That's why it's called a "stance" and not the "swing"...... No one can hit the ball having their bat on their shoulder.. or waving the bat high in the air
No argument but nothing to do with weird batting stances. It has substance but is still so randomly crazy it overshadows the point. Your like my gf I'm talking about the weekend she is talking next year
a hitting coach WOULD teach these if they helped their hitters. whatever little tweak, twist or step that helped that ultimately helped them reach the goal of successfully hitting the ball.
In the late 90s and early 2000s I'd do a lot of these at the batting cages. Back when I watched games everyday and knew all the stances from around the league. Mo Vaughn was a tough one to hit because he tilted his head. I could only hit slow pitch balls with his stance.
Youkilis for me, never seen anyone hold their bat in two different places horizontally over their head. That said it's also one of my favorite stances for that reason
I can imagine it took a while to time. Imagine all of those moving parts and trying to swing at a 99 mph fastball? Batista, Julio Franco, Tettleton and Tony Phillips had the most unique stance to me. I could've sworn Tettleton held the bat near his belt buckle. That might be my memory exaggerating it.
Surely some peoples' batting stance is as much mental as it is physical. Baseball is the most superstitious sport after all. Hey, if holding his bat like a rifle helps him hit, who am I to argue? Of the Giants, I like Hunter Pence's batting stance the most. It's so tense and twitchy, like he's about to fight you to the death over a piece of cheese at any moment. Second is Denard Span's, with how he scrunches his knees down during the windup.
I’m a white sox fan and imma be honest, I never thought Paulie had a weird stance but I can see it. (I was at that World Series game and I just can’t describe how amazing of a moment that was. Will forever give me the chills.)
@@olliecrow3547 only thing i can see as “weird” is the way his bat was angled but even then i don’t find it strange…could just be we’re just used to it like you said.
Honestly, Craig Counsell should have multiple appearances in this video. Just get rid of the more normal stances and replace them with a Counsell highlight.
OwYouMoron it might be because he wasn't as successful with that "throw it to me" arm raise. It looks like it' be hard to do, but he did make it look easy. ?
@@baseballplayer5556 Nothing wrong at all, but his stance was highly unusual when he first started playing in the bigs. Virtually nobody else outside of Jeff Bagwell was keeping their feet past shoulder width, and everybody was either taught to step in the bucket or slide step to start your swing. It was quite a revelation during its time and by 2003 every single kid on our baseball team was being taught his swing as fundamental.
@@eauhomme thank you!!!! I’ve been looking all over the comments of this and another ‘weird stance’ video trying to find someone mentioning him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody stand or hold the bat like that unless they were out of the hitting box or not ready to hit yet. I think because he played in Seattle and wasn’t one of the well known HOF’s from there, he isn’t talked about as much.
Mickey Rivers had a unique stance. Felix Millan choked up so much on the bat that it made his stance appear to be very unusual. Joe Morgan's armpit pumping was certainly different.
Rod Carew is a name that doesn't get mentioned enough when it comes to hitting! Absolutely phenomenal baseball player! I think he made the All-Star team nearly every year he played!
To me the only weird ones are where they set up with their hands pulled in close to their chest. Ted Williams baffles me as to how he was able to hit so well. In pictures his stance has the bat pretty much vertical, straight up and down and his hand in on his body just under his chest. How anyone can swing the bat around in that starting position in time to hit the ball is incredible to me. Also, Rod Carew's famous setup of already in the process of a swing is crazy to. If you've played the game you know you've always been taught to get the bat up and start high because gravity will get the head of the bat down... start low and you're going to be swinging under everything. It's no surprise that Carew didn't really have any power with such a stance. His career high in HRs in a season was 14 - twice. You can't get any torque behind a swing with Carew's stance. Carew was an excellent hitter though. Makes me wonder if he had a normal stance and could get some torque in that swing how many HRs he could've hit.... in addition to getting his 3,000+ hits and career .328 BA...... and 30+ SB potential. As for everyone else. Most of them have a weird setup, but if you pay attention when the pitcher starts his delivery they quickly adjust to a more traditional stance. It's why even as a kid when I played I never understood why people varied their stances or tried to emulate the pros...... you always end up in the same position so my thought process was why not just start in that position.
He didn't know he did it. great pull hitter. he hit a lotta homers just inside the pole and you couldn't blow it by him great fastball, low ball hitter. Pitchers need to keep the ball UP on this guy or they could be in big trouble.
