Lind: I used to be a stupid hitter

[Rhettmatic]

Shi Davidi has a feature up on the "new Adam Lind":

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/davidi ... -for-lind/

No matter which way things turn out for Lind – .407/.448/.815 in his last eight games, .286/.411/.468 overall in 29 contests – he’s someone who bears watching as the Blue Jays (17-24) look to pull themselves out of a quarter-mark-of-the-season chasm.

“Yeah, there were moments,” he replies when asked if his struggles the past few years shook his confidence in becoming a productive big-leaguer again. “But it was on me. I wasn’t being a smart hitter, I was being stubborn and for lack of a better word, stupid.”

“I’ve decided not to be stubborn anymore and just try to hit fastballs,” explains Lind. “There are times you can do that, but there are times you have to realize pitchers aren’t going to throw you fastballs. There were times last year they’d throw me two fastballs for balls on purpose so they could throw me a 2-0 changeup and I’d just ground out. Hopefully with the walks I’ve taken and the at-bats I’ve had, it won’t let them go about it that way because I’ve been more patient at the plate.”

[tecumseh18]

“It was just the amount of failure,” Lind says of what led him to change. “You go to Vegas, it’s all about the swing, what type of swing you’ve got. Rarely do people ever say it’s the pitches you’re swinging at, or ask why you’re swinging at those pitches. It’s just having a game-plan. I had game-plans with Cito because he’d tell me what to do, and things just fell into line that year.

Interesting.

It's tempting to say this is going to be like 13-game Bargnani. But Bargs never showed the degree of self-reflection on display here. Bargs admitting he was lazy was an observation of his essential character, not a commitment to change. I assume Lind doesn't want to stay stupid for the rest of his life.

[SmoothTofu]

1 more Blue Jay that won't be getting anymore fastballs.

[Schad]

Interesting.

It's tempting to say this is going to be like 13-game Bargnani. But Bargs never showed the degree of self-reflection on display here. Bargs admitting he was lazy was an observation of his essential character, not a commitment to change. I assume Lind doesn't want to stay stupid for the rest of his life.

The interesting bit is whether he's able to keep this going, or teams find a means to pitch to him that defeats his newfound resistance to swinging...or he simply backslides into old habits. I'm honestly flabbergasted by the transformation, though; it's like he went to bed as Jay Gibbons one night and woke up as a left-handed Marco Scutaro.

[Santoki]

1 more Blue Jay that won't be getting anymore fastballs.

The difference is he's not swinging at things out of the zone. Even if he gets a changeup in the zone, he's laying off. Once a pitcher falls behind, they tend to throw a fastball. He just has to capitalize on those opportunities, which he has as of late. Pitchers and catchers already know this and study it, but they have to execute it. They're out there struggling as much as hitters.

[Brinbe]

Good read, and I'm glad for Adam. He's rightfully taken mounds of critical words over the past few years so I hope he's genuinely improved his game for the long-haul.

[Geddy]

“It was just the amount of failure,” Lind says of what led him to change. “You go to Vegas, it’s all about the swing, what type of swing you’ve got. Rarely do people ever say it’s the pitches you’re swinging at, or ask why you’re swinging at those pitches. It’s just having a game-plan. I had game-plans with Cito because he’d tell me what to do, and things just fell into line that year.

Interesting.

It's tempting to say this is going to be like 13-game Bargnani.

Maybe we should refer to him as 'Lindnani' while he's hitting well

[kayliecee]

It has been a magical transformation.

[Randle McMurphy]

Adam Lind is just the worst. In a few months, he'll be saying completely different to explain whatever he is doing and it will probably consist of bogus excuses for poor performance. He's fortunate, though, to not be flailing away at lefties this year due to Gibbons' use of him in a platoon (which this team somehow managed to not do for three consecutive years).

[Michael Bradley]

Lind is clearly doing something different as he has never been this good at drawing walks before. Between his new approach and being shielded from LHP, he might end up having a pretty decent season. What he was doing in 2010-12 clearly was not working.

But yes, if/when Lind reverts back to his normal numbers, he will make another excuse or blame somebody else for it.

[jaymeister15]

I'm not a huge Lind fan, but isn't what he is saying in the article pretty much the opposite of making excuses? He is flat out saying he was being stupid, not very often you hear athletes say stuff like that about themselves.

[Schad]

Adam Lind is just the worst. In a few months, he'll be saying completely different to explain whatever he is doing and it will probably consist of bogus excuses for poor performance. He's fortunate, though, to not be flailing away at lefties this year due to Gibbons' use of him in a platoon (which this team somehow managed to not do for three consecutive years).

Even the platooning doesn't really explain it, though; his swing stats are well off norm, as is his OBP against righties only. Pitchers will probably put together a new book on him, and the odds are that he won't be able to readjust...but for now, at least, this isn't simply a statistical fluke.

[LBJSeizedMyID]

Correct, while the at bats have come at the expense of mostly righties, the stats this year suggest he's a lot more patient when pitchers go outside on him and if he's striking out its cause he's striking out looking. The real test is when he starts to go into a funk to see if those numbers start to go up. Perhaps the whole gameplan solution is actually working. Either way, anyone showing that K:BB rate is prime for some big numbers, if he can start hitting the ball a little harder.

[dagger]

Unless we're in the midst of a miracle comeback come June, I say sell high on Lind. Get a prospect and clean some money off of next year's payroll

[nonc]

JP will never admit to or improve on being a stupid catcher.

or hitter for that matter.

[flatjacket1]

Unless we're in the midst of a miracle comeback come June, I say sell high on Lind. Get a prospect and clean some money off of next year's payroll

I highly doubt we could pick up anything of value for Lind, regardless of how he plays. Either you get rid of the salary or you keep him. At this point I'd keep him just because you wouldn't get much on the trade market. 3 month success stories that are paid a fair amount never really end netting much. At best you get him for 2-3 months, and if he's good, he walks or gets overpaid in FA. If he's bad, he just ate up a roster spot and $$.