</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by JML:
<strong>I'm not trying to refute your findings by asking this, I just want to confirm something I've heard here and there.
Don't pull hitters tend to ground out the other way when they try to pull an outside pitch?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Usually, no. When good power hitters are going well, they will often hit line drives and long fly balls to center or the opposite/center field with authority. When they start pulling every pitch, they will hit a lot of popoups and groundballs to their side of the infield. Watch Bonds, Giambi, McGriff, Hundley, Sheffield, etc. or ref history like Jim Rice, Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, etc. (off the top of my head). Or watch games pitched by Maddux or Glavine, who live on the outside corner and watch how the power hitters fare against them on outside pitches.
Watch games with veteran player announcers or color guys sometime (Joe Morgan, Ken Harrelson, etc.) and you'll here them talk about going the other way with the outside pitch to hit it with authority.
Hitters trying to pull the ball are not going to be behind the outside pitch because it's outside; they "compensate" for the added distance the bat has to travel to make contact by starting their earlier, which may cause their wrists to before making contact, or opening up their stance earlier(their front foot and shoulder), which may throw off their balance, and the result (if they make contact) is often a ground ball to their side of the field or a pop up. Someone else probably has a greater understanding and ability to explain the mechanics of this; I got a D in physics
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