Zobrist and Sutton helped by hitting guru?

Given that Wade invested a lot in Michael Bourn, I imagine that if his current .260 avg, .350 obp doesn’t hold up, then he’d probably be a good candidate to send to Cevallos, at least a as a sort of last-ditch effort. When your first major move is trading Brad Lidge for Michael Bourn, I imagine you’d want to do everything you can to make that move pay off.

Interesting thing about Cevallos is that he used to be a golf instructor. BA did a profile on Drew Sutton sudden improvement last year in which Cevallos featured prominently. The changes he made in his swing were largely about positioning his body during his swing, probably to make power transfer more efficient and to keep his bat in the zone for longer. He watched a lot of video of Ted Williams and Albert Pujols.

It’s not really a big surprise that Zobrist went to this guy, too. Sutton and Zobrist are both from Tennessee and were workout partners for three years during the offseasons.

If Cevallos is really a miracle-worker, and not just a salesman, I’d be surprised if some major league team doesn’t have him on an exclusive contract to work with their minor leaguers. He could very easily be telling these players long-accepted baseball hitting wisdom, but the guys weren’t listening or able to implement the advice when others told them about it. I’ve done some tutoring before, and it’s amazing how much attention people pay when they’re paying for your time.

as anybody would be if you thought you had the next big thing. In the case of Zobrist, I looked and looked for an answer and could not come up with anything until I found this. Before I say “yes, this is the reason 100%” I need see more case studies and learn more about the training (which I hope to do), but for now as I said in the article it is the best explantion yet and much better than “he’s swinging harder.”

t’s clear his swing is different from 2007 to current.

does his program contain any essential vitamins*? I mean i’d like to double my SLG% without any additional strength training, and I don’t even play baseball.

Defintiely to help major league guys break out of slump and to improve their mechanics.

I don’t think Sean Berry & Co are doing the same thing

In a heart beat. Same with JR Towles, Bogusevic, Johnson, just about anyone I prized.

Great article and great responses.

After the 2008 season, I took the time to call GMs to tell them what I can do for their hitters and what I have done with others (I worked with college guys too but can’t disclose their names publicly for NCAA reasons) I was only able to reach one GM, Dan O’dowd, from the Colorado Rockies and he told me (direct quote, I kept the email)

“Jamie
If you believe its something special then hang in there nothing great is ever easy to do.
Dan”

i thought that was nice but not what I was looking for :) When I saw an article written by Tommy Rancel (http://www.draysbay.com/2009/4/17/843197/lightning-strikes-ben-zobrist), I wanted to let Tommy know that there is a very cut and dry answer for Ben Zobrist’s increase in power and consistency. At the urging of a friend, Bob Macfadgen, I shot Tommy an email.

Ben and Drew have mentioned me many times to reporters but in reporting “last night’s game” writers like the simple “Rocco told him to swing harder” story better than getting into the whole “Swing Mechanic” mess. But of course, you know it’s not as simple as “swing harder.”

Please understand that I am not disclosing CIR because it would be silly for me to disclose it in a blog and not a book. I assure you, Tommy Rancel and his readers, along with the mkanx customers, will be the first to know about the book’s release.

I am confident in what I do but a salesman I am not. I wish I was better actually :)

I have discovered the key positions of the baseball swing as I set out to do in 1997 after my turnaround college season in which I got a glimpse of the magic that is possible in the smallest most precise of mechanical adjustment throught the swing. It has been my passion (verging on obsession) ever since. Very shortly, in my book, I will have a formula for you that players can use to measure their mechanics. It’s pretty cool because it’s a reverse of traditional statistical analysis – instead of crunching the numbers to see how a player DID, using the CIR, analysts will be able to predict more accurately how a player WILL DO.

But don’t take me at my word, let me show you. I welcome your doubt rather than want to fight it. Primarily because I was such an inquisitive hitter and was turned off by the “my way or the highway” instruction that never even seemed to get significant results. I keep getting better as an instructor by knowing I always have more to learn.

Thanks to all of you who have participated in this and other blogs on the subject. This is my chosen passion and I’m thrilled to share it.

Jaime Cevallos (or “The Swing Mechanic”) has a training bat out that I’ve
seen with various teams in the Atlanta area. I guess it forces a player
into the “power and consistency” positions. Guess it’s getting some pretty
significant results from what I hear. Pretty interesting stuff. I definitely will be keeping a close eye out for this.

Regards,

MJD