Zone Hitting: Leveraging Your At Bat
What do you do when you don’t have hittrax, rapsodo or anything else to help you track where your hot and cold zones are? Do you just sit pitches? Do you just sit spots? Or do you try and guess both? Over the past three seasons, I have tried to develop something that gives hitters the advantage in all counts (and relax, I haven’t found the answer yet). I am willing to share with you what we do here and my thought process on how I came up with this system. I also want to state that I am constantly evolving as a coach and this could look way different next year — who knows — time will only tell… Isn’t coaching fun?!
HISTORY AND THE CURRENT STATE OF THE APPROACH
To ensure all of this makes sense, I am going to break up the plan into three parts and give a brief overview on how I came to this current approach. When I first started coaching hitters at the college level, I realized everyone was trying to throw fastballs away or sliders away. Due to this realization, I told all of our hitters that we are just going to sit away and be ready to swing at what you will get, and not what you want. Well, that went as good as one might think. With a vague plan and terrible preparation done by yours truly, we had limited success. I decided to change things around during the second year by telling the guys to sit on something you want until they get to a 2-strike count, then sit on what you will get. We had a little higher success rate with the new plan, along with the fact that our hitters had a good sense of self-discipline. Unfortunately though, preparation on my end was not as effective as it could have been. As I continue to develop this approach on zone hitting, the common denominator was actually me as the coach trying to teach it effectively. During the third year, I didn’t really evolve the approach until December — genius right? Wrong. I worked with a couple guys that live locally around the area and the technique seems to work in drills, but in reality, the true test comes down to how they approach it in the actual game.
Here are the things I had to consider when thinking through this approach:
First off, what determines where hitters should look?
What are the hitters strengths and weaknesses?
What are the pitcher’s tendencies?
What is the count?
Because I don’t have a legitimate way to track our hitters hot/cold zones, I had to find a way to come up with something that is generic, BUT at the same time can also be individualized to some extent and adaptable to the game.
TERMINOLOGY
Before we continue going forward on my thought process behind this approach, I am going to go over the terminology we use with our team.
Below the hitter’s window: The fastball that feels slow — meatballs (feeling extremely comfortable that you won’t get beat by the fastball).
At the hitter’s window: The fastball that could beat you if your timing is a little off or guessing the wrong pitch (feeling that the pitcher is good but not overwhelming and that you have to be on your game).
Above the hitter’s window: The fastball that seems too fast for you to be comfortable (feeling uncomfortable no matter what because the pitcher throws harder than what you are use to).
My guess is that most junior college hitting windows are around 86–88 mph. Anything 89+ seems too fast for most guys. Anything slower than 86 mph looks amazing and easy to hit. But in the end it doesn’t matter what the college hitting window is because it varies per individual.
Hitters counts for us: 0–0, 1–0, 2–0, 3–0, 3–1
Pitchers counts for us: 0–1, 0–2, 1–2, 2–2
Guess counts: 1–1, 2–1
Guess counts are counts that we really have no clue what the pitcher will throw in those counts. As I explain this approach in more depth, there will be a clear understanding on why we call them guess counts.
The diagrams below are from a catchers point of view while having a right hand hitter batting. Also, I have all our hitters on the dish. Generally we crowd the plate and that also plays into the factor of just giving the pitcher the inside part of the plate. The yellow portion is an expansion of the sitting zones with two strikes.
TO THE WINDOWS!
Below the Window
Hitter’s Count: I have the zones marked red here because I want the hitter looking for something he knows he can hit hard. Usually pitchers that throw slow, know they throw slow — so they are going to nibble low in the zone and are most likely trying to get you to swing at their pitch. The last thing we want to do is swing at a pitch down and away when the pitcher is throwing 83 mph.
Pitcher’s Count: As you can see, the zone is expanded in a pitcher’s count. Pitchers that throw slow, but are pitching in college usually have command of three pitches. But because we are not going to get beat by the fastball, we want to be ready to attack the ball (conceding the inner part of the plate). Also, if the pitcher never throws the ball up in the zone when he’s ahead in the count, we can make those top zones blue against that pitcher.
Guess Counts: Guess counts are the two counts that I think pitchers tend to be hard to predict. Pitchers are always told to “win the 1–1 count” — so I think we need to be picky on what zones we sit here. This is the count where pitchers either go right at the hitter or try and get them to chase out of the zone. If the pitcher throws a pitch and it’s something we aren’t looking for, then it puts us in a hitter’s count or pitcher’s count to where now we have some leverage as hitters.
