Baseball can crush rookies. Why hasn’t it crushed Trey Lipscomb?Nusbaum article discussing Lipscomb enduring despite the occasional error-burst, streaky hitting, and other up and down aspects of a season where his overall numbers are meh.
Still, while such poise has helped elevate Lipscomb, baseball’s highest ranks have a learning curve. He’s making contact to all fields, but his average exit velocity is in the bottom 10 percent of all major leaguers, and he is hitting .154 against breaking balls. His average launch angle, minus 3.2 degrees, is the lowest among any major leaguer with at least 75 plate appearances. By outs above average, Lipscomb has been one of the game’s best defensive third basemen this season — though he has had trouble while playing out of position, with recent miscues in stints at first and second base weighing down his overall defensive metrics.
Poise, calmness, and training. discussing some winter training with Wood and his trainer Caceres:
While working with Lipscomb, Caceres compared the motion of a swing to whipping a towel — reacting with the lower body and letting the hands do the rest. They worked on his posture, watching video of players who hit for contact and power such as Mookie Betts, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Jose Altuve — letting his hands have space to stay inside the ball rather than under them. At times, he would throw almost directly at Lipscomb and have him aim to the opposite field to force him to stay inside the ball. Lipscomb’s posture improved, and his hands stayed on plane for as long as possible.
Lots of anecdotes and insights from his college coach, Tom Vitello.
“Max Scherzer played in that city, and I was able to coach him. It’s kind of the same deal,” Vitello said. “If the answer is not there or they don’t have the skill to get the job done, then they’re going to get to work and figure out a way to make it happen. This is a sport where you have to constantly evolve or your name disappears off the face of the earth. … He’s going to get to work and figure out how to solve that next problem that comes.”
