He hits, and he hits, and he hits, a seemingly endless parade of lashes to left field and peas up the chute and bolts yanked to right, and it all looks so easy, so natural, so elementary to Luis. Look at him, hunched over in the batter's box, short and squat, ready to unpool his compact swing, on pitches north and south, east and west, inside the strike zone and out, fast, slow and in between.
He was sent here from a century ago when batting average was king and home runs were the domain of lesser-thans. Today, Arraez is as abnormal as Ruth was. He is everything in baseball.
Over the last two decades, everything that has happened in baseball has made it impossible for someone like Arraez to play the game, to overwhelm him with speed and spin, to defensively position him into oblivion, and to punish him for not worshiping at the altar. This year he thrives.
"I love hits, for someone who makes his living swinging a baseball bat, this sort of statement should not qualify as a surprise, or sound out of place, or register as archaic." A base hit is an anachronism.
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It makes no sense to Arraez. He is 25 years old and ninth in professional baseball, but he is here because of hits. He compiled them when he was 17 years old in the Dominican Summer League, where he hit....................
In an age where guys pitch to contact, he's not doing it. In an era where positioning is better, he is doing it. The pitcher's stuff is better. Today is more difficult to get hits than it has ever been. It can be hard to understand. It is difficult. Even though there's nothing simple about it, he makes it easy. It's not easy to do what he does.
What Arraez does, and what he's doing better now than ever before, requires a combination of bat-to-ball skills, the ability to hit bad pitches and a fanatical routine.
Arraez always hit. He remembers hitting around.800 when he was a competitive baseball player. He didn't find himself among the seven- or six-figure prospects because he resembled a Weeble and scouts had trouble projecting a position for him. He was not strong enough for first base. He was a great hitter with a good bat control.
Baldelli said that Arraez has "gifted hand-eye coordination" and his willingness to let balls travel deep in the zone and hit them to the opposite field is unparalleled. He has 55 hits to center and left field this season, which is second only to Boston'sRafael Devers. The second-lowest swinging strike percentage is next to Cleveland outfielder Steven Kwan.
His facility for turning pitches outside the rule book into positive outcomes is quite impressive. The average is.167. On non- strikes, Arraez is hitting.318. Even with his knack for turning bad into good, Arraez's ability to control the zone has led to him walking more than he strikes out. There are a few names in the middle of the diagram of patient hitters who stripe line drives.
A lot of people don't want that. It isn't what we want it to be. They aren't working toward the goal even if they think it is. He is always trying to hit a line drive. Most guys don't need to defend the entire field. You have to defend the grass on that field when Luis Arraez walks to the plate.
This is the first time this amount of success has been seen. The self-optimization tour was the reason for it. He went to the Dominican Republic in order to strengthen his legs and transform his body. They had their first workout. Hit from 9 a.m. to noon, eat a meal, take a nap, and return to work at sundown.
Cruz works hard no matter what. Do you have a bad day today? Tomorrow is not the end of the world. I go 0 for 8 on bad days but tomorrow will be better. He showed me how to live a good life. How hard can I play? How can I do my daily chores? I didn't work like I'm working.
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In-season habits are not as strenuous. In the morning, Arraez kisses his daughters Emma, 4, and Esther, 2, and watches video, as he did when he won the Midwest League batting title. He hits at the ballpark after lifting and then hitting.
"It reminds me a lot of Michael Brantley's routine, he's the epitome of a professional hitter and owner of a.279 lifetime average," said Carlos Correa, a teammate of Michael Brantley. A lot of drills and tee work is involved. Working line to line. Not lifting it. Try to hit a line drive at the player. And it continues to play.
The evaluators are trying to find a comparable for Arraez. Brantley is smaller than him. The power was taken away from Jose Ramirez. Without the speed. It's time to acknowledge what he adds since he's been seen through the lens of what he doesn't have.
As baseball cultivates a generation of players to hit the ball hard in the air, it should also celebrate those for whom strikeouts represent embarrassment. If what Arraez does is good for the game, why aren't there more of them?
There is room for hitters who don't focus on exit velocity and focus on contact to succeed. They won't duplicate his success. There isn't a secret sauce to make him a player. Sometimes hitters are born, as much as he works.
It's why his fan club is made up of people who can appreciate what a skilled hitter looks like but also people who have excelled at the plate. Rod Carew, winner of seven batting titles, owner of a.328 lifetime average, and Suzuki, who copped to Arraez being his favorite left-handed hitter in baseball, are his biggest boosters. Both Carew and Suzuki didn't lavish praise on willy-nilly. They said as much as Arraez's numbers.
It's giving context to the statistics of 2022.
He's a great player. He would like to be known. He wants people to know how great he is.
They're starting to see it, whether it's through multi-hit games, or big hits like his recent home run, or whether it's by swing of the bat. When Arraez talks to himself after he swings and misses, they like the way he is. The same sort of joy Baldelli noticed during spring training of his first season as Twins manager was felt by them.
Baldelli said that it was about the relentless approach that he took to everything that he did. You're getting the same human being when he walks in and out of the park.
When he's talking about hitting, it's clear that he loves the challenge of being undersized in the field, but he also loves the challenge of being in the middle of a double play. He is a student and a doctor. Being the best is his only other choice.
He wants to win the batting title this year.
The All-Star appearance, the money, and the reputation will come with that. When the shift is likely to be banned, the batting average will return to a position of prominence.
The curve is just behind Arraez. The number of strikeouts decreased. There are more balls in the game. The drives are line driven. The person has a skilled batting stance. There is a place for that in modern baseball. Take it for the people who want everything. Luis Arraez will be received by the rest of us with gratitude.
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