How the Twins Are Obliterating Baseball’s Home Run Record

“This ballpark is huge,” Yankees pitcher C. C. Sabathia said on Monday after allowing four home runs to the Twins in a game in which there were eight over all. “Just good hitters on both sides.”

Off-season additions have boosted production: utility man Marwin Gonzalez has 12 home runs; Cruz has 382 career home runs, including 22 this season; Schoop is on a pace for the fourth 20-homer season of his career; and Cron has 18 home runs despite landing on the injured list twice. But the new hitters have accounted for only a third of Minnesota’s home run total.

Another change is the Twins’ aggressiveness. They have had the largest increase — nearly six percentage points, to 71.4 percent, since last year — in the percentage of swings at pitches in the strike zone in any season since 2003, according to FanGraphs. Fortune certainly favors the bold.

“We have a really aggressive offensive mentality,” Rowson said. “Look for good pitches to drive. It could be the first pitch of the at-bat, it could be the 10th pitch. If you get a good pitch to hit, put a good swing on it and hit the ball hard. We try to keep it that simple.”

Kepler, 26, who is having a breakout season, has taken that lesson to heart. He said he had been too passive, partly because he looked up to Joe Mauer, who won three A.L. batting titles with the Twins. Mauer was so skilled with the bat that he could take pitches and be successful.

“But I’m not as good as Joe Mauer, so I’ve got to swing early on,” Kepler said.

Being around the Twins’ aggressive hitters kept Kepler mindful about pouncing on the first pitch he could drive. He is seeing fewer pitches per plate appearance and hacking at the first pitch more often.

“Pitching is getting better so you have to take your chances early on and not let too many go by,” he said.

Source: The New York Times

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