Ask a Hall of Famer

[Edgy MD]

Can't find Chris Young's thread.

Article today says he sought out Rod F. Carew this offseason and spent a month working with him on his hitting game. Great.

But the real curiosity here is that Young is a classic fly ball hitter and Carew one of history's great slap hitters. Will instruction from Carew augment or undermine Young's game?

[fimg=300]http://www.thecitrusreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/rod-carew-angels.jpg[/fimg]

[MFS62]

Don't know whether it will help or hurt or even change the type of hitter he will be.
But I'd imagine it will be general stuff like:
wait for a pitch you can hit
keep the pre-swing motion to a minimum
get your hips out of the way early


Sometimes, when you hear it from a great hitter, it sinks in better than hearing it from another coach.

or, he'll ask Rod to look at his swing and see what he's doing wrong/ dufferently from the last time Rod saw him. (wasn't Rod one of his organization's coaches when he had good success?)

Later

[TransMonk]

#0? Placeholder until a number is chosen or is he the new original Rey Ordonez?

[Edgy MD]

�He did great,� Rod Carew told The Post, in a telephone interview Tuesday night, of his work with Young. �We took out a lot of thinking. I want him seeing the ball and reacting to the ball. � He was concentrating on what we were doing.�

and

�Chris is the kind if hitter that wants to pull everything,� Carew said. �We worked on using his hands more instead of trying to muscle the ball. On tracking the ball.�

And Young was all...

�If you focus more on your average, the power will always be there,� he said. �If you�re squaring the ball up more consistently, the power will come.�

and

�?�Consistent� in my eyes is .280 and up. It�s what pops in my head,� he said. �It means you don�t have long slumps, you beat out some grounders and you hit all types of balls to all fields to keep yourself out of trouble.�

http://nypost.com/2014/02/04/chris-young-changes-things-up-in-quest-for-consistency/

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

They haven't issued him a number yet. Went as 24 and 25 previously. Neither is technically available though I could see Ricky Bones giving up 25 and the Wilpons forgetting that 24 is put aside*. 23 is empty too.

* - It would be nice to "retire" that number for Joan Payson. Might be first woman to have her # retired?

[TransMonk]

TransMonk wrote: #0? Placeholder until a number is chosen or is he the new original Rey Ordonez?

It looks like Omar Q is going to be the new orignal Rey Ordonez. Chris Young is #1.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I like that they gave Omar 0. I think all guys named Omar should wear it. As I recall it Omar Oliveras wore 00.

I'm also intrigued with a mid-career guy coming in and taking No. 1 as Chris Young did. That's so Gene Clines.

My numerical roster is better than Adam Rubin's. http://www.mbtn.net/?p=2026