Langeliers ‘learning to adapt’ to pitchers
Shea Langeliers points to plate discipline as the area in which he improved most from last season to this one in the minors: more walks, fewer strikeouts amid the jump from Double- to Triple-A.
That is being tested since the Oakland Athletics called up Langeliers, their touted catching prospect, for his first extended look at major-league pitching.
Langeliers eclipsed 100 atbats in the majors in Tuesday's win over Seattle. His early numbers indicate growing pains with the initial jump. After a 10-for-34 (.289) start, Langeliers entered Wednesday with a .196 average, three walks and 47 strikeouts in 107 plate appearances.
“The pitching up here is really good — they have a plan of attack, stick to their plan and are really good at executing,” Langeliers said. “It's getting (at-bats) under my belt and learning to adapt, too, to adjust to how I'm feel I'm getting pitched.”
Early, Langeliers said he was seeing a lot of high fastballs and adjusted his approach to deal with them. Recently, he's seeing more breaking pitches and has been susceptible to chasing them out of the zone.
In a limited MLB sample, Langeliers has chased 38.5% of pitches outside the zone, per Statcast, and swung and missed at 48% of total pitches. He was more selective at Triple-A: 43 walks and 88 strikeouts with a .283 average in 92 games in the hitter-friendly PCL.
“I felt like the majority of the year, I had a really good plan at the plate and I did a good job of sticking with it, even on days you don't feel good or feel like you're getting beat,” Langeliers said. “I think it showed up in plate discipline and walking a little more. I kind of proved to myself I can do that, so it's kind of like being stubborn and saying, ‘This is my approach, I know this works for me.' ”
The A's summoned Langeliers last month primarily to get him at-bats with the potential for a larger role next season. Langeliers has drawn regular starts at designated hitter and backup catcher to Sean Murphy
but wasn't in the lineup Wednesday, a night after striking out three times. Manager Mark Kotsay said that was the result of wanting to get other righthanded hitters in the lineup against Seattle lefty Robbie Ray.
Hitting coach Tommy Everidge showed Langeliers video of recent at-bats compared with earlier ones that indicate his “moves are almost exactly the same” and as a reminder to “attack his strengths.”
“I think you definitely could be discouraged from it, but I think it's just a learning curve,” Langeliers said. “It comes back to being ready to hit and sticking to my approach. Whatever that is, hunting that zone in the strike zone and being ready to hit that pitch and from there you adjust.”
On Jefferies: Pitcher Daulton Jefferies, who had Tommy John surgery Sept. 9, said he's confident in his ability to recover from the second such procedure of his career. Jefferies, the right-hander from Cal, had his first UCL reconstruction surgery in 2017.
“I think mentally I'm doing really well, doing a lot better than I did the first time around,” Jefferies said. “I'm ready to crush this s—.”
Jefferies, 27, opened this season in Oakland's rotation and made eight starts before landing on the IL. He had thoracic-outlet surgery in June and said elbow discomfort arose during rehab exercises.