Josh Hamilton v. Justin Morneau

Now, my best sport in school, by far, was baseball. I could always hit, despite the fact that I never received any decent instruction. But the truth is I know what works and what doesn't work, so let's review the pros and cons of the swings of Hamilton and Morneau:

Hamilton has what I would call a three-part swing. He starts with the bat on or near the shoulder, loads backward and then drops the bat down while swinging, resulting in extreme wrist action that I haven't seen in a player since Willie Stargell or Cecil Fielder.

Watch the first swing he takes here.

Hamilton's swing should make him late to the ball and also cause him problems with off-speed pitches. Note that when his old HR Derby pitcher got tired he began throwing basically a slider in on Hamilton's hands. That is probably the main reason Hamilton lost the finals -- his pitcher wasn't throwing him very good pitches and his pitches began to have too much movement.

It also appeared to me from the Hamilton highlights shown last night that Josh was using the biggest bat he could find for HR derby. His regular season highlights appeared to show him using smaller, more colorful bats.

Morneau, on the other hand, has a less complex swing. He starts with the bat on his shoulder (like Hamilton) but farther back toward the back of his stance. He almost immediately takes his hands back about 5 inches into the start of the swinging position. He then is very short to the ball, keeps both hands on the bat a lot and appears to rely more on staying in good contact with the ball (he swings more TO the ball, Hamilton swings more through the ball as if it weren't even there).





Hamilton's wrist movement (what Joe Morgan described as "delayed hand action" not sure if this is a massage parlor reference) are so strong that he cannot possibly maintain both hands on the bat through the hitting zone (he would sprain or break his wrist). Hamilton has a far more modern style of hitting. Morneau has a far more old school style of hitting.

The result of this contrast in style is that Hamilton has more overall power (recall that Willie Stargell once hit a ball 506 feet over the right-field stands at Dodger Stadium and Cecil Fielder hit a ball completely out of Milwaukee County Stadium -- estimate: 502 feet).

Morneau, as should be expected, is a better hitter for average (he has less unnecessary movement and less loop to the swing -- he is going to hit the ball solidly more often). Leaving both hands on the bat tends to lessen his extension and pretty much takes away any HR power he might have to left field. Morneau does have exceptional power to right and his ball carries a long way to center (when he stays on the ball and hits it where it is pitched he tends to take it back up the middle....extremely hard).

Hamilton can be late to the ball, but his extremely strong swing allows him to take balls out to left and left center -- in other words, he does not have to make perfect conduct to hit a home run; he can underspin it out of the park (a trait also shared by Mark McGwire who probably hit more "routine fly ball" home runs than anyone I can recall -- he'd hit a fly ball and it would spin and carry 20 feet over the wall).

So there ya go.


HM