J. D. Martinez Quotes

I want to be able to drive the ball to all fields.

My theory of hitting was just to watch the ball as it came in and hit it.

How to hit home runs: I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball.

Stay inside the ball, put the barrel on it, and swing hard.

In the split second from the time the ball leaves the pitcher's hand until it reaches the plate you have to think about your stride, your hip action, your wrist action, determine how much, if any the ball is going to break and then decide whether to swing at it.

I swing hard all the time. That's what I've done my whole life - hit.

Swing hard, in case they throw the ball where you're swinging.

You gotta keep the ball off the fat part of the bat.

I am happy with the way I hit the ball. There is a certain element of power into it but not completely. It is like 80 per cent timing and 20 per cent power. Why do I need power hitting when I can clear the ropes with timing?

I grew up in an era where the perfect drive was a line drive, with quite a bit more spin.

You can't see the bat hit the ball if you're generating any bat speed. If you're just laying the bat through the strike zone, sure, maybe.

Hitting is not an exact science.

Yeah, if I see a ball in the zone then I'll try to put a good swing on it.

People always ask me how I can hit the ball so far, and I say, 'I just swing.' It's the coaches who first told me I had good bat speed. I was just swinging, and I guess it was fast. I'm pretty fast at everything.

When I see three balls, I just swing at the middle one.

The fellows that I played with encouraged me to bunt and beat the ball out. I was anxious to make good and did as I was told. When I came to Brooklyn, I adopted an altogether different style of hitting. I stood flat-footed at the plate and slugged. That was my natural style.

I am an arm hitter. When you snap the bat with your wrists just as you meet the ball, you give the bat tremendous speed for a few inches of its course. The speed with which the bat meets the ball is the thing that counts.

Everybody believed you had to have a big piece of lumber and then muscle the ball over the fence. But by the time I and Hank Aaron - another guy who did it with his wrists - were through, there were a lot of guys ordering light bats and playing handball.

My batting practice would be a guy throwing balls in the way in which I liked it. It was all about getting ball on bat, rather than something whizzing past your ear.

I've always loved hitting, and even as a kid, I always hit.

The offseason after the 2014 season, I worked with hitting coach Damon Mashore. I always had power in batting practice but couldn't take it into a game consistently. We made a little adjustment with my hands, lowered them a bit to get a consistent path to the ball, a natural uppercut to elevate the ball and backspin some balls.

I was able to play alongside, in my opinion, the best hitter with Miguel Cabrera and kind of watch the way he goes about it and the way he looks at situations, when to try to drive a ball versus when to shoot a ball.

When the ball is swinging, you really need to play close to your body.

The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go.

I consider myself a line drive hitter with power. I just try to put my best swing on the ball every time.