Slugger Tomas trying to stay patient at the plate
The message from hitting coach Dave Magadan is simple and concise. Yasmany Tomas, big and strong and armed with a swing that can do damage, is at his best as a hitter when he is quiet, under control, and Magadan tries to remind Tomas of this in his native language. Toca lo, he tells him. Just touch the ball.
The first week of the season has provided evidence of how dangerous Tomas can be at the plate. It has also provided glimpses of the opposite, the wild, swings-at-everything version that pitchers can exploit with ease. Tomas knows this can be his downfall. He is trying not to let it be.
“I’m trying to have a mental approach and focus on what I have to do and make a plan for every single day,” Tomas said through interpreter Ariel Prieto. “My plan is more to try to take good swings at the pitches that I’m looking for in the strike zone. The experience that I have right now has helped me to be more patient at home plate. I think it’s important to be patient, that it will lead to better results.”
Tomas looked like a relatively easy out in the first two games of the season but appeared much more disciplined in his next two. Entering Saturday, he had four hits, including three doubles, in the past two games. He said his nerves were to explain for the early struggles.
In Magadan’s eyes, the key for Tomas is simple to spot, and it has everything to do with the slugger’s pre-pitch movements.
“When he’s nice and calm up there, he doesn’t have a huge leg kick and doesn’t have the big bat wrap, he ends up swinging at strikes,” Magadan said. “I think that is more linked to his swinging at strikes than it is anything else. When he’s ready to hit, when he’s not doing a whole lot to get ready, he swings at strikes.”
Magadan hopes that by reminding Tomas that he doesn’t need to swing hard – that he just needs to “touch the ball” – that he’ll keep his movements to a minimum.
Tomas is coming off a second half in which he began to show why the Diamondbacks committed $68.5 million in him some 21⁄2 years ago, hitting .294 with 18 homers, a stretch he said helped his confidence entering this year.
But he realized he had work to do on the other side of the ball. After rating as one of the worst defensive outfielders in the majors, Tomas said he worked to improve his agility in the offseason in hopes of getting better jumps on fly balls. His opportunities have been limited so far, but he said he feels quicker.
“We analyzed some things in the offseason and recognized from watching video that as soon as there was a ball off the bat, I recognized the ball right away, but my start was kind of slow,” Tomas said. “Now, working to improve my agility, my start right after I see the ball, it’s going to be right away.”
If he can’t improve defensively, Tomas is going to have to continue to hit like he did in the second half to be a net positive for the Diamondbacks. The sites that calculate Wins Above Replacement pegged Tomas as, at best, a replacement level player, in large part because of his poor his range was in the outfield.