Blue Jays' Barger and Varsho credit hitting coach Popkins for improvement at plate
Photo credit: https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/how-new-blue-jays-hitting-coach-is-trying-to-revive-punchless-offence/
A revamped Toronto Blue Jays hitting program led by the hirings of David Popkins and assistant Lou Iannotti is helping players find success at the plate.
Not only did Popkins arrive as a fresh voice, but with the Minnesota Twins, he helped develop a motion-capture process and reporting tool, and he brought that know-how to the Blue Jays.
He's since worked with the club's bio-mechanics department, «who did a great job making that very quickly, starting to catch us up to where we need to be.»
The foundational elements to measure movements were already in place when he was hired in October, but the Blue Jays «didn't have it in a concise report that we could use right away,» he says.
Now, they are producing movement reports tracking «certain markers that we think are important in the swing, checking things and making sure the movements are staying on the right path and if things are changing without us seeing it with our eyes.»
They're not done developing, either, with Popkins saying the pace at which the bio-mech staff has made progress «is going to get us to a really good point in the future.»
Equally important, of course, is how that information is presented to players, and on that front, Popkins is meeting players where they're at.
If they want biomechanical scans, swing trails and reams of data, no sweat. Or if they want more traditional video, all good, too.
Over the winter, Popkins began building relationships with his players and Daulton Varsho recovered from shoulder surgery, the new hitting coach took a deep dive into the Gold Glove centre-fielder's swing.
«We'll ask them what they have and what their thoughts are and how we can guide them back to where they need to be - it's not always us leading, sometimes it's us collaborating,» says Popkins. «Daulton was more video, talking it through with him, and connecting his feels to the video is what's really important for him. That's how he learns. That's how he likes to be taught.»
What also helped Varsho lock in some of those feels was the limitations on what he could do because of his shoulder rehab.
He only received clearance to start taking half-swings in January, forcing him to slow down and build some muscle memory with his bat vertical and hands above the baseball, which «helped me understand, OK, that's all I need to do in the game.»
«I didn't have the strength to just take a full-on swing,» he continues. «So I was like, how can I go A-to-B, be short and direct and square up the baseball? I slowed myself down and slowed my brain down to be able to do that. That's gotten me back to who I was when I was a young kid, going A-to-B trying to square up the baseball. You're not trying to take a big swing and hit a homer. It's helped me be more simplified."
«If I'm able to do that, I'm able to cover a lot more pitches,» he adds, «because the minute that you get longer is the minute that my barrel loops underneath and I don't have a lot of success.»
Right now, Varsho is having a lot of success, making essential contributions to a lineup that's needed them, leveraging the tools of the hitting department working to make up lost ground, as well.
Addison Barger has had a lot more success at the plate this season and in a interview with Hazel Mae in Seattle he credits his new hitting coach for his improvements.
"Popkins has been working with me a ton and he gives me a lot of confidence in the work and to go out there and compete."
| POLL | ||
MAI 20 | 142 ANSWERS Blue Jays' Barger and Varsho credit hitting coach Popkins for improvement at plate Have you seen a difference in Addison Barger and Daulton Varsho's hitting since the Blue Jays hired David Popkins? | ||
| Yes | 127 | 89.4 % |
| No | 9 | 6.3 % |
| Too early to tell | 6 | 4.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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