Hitting his stride ... hisway
Rockies’ Blackmon “looks at the evolution of what an at-bat should be”
san diego » Charlie Blackmon sat in silence on an overturned bucket of baseballs in a batting tunnel lastweek, waiting. The real action unfolded in his thoughts. The center fielder of the Rockies has a hitting philosophy so vivid and expansive, it plays like a highdefinition magic lantern behind his eyes.
“I can’t talk to him,” second baseman DJ LeMahieu said. “He has a formula for hitting in his head. I can’t understand it.”
So he waits. Measured in pure production over the past two seasons, Blackmon is the best hitting center fielder inbaseball notnamed Mike Trout. His big beard is immediately recognizable, but Blackmon’s place among the best batters in baseball played out in near anonymity. His is aworld of one.
Someone soon will duck under the netting to pitch Blackmon another round of batting practice. But theywill not see all the mechanisms behind his swing.
“Hitting is difficult to talk about,” Blackmon said, “because hitting is difficult.”
Since the beginning of the 2016 season, Blackmon’s 139 weighted runs created (a measure of total offensive value, by runs) entering theweekend series against Arizona trailed only Trout’s 167 among MLBcenter fielders. Blackmon in that span had one more home run (37 to Trout’s 36) and nearly as many RBIs (107 to Trout’s 120). His .922 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) this season through Thursday was secondbest among center fielders.
Colorado’s 30-year-old leadoff man is nearly all self-made, a converted college pitcher who dodges classification. He is not a contact hitter, but he hits for average. He is not a slugger, but he hits for power.
“How about a good one?” Colorado manager Bud Black said. “From a pitching standpoint, there’s not one way to attack him. His weaknesses are a short list.”
When Blackmon debuted for the Rockies at age 24 in 2011, he was a postscript, a roving bench outfielder behind center fielder Dexter Fowler. A second-round draft pick out of Georgia Tech in 2008, he arrived in the majors on time, then took three years to earn a starting job.
He has improved his home run totals, RBIs and slugging percentage every season, despite just one all-star nomination, in 2014, owing to a lightning strike first month.
The result of good hitting seems simple: To get on base and score. For Blackmon, it required a formula, some forethought about what it all means. He needed to settle on the ethics of hitting.
“He’s not typical,” said Jeff Salazar, the Rockies’ assistant hitting coach. “He looks at more than just getting a hit. He looks at the evolution ofwhat an at-bat should be.”
The center Blackmon formed around seems grim: He does not need to be the best hitter. He is trying to never be the worst.
His realization unfolded in specific trends. First, Blackmon is swinging at just 27.5 percent of pitches outside the strike zone, ranking 13th overall, and down more than 10 percentage points since his first full season.
He is also hitting the ball in the air. His groundball percentage on balls in play was once near 55 percent. It sank to 34 percent last season. It might seem like splitting hairs, but a flyball out is amore optimal outcome than a groundout.
The Rockies’ statistical intel tells them a batter will hit .600 if he hits a line drive every time. That is the goal. But short of line drives every time, a batting average on flyballs is higher than a batting average on groundballs, even with speedy players. If a hitter misses a line drive and it results in a flyball, it is a clear sign of a better swing than a groundball.
“It’s a better mistake,” Salazar said.
Against the Padres onWednesday, Blackmon twice faced SanDi- ego reliever Craig Stammen, a sinkerball pitcher. In his first atbat, Blackmon rolled over on the sinker and grounded out weakly to first base. It was a missed atbat, but not a failure. In their second matchup, two innings later, Stammen threwanother sinker. It worked the first time, why change? Blackmon, though, lined it to left field for a double.
“I look less at the result and more at how I got there,” Blackmonsaid. “Iwant to give away very fewat-bats. If Imake an out, Iwant them to makemultiple good pitches to getme out. Most of the time I just want to swing at good pitches and take good swings. If I can do both of those things, I can be good at baseball most of the time.”
His 36 home runs, 107 RBIs and 136 runs since the beginning of 2016 through the Padres series trailed only Nolan Arenado among Rockies. But his teammates might only see the back of his head slumped over a laptop studying scouting video. And when he hits behind the indoor nets with Salazar, Blackmon does it in silence.
“He’s not a big fan of music. Who doesn’t like music?” Salazar said. Because, perhaps, Blackmon is thinking about hitting and there is no room for more noise.
“Do I feel good? I don’t feel bad,” Blackmon said. “Sometimes I feel bad. But I haven’t felt consistently bad. I feel competitive, which is really what I want. That and: Why don’t they throw me fastballs over the plate?”
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or @nickgroke