Lou Boudreau Quotes

There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.

I have to go with the approach I had in Triple-A. I need to take a lot of those fastballs I am seeing to left field. Also must gear up for the changeup and take them up the middle.

That's one thing I learned from watching great hitters hit. A lot of hitters, they're ready to hit from pitch one.

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

Anytime you can see a hitter and face a hitter, you gain knowledge, and you gain that experience. Whether they hit a homerun off you, or you strike them out or whatever it is, it's information.

If a pitcher makes a mistake inside, I'm going to hit it.

You learn yourself, as a player, what you can handle at the plate, what you can't.

The great hitters use the whole field, and that's a goal of mine.

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.

Sometimes you go to home plate, and you have an idea, like a clear idea, of what they're going to throw to you. I think that's all: getting better pitches to hit, realizing when you hit the ball better, what pitch you hit, if you're chasing too much. If you figure out all that, you can get a little better as a player.

To me playing third base and left field and moving all over the place, it doesn't bother me because I still have to grab that bat and hit no matter where I play.

I think my mindset and my approach is to hit the ball hard, whether it be first pitch or work the count.

I want to meet Brandon Crawford and just pick his brain and figure out what helps him out on the defensive side of the ball.

For me, the strike zone has always been, If it's something I can drive, it's most likely a strike. I feel like if it's a ball I really can't do much with, it's most likely a ball. So that's just always been my approach.

The big thing is, it's about learning which off-speed pitches to swing at. A lot of people say, 'Oh, this guy can't hit a curveball; this guy can't hit an off-speed pitch.' But it's about swinging at the right one. Swing at the hangers. Swing at the ones you can handle.

Early in my career, I wasn't good in the strike zone early. I was good in the strike zone late, which is not a good thing.

As hitters, I think we take for granted at times how good our hands are and just how much the value of truly getting the barrel to the ball is. We don't have to do as much as we think we have to.

It's tough at slip. The ball doesn't come to you very often. So from that perspective, I enjoy keeping more - you're in the game the whole time.

I kept listening in the minor leagues, and even earlier than that, people would say, 'If you don't hit the fastball, you're not going to get to the big leagues.' Every game, you're going to get a fastball.

I'm pretty close to Miguel Cabrera. We are such different hitters, but at the same time, we're pretty close because we both like to hit the ball middle-away.

You can't go up there trying to get hits. You can just go up there trying to put together at-bats and square the baseball up.

Learn the league, learn the pitchers, learn how they're going to go after you.

Once I found my swing, I feel like if I put a good swing on it, I feel like it's got a good chance to go wherever - left, right, center - it doesn't matter. But I'm not just out here going to swing for home runs of anything. I'm just trying to put a good swing on the baseball.

That's where my focus is all the time, trying to get on base.

I'd say the challenge of DHing is going to be learning the routine and to stay loose and stay warm and kind of be ready for it.