seeing results.

The Orioles began last night ranked last in the majors with 14 runs scored in seven games and were slashing .196/.309/.283. But their 34 walks were second-most in the American League and fourth in the majors.

Those walks were the fourth-most in team history through seven games – the 1970 world champions hold the record with 41 - and they combined with four hit-by-pitches to give the Orioles an on-base percentage that ranked sixth in the league.

If free passes seem like an odd flex, consider that the Orioles accumulated 451 last season for the fourth-lowest total in the majors. They had 164 in 60 games in 2020 to rank 27^th in the majors, and 462 in 2019 to rank 24th.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction offensively when you start to see some of the takes that we had (Friday) night,” said manager Brandon Hyde, who watched his club draw 10 walks and beat the Yankees 2-1 in 11 innings on Ramón Urías’ bases-loaded, full-count walk against Aroldis Chapman.

“Start getting traffic offensively, I think that’s going to result in runs. I think we took a big step (Friday) night with getting on base, and the next part is good at-bats after that. But walks are going to lead to runs.”

Opposing pitchers had the complete book on the Orioles. Tendencies at the plate and how to exploit them. Make them chase, which didn’t require much prompting.

“It’s something that we had to look at last year, how teams were attacking us,” said outfielder Austin Hays, who collected his sixth walk last night to load the bases in the sixth. “They knew we were a young, aggressive team and a lot of times we would give into that and swing at borderline pitches early in the count, so that was just a point of emphasis for our team last year, and I think it’s just really starting to show this year. A lot of the stuff we were doing.”

Techniques and teachings brought to the Orioles by co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte.

“With Borgs and Fuller, we’re doing a little bit different training in the cage now with the dimple balls and just giving our eyes a little more realistic look to what we’re going to see in the game and actually trying to take pitches,” Hays said. “Like, when we’re in the cage doing live-style at-bats, and I think that’s just what’s showing up in the game. We’re taking borderline pitches early in the count, really just trying to swing at things we can do damage on, and then with two strikes you just try to battle. But I think the way we’re getting to two strikes has just been a little bit different this year. I think the walks are starting to come because of that.”

“It’s one thing we focus on,” Fuller said yesterday while the Orioles were taking batting practice. “Swing decisions is the first piece of the puzzle for us and one of the low-hanging fruits as a squad for us to really go after. Swing decisions, really staying committed to the approach we have based off each pitcher, and then seeing it in training, too, has been huge. The guys have said, ‘Hey, we’re facing this type of pitcher, let’s see it in the cage. I want you to mix balls-strikes on me.’ They’ve been doing a great job. So, just the training, what we’re emphasizing.

“We always talk about, you get what you focus on. We’re focusing on it, and it’s really nice to show up against really quality arms at the beginning of the year.”

Chapman came after Urías with a slider at 3-2 that missed up and away. Maybe by a hair, according to plate umpire Tom Hallion, who infuriated Yankees manager Aaron Boone throughout the at-bat, inning and game. Urías didn’t chase, drew the Orioles’ 10^th walk of the night and celebrated the win.

“That was a phenomenal at-bat,” Hays said. “There were two pitches before that that were close. They’re balls, but they were close pitches. That’s just the training that we’re trying to do and we’re just not going to swing at those pitches. If the umpire makes a bad call, so be it, but we’re not going to give into that and start swinging at pitches outside the zone just because of something the umpire’s done.

“We know where the zone is, and we’re going to do our best to stay in the zone and make pitchers beat us with their stuff in the zone.”

Players remain at the mercy of the umpires, who can expand and shrink a zone at will – sometimes within the same at-bat and definitely over the course of a game.

“If that’s something that we come to see with, you have a guy who’s throwing a cutter and he’s missing a half-ball in every time, but the umpire’s giving him that zone, obviously you’re going to have to adjust, but we’re not just going to go out there and start swinging at borderline pitches in 0-0 counts or 1-0, 2-1 counts just because the umpire’s calling it a strike,” Hays said.

“It’s not a pitch we’re going to be able to do much with, and if we can just get the starter to get his pitch count up more, make the relievers throw more pitches, we’re going to get more mistakes. And I think we’ve understood that as a club. The hits are going to come. I think we’re hitting the ball hard, we’re hitting the ball to all fields, and they’re going to start to fall. And now that we’re walking more, we’re getting a lot more guys in scoring position, we’re going to score a lot more runs when the balls start to fall.”

Urías flied to the edge of the warning track last night to leave the bases loaded in the fifth inning, but his at-bat came after back-to-back walks to Anthony Bemboom and Cedric Mullins with two outs. Bemboom has three in five games.

Twelve different Orioles have drawn walks, led by Anthony Santander with seven. A player whose lack of patience or pitch recognition mar an otherwise impressive offensive skill set.

Santander walked 23 times last summer in 438 plate appearances and finished with a .286 OBP. He reached base this season in each of the first seven games, and his .536 OBP ranked third in the majors.

“We have a lot of guys who can do it,” Fuller said. “Maybe it hasn’t been in their bag their whole career. You’re looking at Santander doing a great job. Not really a walk guy in his career so far, but showing that thus far is very encouraging. And we can train off the machine, you can train off the coach’s arm, but when you get in there with a guy, obviously it’s very different, so we’re preaching swing decisions. But to see it show up after seven, eight games against a Cy Young Award winner, one of the best back-end bullpen arms in all of baseball, it’s really encouraging.

“So, OPS is what we stress. We’re doing a really good job of getting the O with the on-base, and then the slugging’s going to come, and we’re creating a ton of opportunities, so we’re very happy about that.”

One machine that aids Fuller and Borgschulte in their instruction and in preparing for each night’s opposing pitcher pumps foam dimple balls to the batters. The action on each “pitch” is exaggerated. The players are challenged to recognize when they should swing or take.

They’re also less likely to leave the cage with bruises, or worse.

“When you hit them, it comes off good, the same way a baseball does,” Hays said. “It doesn’t hurt your hands if you get jammed or hit it off the end, so you can make the machine throw you really nasty pitches without breaking your bat every swing or fouling a ball off your leg, stuff like that. It’s an easier way to train to see the nasty stuff we’re going to see in a game.”

“Just think of a golf ball, but kind of squishy, still maintains its shape,” Fuller said. “If we’re working on a slider, it’s going to move more than a normal slider would. If it’s a fastball with a lot of hop, it’s going to really feel like it’s going up. Jameson Taillon (last night), he’s got a hoppy fastball at the top of the zone. Let’s go see it. They’re going to calibrate their barrel to where it needs to be for those pitchers.

“It’s a great tool. They don’t have to worry about getting their hands blown up or breaking bats. They can take good, aggressive hacks and see, ‘I can get to that pitch, that’s a pitch I need to lay off of.’ We want to be aggressive. What are we trying to do versus being defensive on what the pitcher’s trying to do to us. And the dimple balls let us be aggressive and not worry about getting jammed up or hitting a ball off our foot.

“You’re staying healthy, you’re getting your hacks in and you’re still learning as you go.”