*If the pitcher throws a ball in a 1–1 count to move it to 2–1 (another guess count), then the hitter can adjust the zone accordingly.
At the Window
Hitter’s Count: If we are in a hitters count with the pitcher now at our window then we know that if our timing is off at all, the high inside fastball will blow passed us. In this case, sitting up and away allows for a greater chance to get the ball in the air, in the hitter’s count. We don’t want to swing at anything down in the hitter’s count because there is a good chance that we roll over or hit it weakly. Also, having the hitter sit away allows for more time for us to react if needed.
Pitcher’s Count: The hitter is sitting away, this is the more of traditional zones you see hitters sit. The pitcher is going to be working away and most likely down. If the pitcher throws it in the red zone here, there should be hard hit balls all day in pitcher’s counts.
Guess Counts: Again, I think we need to be picky on what zones we sit here. In this guess count we are laying off the high and away pitch. Some of our hitters are very comfortable sitting down and away because of how close we are to the plate, so expanding an extra box for some hitters is definitely a possibility.
*If the pitcher throws a ball in a 1–1 count to move it to 2–1(another guess count), then the hitter can adjust the zone accordingly.
Above the Window
Hitter’s Count: As you can see, it is a very small area we are sitting in a hitter’s count. I want to make sure that in these type of games we aren’t swinging at everything. I believe pitchers that have high velocity at this level become even more successful here because they get hitters to swing at bad pitches in hitter’s counts mostly because they throw hard. Above the window pitchers are the guys who overpower hitters and will probably tally a bunch of strikeouts anyways. The top of the zone is blue here because if the guy throws that hard, the high pitch could be impossible to catch up with. Looking for a pitch at the bottom of the zone increases the chance of hitting the ball hard.
Pitcher’s Count: In this pitcher’s count you can see we are looking down and away. We are not giving up the pitch down the middle, however I really want our guys focusing on the down and away pitch.
Guess Counts: Very similar to other guess counts. One major difference though is expanding and giving the hitter a possibility to swing at the inside pitch. In my opinion, I think in a guess count you can have the hitter ready to turn on a pitch, but because of the high velocity, there is a higher probability that the hitter swings at almost anything, especially if they are gearing up for that inside fastball.
*If the pitcher throws a ball in a 1–1 count to move it to 2–1(another guess count), then the hitter can adjust the zone accordingly.
Sidenote: I am wanting hitters to have confidence in every situation at the plate especially when they feel overmatched by the pitcher. If they get beat because they swung threw what they were sitting, it could essentially build confidence for the next at bat instead of losing confidence because they don’t have a plan AND feel overmatched.
RECAP
Based on my observations, as the velocity increases the pitcher’s count zones shrink for our hitters. I think college hitters’ natural tendency is to have this flipped. With slower velocity pitchers, hitters tend to be more picky and with faster velocity pitchers, the zone tends to expand. I believe this happens because as hitters become more uncomfortable with velocity, they tend to just swing at everything. I have this flipped. With higher velocity, I am already expecting strikeouts to happen (and at a high rate), so I want to increase our chances of hard hit balls (when they are hit) by making sure our hitters are going to swing in a small window.
SOMETHING TO CONSIDER
Just because its 90 mph (1 mph above the — at window) doesn’t automatically default into the above window approach. This is where communication and a lot of in game collaboration with each hitter becomes extremely important. Some pitchers are just tough to hit. For example, when I played, I remember seeing a pitcher throwing 88 mph extremely well (which would have been at my window), but it seemed so slow, I could have been sitting below the window. That same game our best hitter, for whatever reason — did not see this particular pitcher well. His at window most games was easily 89–90 mph, but for whatever reason, he was getting blown away by this guy. This would have been a good time for him to switch to the above window zones. This allows for hitters to have a guided plan depending on the pitcher. It allows a coach to somewhat individualize an approach throughout a team, while still being on the same page with every hitter.
CONCLUSION
This is an approach I am constantly working on and refining mostly because I don’t have technology available to find our hitters’ hot/cold zones. These are also not set in stone zones hitters have to sit on. I believe it is a start in helping the learning curve for hitters when teaching plate discipline, which ultimately can help them in their career down the line when technology becomes more accessible to them. This is the foundation that our hitters go by and we give them the ability to expand or adjust accordingly. It is a way to give a hitter a structured approach to allow leverage in counts to help attack pitchers. It also can give every hitter confidence by feeling in control of their entire at bat. It’s a thought, it’s an approach, however it’s not absolute.
