Quadrant Hitting – Part 2

When you are formulating a game plan for your at-bat …

Do you pick the quadrant you are best at hitting or do you pick the quadrant where you think the pitcher will throw it? 

That’s the question I ended Part 1 with.  If you need to read Part 1 to get an idea of what quadrant hitting means, click HERE.

My answer to that question is YES.

The point is that it ultimately depends on the situation.  If it’s early in the count (0-0) or a count when you are ahead (1-0, 2-0), zoning a pitch up in the quadrant you are strong in is a good idea.  If the count is somewhat even (1-1, 2-1), predicting where the pitch will be has its merits.  If it’s 0-2 or 1-2, you’ll need to cover all quadrants. 

Of course, if you have a runner on second base with no outs and your job is to get the runner to third then it would be best to wait for a pitch in the outer quadrants whether that’s a strength of yours or not.

There are certainly other variables that could be added to this but the big take away is that as you move up in levels, a hitter must start to think about the situation and develop a game-plan for it.  Going up to the plate and just hacking at anything near the plate might work in Little League but a more experienced pitcher will not give you much at all to hit if he sees you doing that.

By the way, you cannot wait until the season starts to begin working on this.  Tee work, soft toss, short toss, and any other BP session in the off-season are great times to practice mental game planning.