I think I figured out why Jared Walsh can’t catch up to a fastball

6 comments

1. I was watching this video posted on Twitter and saw something I hadn’t noticed before and realized it looked a bit odd, but Walsh has a bit of a hitch.

   If you play the video slow and track frame by frame you’ll actually see he’s still in the loading phase with his hands moving away from the ball while the pitch is in the air.

   Typically when you hit there’s a coil and step that coincide with each other to create torque and timing.

   But if Walsh is still in his load phase with the pitch mid flight it makes a lot of sense as to why he is consistently late on fastballs and way out front on off speed.

   It also plays into what I typically say about him having slow hands and a long swing.

   The swing is long because he’s literally loading when he should be set.

   I always call Jared Walsh a poor man’s Josh Hamilton because they have similarities in their swings, so I decided to compare those swings to a compilation of Josh Hamilton in his Rangers days.

   Hamilton has similar movements, but the absolute biggest difference is Hamilton has a shorter coil and completes the movement before the pitch is delivered.

   [This is a good example of Hamilton’s swing](https://youtu.be/kjqQge1ycD8)

   Turn the play speed down to half speed and you’ll see the similar hitch, but when the ball is in flight Hamilton’s hands only move forward they don’t move back at all.

   Hamilton is consistently on time more, where Walsh has to be absolutely perfect to time a fastball.

   Walsh’s approach leaves absolutely no room for error.

2. Well considering he had a rib and muscles in his upper body surgically removed I would assume there have been mechanical changes

3. Has much quieter hands in 2021 compared to 2023 as well

4. Why is it that some random reddit dude, sorry Legend, no offense, can spot the problem and the Angel’s coaching staff can’t? Do we even have a batting coach??? This is beyond frustrating.

5. In the tweet thread, there’s a side-by-side still that also points to a super minor thing that’s actually slowing him down.

   In the 2023 version, he’s ever so slightly more rotated during the initial load. This means when he brings his hands back, it has a longer distance to travel, followed by more distance to travel to get back to the plate. That’s enough to get him to be late on fastballs. And his hands are going quite a bit further back in 2023 compared to 2021.

   He either needs to not coil so much, or he needs to start his load even earlier. Ideally the former. Basically needs to compact his swing just a bit.

6. His hands are moving more now and with bigger movements; it’s like they don’t stop until the ball is on top of him. As Legend mentioned, his load phase is messed up and his hands could have a lot to do with that.