How Alex Bregman Got Right at the Plate, by Turning Inward and Letting It Travel

The differences aren't huge and obvious. In baseball, 'huge and obvious' is usually quickly re-rendered 'desperate and exploitable'. Alex Bregman is a better hitter now than he was a month ago, but the changes he's made have all been subtle. He's a couple inches farther off the plate, but only that much. He's slightly more closed in his stance, but only that much. The one glaring alteration isn't in anything he's doing that pitchers can force him not to do; it's in how deep he lets the ball travel. His average intercept point in the month of July is about 2.5 inches deeper than it was in the previous two months, which is something like adding a mile per hour to your fastball: helpful, and hard to counter.

Bregman has hit the ball especially well since the All-Star break, but truthfully, his process has been ahead of his results all season, and he started to round into form even before the break. He used the Cubs' off day at home on July 2 as a chance to implement some changes to his stance, stride and timing in the batter's box, and ever since, he's been much more like the player the Cubs hoped they had signed to a five-year deal over the winter.

Bregman's bat speed is down. That might not be permanent, but it's turned out to be persistent. As a result, he's spent much of the season hunting for the adjustments that would let him hit the way he's always hit despite a bit less explosive rotation. It took a long time to find it. Here's where he finally did. These are visuals depicting Bregman's stance, stride and average contact point on swings in May (left) and July (right):

What he eventually figured out was that hitting the same way he always has isn't currently possible. There might be a lingering physical limitation tied to last year's quad strain, or this might just be Bregman's new normal, but to be a successful and well-rounded hitter at this point, he needs to so some things differently. Thus, this month, he's moved slightly away from the plate, and turned slightly inward to close his stance. That gives him more room to get on plane while the bat is behind his body, and a better chance of getting it into the hitting zone on time and square to the incoming pitch. He's been less susceptible to changes of speeds this month because of this.

However, that comes at some cost. Were Bregman to try to keep hitting the ball out in front of himself by the same amount as he did in the past with this adjustment to his stance, he would be late on most fastballs and too early on most breaking stuff. Instead, as you can see by the yellow dots in the visuals above, he's letting the ball travel a bit more. It's not about starting later; it's about knowing that he has a bit more work to do to get to the ball and square it up well. 

Bregman has also shortened his stride, which keeps him a bit more engaged through the core and makes it easier to stay through the ball and drive it to all fields from his default hitting position. He's had several opposite-field extra-base hits this month, and that's not a coincidence; it's a product of his altered approach and setup.

This is a huge deal for the Cubs. They need to pour all of their time and energy over the next five days into adding pitching before the MLB trade deadline. They couldn't afford to upgrade their lineup, even if it were obvious exactly where an extra bat would fit without cramping the style of Craig Counsell. Offensively, they need to be carried the rest of the way by the guys already on the roster, and Bregman has been arguably the most glaring underachiever in the lineup this year. If he's now turning things on—if this shift in where and how he stands and where he tries to catch the ball in the path of his swing continues to work—it transforms the team. A fully operational Bregman makes this batting order brutal for an opposing pitcher. He's still not quite that guy right now, but it's getting easier to see that guy showing up by September and October with each passing day.

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