Swing (Confessions About a Mechanic)
Part two of the Twitterverse giveback. This suggestions comes way of Jake Larsen, who just so happened to give me a chance to write on DRaysBay. That turned out decently.
Truth be told, when Tommy Rancel suggested an interview with Jaime Cevallos, I was skeptical. Cevallos, self-labeled as The Swing Mechanic, was the man responsible for Ben Zobrist transformation. The process was easy enough though, and Cevallos was a willing participant, so why not? Rancel has gone on to write multiple pieces surrounding what he named The Zobrist Code and Cevallos’ popularity has mushroomed since that interview. Just Google Cevallos’ name and you can see he’s become a bit of a cult figure.
Rancel delves into Cevallos’ history in more detail than I will, but it goes like this: Jaime Cevallos was a scrap-hitting middle infielder who struggled to break the Mendoza line at Saint Mary’s University. Along the way, he began ignoring all outside advice about his swing, and instead looked to the professionals (in this case, he cut out images from issues of Sports Illustrated) for help. After doing this, Cevallos morphed into the Ted Williams of Saint Mary’s University.
Through the ebbs and flows of life, fate found Ben Zobrist and Jaime Cevallos together. Months later, Ben Zobrist became Ben Zobrist. Was it fate? Of course it was. Fate even asked for a finder’s fee. Zobrist, not unlike Cevallos, was a slap-hitting middle infielder who drew comparisons to Jay Bell. During his rookie year of 2006, Zobrist would show bunt in between having the bat knocked out of his hands. Over the last two seasons Zobrist has hit 39 homers in 699 at-bats. Zobrist has 23 career homers in 1,336 minor league at-bats. Saying that appears improbable is being kind.
Zobrist isn’t the only Cevallos’ student to flash improved power, either. The Reds’ Drew Sutton saw his ISO increase after meeting with Cevallos. The Rays’ Justin Ruggiano is in the midst of a scorching spring, hitting .447/.488/.868 in 38 at-bats and reinvigorating a career that appeared to cap at the Triple-A level. And there are other minor leaguers who appear on Cevallos’ site with testimonies on how much Cevallos’ MKNX bat has improved their results, although the numbers come in either too small of a sample size, or do not support these statements.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see a few of Cevallos’ video breakdowns, much like the ones he shares with his hitters, and hear him speak on hitting planes and bat placement. And, look, the guy is very convincing. He’s clearly confident in his abilities and at the very least sounds like he knows a little bit about what it means to swing the bat with power. He’ll flash a few Ted Williams’ images into the fray, then go back to the hitter in question, then switch back to Ken Griffey Jr. in his prime, and yes, it’s very easy to get lost in the whole thing and take Cevallos as a hitting prophet.
Yet, I’m still a skeptic. Players can improve, yes, and Cevallos very well could have found the secrets to unearthing power potential in any batter, but the sample size is just too small to attempt and draw meaningful conclusions about his Midas-like touch. In the end, though, it’s not up to me to decide whether Cevallos’ teachings have merit or not. Plus, at the very least, you have to applaud him for making a bit of a name for himself and having big dreams.
Sometimes success in life depends on being able to convince people of your authority rather than actually being an authority. Isn’t that what some experts are all about?
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To your knowledge, has he received any phone calls from MLB teams?
If there’s even a 20% chance he’s part of Zorilla’s success I’d think he could consult somewhere. (Like perhaps the team James Loney plays for…)
I agree. If we consider how much a typical hitting coach can do for a hitter, it certainly seems like Cervallos could at least match that output with the potential of creating a hitting revolution. The costs would be relatively low (hire him as a roving hitting instructor?) and the rewards potentially very, very high.
If it turns out that he can’t make players into all-starts, then he’d probably be on par with most other hitting coaches.
Not saying this guy’s a fraud, because I don’t have anything concrete to back that up. However, I am deeply, deeply skeptical. And people who make their living selling snake oil are usually pretty good at convincing others (and possibly themselves as well) that they’re for real.
I wrote on this topic a couple of weeks ago. Name link -> “The Power of Zobrist.”
Dr. Mike Marshall comes to mind for some reason…..
Dr. Mike Marshall however has never had a successful pitcher. None of his clients have made such drastic career turns and he’s blackballed by MLB because he’s so arrogant, he won’t have his pitching studies peer reviewed. Cervallos on the other hand seems to have the blessing of teams, despite a similar, cocky, I’ve found the secret to success attitude (although Cervallos appears less crass).
I suppose the question is what exactly are you skeptical of? If anyone is saying that this guy has some magic truths that will fix everyone’s swing and make them into major league stars, then yes, you should be skeptical.
But I wouldn’t be skeptical that for certain players, who have certain skills, his advice may help them improve and refine their craft. Which is, after all, identical to what any hitting coach would do.
“If anyone is saying that this guy has some magic truths that will fix everyone’s swing and make them into major league stars, then yes, you should be skeptical.”
I think that’s partially what he’s skeptical of. At least that’s the part I question. It just becomes iffy for when you start selling a tool and saying things like anybody can become significantly better after a few sessions. Sorry, but no amount of swinging any tool is going to make you Babe Ruth, regardless of what comparisons he wishes to make.
Furthermore, where is the revolutionary idea? The idea of the rotational swing has been around at least since Ted Williams wrote about it. Call it by whatever new cooler name you wish, as many are doing right now, but it is the same general mechanic. I think it’s the correct mechanic, especially for MLB talent, but for anybody to claim they stumbled upon the rotational swing on their own is a bit disingenuous I think.
That said, he is good at what he does, and he has found professional players to coach, so you gotta give him a ton of credit for that.
One thing most folks don’t know is that the minor league balls made in China are deader compared to MLB balls made in Costa Rica, and are made to different specs. This came from a MLB report on balls used in 2000 to make sure they are in spec (should still be available on net). IIRCC, minor league balls travel 10 ft less than MLB balls in the 400 ft test.
Things might have changed since that report, but it’s something those who project minor league players to MLB play should take into consideration. Other factors are better lighting and more frequent change of balls (so they are whiter).
I’m not necessarily sure that, during Zobrist’s 1,300-odd minor league at-bats, he had about 80 flyballs that fell about 10ft short of the fence…
Judging from what you can find on Cevallos’ website, I have to agree with ChadMOKM in that what he is saying is not some new revolutionary method. His “arrogance” looks to me like a marketing ploy, but his premise at least seems grounded in sound mechanics. Back when Carlos Gomez was writing mechanics articles at THT, he would often point out the position Cevallos calls the “slot” and he would also emphasize hitters being centrally balanced at the point of contact, so it seems that only the packaging is really new here. Sometimes old ideas need new packaging after all.
I suspect though that across the multitude of levels of baseball, swing mechanics are not strongly understood. Most hitting coaches are ex-players teaching what worked for them. That doesn’t necessarily that they really understand the construction of the swing or that they can effectively translate their own success across a range of body types and approaches. If Cevallos can do that, he deserves some credit- IF
Except that, in this case, Cevallos’ “slot” would be different from the way I would term it.
Nothing is worse than struggling as a hitter. You lose confidence in your swing, so you make adjustments that lead to bad habits and even worse performance, so you lose even more confidence, which leads to more tweaking – it’s a spiral to hell. Cevallos is infusing hitters with confidence and fundamental swing techniques. I don’t see the problem here.
http://searchengineweb.tk xv