Evaluating a Hitter
By: Brendan Dougherty
Want College Exposure? Sign-up for our Summer Showcase June 29!
What does a good hitter look like? Evaluating a hitter can be extremely easy at times. You watch a guy hit and he produces in the box much of the time. It can also be difficult at times because the hardest thing to do in sports is to hit a baseball. We are consumed especially on social media with swing mechanics. Much of that information can be useful and a hitter’s swing mechanics are a particularly important part of what makes a good hitter. They are not the only part. When college coaches or professional scouts are evaluating hitters, they are evaluating the total hitter not just what his swing looks like or what his results were that day. Mechanics and results are down the list for many college coaches and pro scouts. The evaluation process is based on many different things and it starts from when you first arrive at the field. Coaches and scouts want to see how a hitter prepares for games. They will watch them take Batting Practice either in the cage or on the field. They will evaluate what they are doing in the dugout preparing for the at-bat. They will evaluate what they are doing in the on-deck circle. They evaluate how they react to success, but they really want to see how they react to failure. We all know Baseball is a game of failure and how you respond to that failure is key to how good a hitter you are going to be. We all know what a hitter will look like when they are 3 for 3 it is how they handle going 0 for 3 and what they will do in there last at-bat is what separates the good hitters from the great hitters.
Here is a breakdown of what many coaches and scouts are looking for when they are evaluating hitters. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. What one coach may see in a hitter another coach may see something completely different.