I'm not thinking home run, I just want to put a good swing on the ball. When you go looking for home runs, you get off of your swing. So you don't think of homers when you go up to the plate.
The hardest thing to do in baseball is to hit a round baseball with a round bat, squarely.
The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go.
I just want to become a great leadoff hitter.
A lot of hitters stay away from the plate, some are close up, some are forward, some are back. The thing about hitting is this: You have to know the strike zone. That's the most important thing. Hit strikes and put the bat on the ball.
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.
In terms of how I want to influence the game, I try to have a positive effect with the ball or bat in my hand.
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.
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 need at least two months to try and figure out where the centre of the bat is.
With all my bats I like them to be bottom-heavy, so they help me to hold the line through the shot.
I had great control, I never missed hitting the other's fellow bat.
Place hitting is, in a sense, glorified bunting. I only take a half swing at the ball, and the weight of the bat rather than my swing is what drives it.
I want to be able to drive the ball to all fields.