Knew Franco would be on there! Von Hayes, Jose Oquendo, Dwight Evans... Von Hayes (Phillies) had a really wide stance (at least at one point in his career), supposedly very good for being able to make adjustments on breaking balls. Jose Oquendo (Cardinals) had a wide open stance. He was at least 45 degrees away from being straight lined up with the pitcher, let alone the slightly closed stance most hitters use (he also could, in a pinch, play every position). And Dwight Evans (Boston), later in his career when he had a bit of a resurgence, stood sort of pigeon toed, with his knees pointing at each other. I used to like to try to imitate my favorite hitters. His stance was very good for helping you keep your weight back. Carl Yastrzemski (Boston), now that I think about it, did a thing where he started with his weight on his front foot, shifted to the back and then back forward. Jose Cruz (Astros) had a huge leg kick, the biggest I've ever seen. Reggie Jackson, sometimes on the follow through, would end up on his back knee.
You missed John.Wockenfuss, who was with the Detroit Tigers for almost 10 years. He was traded to the Philadelphia Fillies alone with Glen Wilson for the Fillies relief pitcher Willie Hernandez and utility player Dave Bergman after the 1983 season. The Tigers went on to win the World Series the following year.
I love Carew's stance. I basically used a mix of him and Mickey Tettleton. It helped me relax in the box. I didn't hit it harder, but it hit it better after I started doing that.
I was shocked not to see Ripkin, but also where is Mo Vaughn or Edgar Martinez?? Some stances in this list barely qualify as different let alone strange.
I love all references to Tony Batista. Tony Batista is perhaps most noteworthy for producing the least valuable 30 HR, 100 RBI season of all time. In 2004, Batista hit a below-replacement .241/.272/.455, but somehow hit 32 dingers and drove in 110. By demonstrating their irrelevance, Tony Batista is truly the man who killed traditional baseball statistics.
My high school baseball coach pointed out to us that no matter how strang a major league player's stance may be at the beginning of their at bat they all have the same level text book swing as they make contact with the ball.
Chuck Knoblauch was the only one I could think of when the video started. Was 7 when the Twins won in 91 and being from MN that team is pretty ingrained in my head.
When I first saw the title, I thought of Kevin Youkilis. Also if Alfonso Soriano is in this list, then Jose Reyes should be in it as well in my opinion.
I guess it dates me but the weirdest batting stance I ever saw was Dick McAulliffe, Tigers’ second baseman from the 1960’s. You can watch him at the plate if you check out the 1968 World Series clips. He batted left and he stood with his right foot pointing at first base. He held his bat so that the barrel was pointed straight at the pitcher. How he swung the bat without falling on his ass, I’ll never know. But if you pitched him inside, he would hit a home run right down the right field line.
I remember seeing him when the Detroit Tigers came to Anaheim to play the Angels, I still have no idea how he was able to hit the ball the way he did holding the bat like that....
Coco Crisp....best MLB name ever. Julio Franco is my favorite player ever, which brought me here. Bonds had best swing ever. Sucks that he ruined it. This is a great video...so many greats.
He always fucked the Yankees up man shit ,I loved shef thou,I ended up leaving the Yankees for the Mets ,I think Dustin pedrioa stance is fucking Wierd to add
I saw him play against the Astros in Houston. The ball was a low, hard line drive that I thought would drop for a double. Instead it got out of the park....fast for a home run. It seemed like the ball never got more than 20 feet off the ground.
I'm pretty sure darnaud struggled greatly with that batting stance, 2014 and 15 he was good but in 16 17 that stance came along and he batted like .160
unless I missed it..jeff Bagwell had the most bizarre stance..he would literally take an invisible shit yet was one of the greatest all around hitters ever
that's what I loved about playing baseball. you're taught the fundamentals of bringing the bat to the ball, and how to keep a fast and tight swing, not once in my years of playing baseball (12 years) has someone taught me or told me how to stand at bat.
A few from back in the day: Jose Cruz, Terry Whitfield, Tony Tarasco. Cecil Cooper's was almost identical to Rod Carew's. Bautista's was almost identical to Brian Downing's. If you start out pointing the barrel of the bat at the pitcher, you'd better have Gary Sheffield's bat speed. As bad-ball hitters go, Kevin Mitchell was right up there with Vlad, Pujols, and Ichiro, although his stance was fairly normal.
Crazy Canuck I remember watching the D-backs win the World Series when I was 11 years old and the stance of Counsel always stood out... but my favorite stances to mimic were Sheffield, Griffey and Bonds
I always found it funny how batters with odd stances, the majority of them switch to a normal stance the instant the ball is thrown. The only odd thing is how they stand while waiting for the pitch.
