Panik explains early season home run binge

SAN FRANCISCO (TNS) – Launch angle? Sure, Joe Panik was proud of the trajectory on his third home run of the season, against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday.

Not so much with the ball, but with his bat toss.

“Yeah, good distance,” Panik said, tongue in cheek. “I joked to Buster (Posey) because that was one of those things that he always does.”

Other than the bat toss, the Giants’ surprising slugger has little interest in discussing launch angle, the latest rage around batting cages these days.

Across the game, players are recalibrating their strokes with more of an upward plane. Consider that the 10 longest home runs in the majors last season came with an average launch angle of 27.5 degrees, according to data collected at Statcast. It’s working for a lot of baseball’s best sluggers.

And while the scrappier Panik said his early power – three homers in the first week – can be traced to a new approach at the plate, his lefthanded swing is essentially as flat as ever. Panik’s average launch angle through the first six games was 16.3 degrees, just a few ticks above the league average of 13.3.

And his exit velocity – 87.74 mph on batted balls – was actually lower than the league average (88.89).

Not that Panik gives a flip. Heading into the two-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers that starts today at AT&T Park, the second baseman is batting .381 with an OPS of 1.268.

“There’s a lot of stuff now: a lot of numbers, a lot of analytics. For me, I go by feel,” Panik said. “You are your best hitting coach. You have to know your body. You have to know your swing. That’s having feel and not going just based off numbers.”

The only angle that’s noticeably different in Panik’s swing is the direction of his front foot. Panik turns his right foot at about 45 degrees inward toward the plate, the result of some tinkering he did with Giants hitting coaches Alonzo Powell and Rick Schu.

Panik said the new foot turn gives him more stability and more balance at the plate. Instead of “flying open too early,” Though he’s never hit more than 10 home runs in a season, San Francisco Giants second baseman Joe Panik kicked off 2018 by hitting three homers last week.

Bay Area News Group

as he put it, he conserves energy for a more explosive turn on the pitches he pulls to the right side of the diamond. All three of Panik’s home runs have been to right field.

“I have to hit the ball, especially to the pull-side, with backspin. That’s the main thing,” he said. “With the adjustments I’ve made, I’ve been able to backspin the ball out there. For me, I have to hit the ball clean, and that’s allowed me to do that.”

The other big change is in his head. Panik, again with the help of Powell and Schu, decided to take better advantage of his ability to make contact. No one in the majors was harder to strike out than Panik last year; he fanned in just 9.4 percent of his at-bats.

So this year, Panik is more aggressive early in the count because he knows he can play it safer with two strikes.

“Exactly,” he said. “Don’t give in early in the count. That’s basically the approach: Don’t give in. Don’t hit a pitcher’s pitch. When you get to two strikes, you can still do damage.”

Panik is doing some damage, all right. Until the rest of Giants broke loose for a 10-1 victory over the Mariners on Wednesday, he was a one-man box score. The Giants’ first three runs of the season were all on solo homers by Panik. According to Elias, the Giants are the first team in MLB history whose first three runs of the season came on solo homers by the same player.

Panik, in his fifth season, has never hit more than more than 10 home runs in a season. At the rate he’s going now, why, he could hit ...

“I’d say 60,” Manager Bruce Bochy deadpanned. “I’m not going to cut him short. Joe’s got some pop.”

Panik’s power is now mighty enough to conquer even AT&T Park. His long shot in the fourth inning Tuesday was his first at home run in his home ballpark since Aug. 28, 2016. Last season, in a bizarre split, he became just the eighth player to hit doubledigit homers – all on the road.

So the best part of Tuesday? He got to hear the reaction from a different angle.

“It’s nice when you hit a home run to hear 40,000 plus cheer instead of booing,” he said.

After defeating the Seattle Mariners 10-1 on Wednesday behind a four-home run output from the offense and another brilliant outing from starter Johnny Cueto, the Giants had a scheduled day off Thursday.

Left-hander Derek Holland was expected to pitch against Dodgers righty Kenta Maeda Friday, but manager Bruce Bochy announced Holland will now pitch Monday against the Diamondbacks.

Right-hander Chris Stratton will stay on regular rest and pitch today’s game against Rich Hill, while Sunday will feature an Opening-day rematch of Ty Blach against Clayton Kershaw.

With injuries to Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija depleting the Giants’ pitching depth, San Francisco began the season with a four-man rotation featuring Cueto, Holland, Stratton and Blach. Early off days allowed each pitcher to throw on regular rest and prevented the team from needing a fifth starter until April 10.

Now that rain has impacted the team’s plans, the Giants won’t need to call on a fifth starter until April 11.

The two leading candidates to join the rotation, lefty Andrew Suarez and righthander Tyler Beede, pitched for Giants minor-league affiliates on Thursday night. Both were expected to begin the season in the Triple-a Sacramento rotation, but Beede started for Single-a San Jose to presumably give the Giants a pair of rested options to turn to later this week.

Suarez threw four innings of scoreless ball for the Triple-a River Cats against Tacoma, but allowed four walks and a base hit. Beede logged five innings of one-hit ball against the Inland Empire 66ers, but struggled with command early and walked three hitters.

Beede, a first round draft choice in 2014, was added to the Giants’ 40-man roster this offseason, which means the club can call him up without needing to clear a space for him. Suarez, a second round pick in 2015, has not been added to the 40-man roster yet.