For those who missed it (or ignored the post due to so many comments), please check out Part One of our Hitter Profile on Justin Smoak. Teacherman makes a lot of interesting comments about Smoak's swing - he parallels it with Dr. Chris Yeager's work, which he believes does not produce the high-level MLB swing. Since I don't want to get too technical - this can be a featured story in the future - I will simply say that I disagree with the assertion that Dr. Chris Yeager's work does not mimic or produce the high-level MLB swing, and that I mostly believe in Dr. Yeager's ideas about hitting mechanics. Again, pages upon pages can be written about what the high-level MLB swing actually is, and it's something I plan on talking about in the future.

However, for now, we'll stick with our basic hitting breakdown using the four stages of the swing as Dr. Yeager talks about. This is the clip we'll be analyzing, since the end result was a HR and it represents Smoak's "best swing."

Part Two of our Hitter Profile on Justin Smoak continues after the break...

The four phases of the baseball swing are:

• Back leg load
• Back leg push
• Front leg block
• Front leg push

As you can see, they are pretty self-explanatory! Dr. Chris Yeager describes the high level swing as a series of straight-line pushes that you use to convert linear momentum into rotational momentum, resulting in a high-velocity swing that fully utilizes the stretch shortening cycle to produce maximum batspeed.

Step One: Back Leg Load

Smoak has a quiet back leg load - he doesn't have an exaggerated load into the backside like Derrek Lee does:

There's nothing wrong with what Derrek Lee is doing, or Justin Smoak for that matter - all that we care about is that there is "negative" movement that loads the back leg.

Smoak loads his back leg well and has the barrel of the bat pointing at the pitcher, both of which are good points. The longer we can maintain a vertical barrel (or one that is pointing towards the pitcher), the better, as this helps to create a shorter swing. The generally-accepted axiom in baseball is a "five frame swing" - a swing that goes from hand launch to contact in five frames or less when viewed on a 30 FPS video.

Step Two: Back Leg Push

Smoak has a low and traditional stride that is a straightline push into footblock. An example of a non-traditional stride would be Chipper Jones:

Again, there's nothing wrong with a non-traditional stride at all, as long as you land in a straight-line closed position. Even Johnny Damon, who sets up extremely open, ends up striding with his foot in a straight line landing pattern.

A common phrase used during the back leg push phase is "leave the hands behind" or "walk in front of the hands." The point of this cue is to gain Lead Arm Extension, which is critical to build the stretch shortening cycle between the core muscles and the arms. Dr. Yeager's method involves measuring the angle of the lead arm (for a RHB, their left arm; an LHB, their right arm). The closer to 180 degrees, the better. People also call this "scapular loading" or "shoulder loading" when the hands load straight back. I prefer to just call it Lead Arm Extension (LAE).

From eyeballing it (I need to figure out how to measure angles using software - any suggestions?), Smoak seems to have about 160-165 degrees of LAE, which isn't bad, but could be better.

Step Three: Front Leg Block

The front leg block phase occurs after the weight shift from the back to the front begins to translate linear momentum into rotational momentum. Here's a great picture (albeit after contact) of Alex Gordon showing a clean block of the front leg:

The front leg has a tendency to open slightly, so keeping it as perpendicular to the plate as possible is best. We want to block the momentum cleanly and efficiently to transfer it through a series of pushes against the ground - also known as Ground Reactionary Forces.

(Example: When you fall to the ground, why does it hurt? It doesn't hurt because you hit the ground - it hurts because the ground hits back. That is a perfect example of Ground Reactionary Forces.)

Smoak lands on a slightly flexed leg, which is good. Landing on a stiff leg will inhibit rotation and will also jar the hitter's head, moving his field of vision around and making it even tougher to hit a thrown baseball. After the front leg block phase, watch the clip to see how linear momentum is transferred into rotational momentum and how Smoak's head stays perfectly still. The linear portion of the swing has been completed, and now we are transferring the energy built up from the straightline pushes through the kinetic chain.

Smoak initiates the swing by opening the hips, which engages the stretch shortening cycle. (The advantages of gaining LAE should be obvious at this point!) The hips clear, pulling the handle around Smoak's body in a circular path (Jack Mankin of Batspeed.com was the first to publish this revelation), and finally his hands come through, taking us to the final step of the baseball swing...

Step Four: Front Leg Push

Notice how a few frames before the Front Leg Push step of this swing occurs that Smoak's hips are maximally cleared and that his shoulders are nearly square to the pitcher! The three short cues to the baseball swing can be summed up easily - Hips, Handle, Hands. The hips clear, the handle comes around the body, and only then do the hands deliver the barrel into the zone.

Also notice how this swing is not a "downward swing," nor is it "level" to the ground. Your Little League or High School coach that told you to "swing down to get up" or "swing level to the ground" was dead wrong. The swing path is initially downwards, yes, but it is level to the ball's flight, not the ground! This means that the end of the swing is going to be on an upwards plane, since the ball is delivered from a raised mound from an overhand throw. A swing plane that does not keep the barrel of the bat in the ball's flight path will ultimately be a failure, as there will only be one point of intersection between the bat's path and the ball's path. A rotational swing that keeps the barrel of the bat on the path of the ball's flight gives multiple points of contact and maximizes adjustability.

The frame that I chose to freeze Smoak's swing for the Front Leg Push tells us a ton about the high-level baseball swing. Note how Smoak's arms are bent and not extended in the "Power V" that baseball coaches often talk about; many misinformed coaches will talk about "getting extension" with your arms, as if you should hit the ball with extended arms. This is absolutely incorrect. The "Power V" is the effect of an efficient swing, not the cause. The frames after Smoak's swing show that his arms are pulled into an extended position after contact and NOT before.

Right before contact, the high-level baseball hitter will firm up the front leg - adding additional power to the swing through a final push against the ground - and will uncock the wrists to deliver the barrel of the bat into the ball.

Also notice how Smoak hits the ball just beyond his front foot - this is normal in most hitters. There exists this concept of "letting the ball get deep" and that hitting it deeper in the zone means the hitter has quicker batspeed. While the cue of letting the ball travel in the zone is a good one for most hitters, it is simply not what really happens in the high-level swing. Nearly all professionals make their strongest contact at or around their front foot, regardless of where the ball's flight ends up (pull, straightaway, or opposite field). Letting the ball travel deep is important to get the "feeling" of not lunging at pitches well out in front, but this typically happens when the hitter has a poor Front Leg Push phase, since their front leg is collapsed and not braced against the ground.

Overall, I really like Justin Smoak's swing, even if Teacherman doesn't. Time will tell if he can hit in the minors and in the big league level, and I'm betting that he'll be good for 20-25 home runs, plenty of doubles, and solid walk rates. I don't imagine he'll hit over .300, but I see his peak years being .290/.385/.550 with a typical line of .265/.345/.490 for Smoak. Basically, I think his best comp would be Lyle Overbay with a bit more power and the ability to hit switch.

(This post ended up being pretty long, so expect it to be regurgitated in a dedicated Hitting page on the left-side of the site in a few weeks.)