Fundamental Change

Baseball is going back to basics-just not the ones you learned from your old man

INSIDE STORY
On a cold March day in Fort Myers, JOE MAUER is driving baseballs over the left-centerfield fence like he's flipping pancakes. This makes no sense. The weather is downright nasty, and the 21-year-old Twins catcher hits lefthanded, so he really has no right to launch balls that far, in that direction. But Mauer is the prototypical practitioner of a hitting style that's gaining popularity. In diamond parlance, it's called hitting inside the baseball. Translated for the rest of us: the hitter starts his hands forward with the barrel of the bat lagging slightly behind. This allows him a fraction more time to identify the pitch and adjust his swing. In the past, most hitters utilizing this style-Hall of Famer-in-waiting Tony Gwynn, for example-tended to rap singles and doubles to the opposite field. Not anymore. "More guys are using that style because they've got the strength to wait a little longer and still drive the ball," says a longtime scout. Mauer learned the approach at a baseball camp as a boy, from fellow Minnesotan Paul Molitor. The big leaguer demonstrated to the campers how he used BP to spray the ball around the field. Mauer followed Molitor's example, hitting to all fields, then grew up to be 6'4'' and 225 pounds to Molitor's six feet, 185. "When I struggle," says Mauer, "it's because I get away from hitting inside the baseball. Then I just try to go back to hitting the ball the other way." With distance.

OFF THE CHART
In the late 1990s, a young Padres executive was fascinated by the Braves' radical defensive alignments. Gold Glover Andruw Jones covered centerfield and the gaps, while the corner outfielders stood so close to the foul lines, you half-expected to see them covered with chalk. When Greg Maddux pitched, the second baseman and shortstop edged so far toward the foul lines that they really couldn't be called middle infielders. THEO EPSTEIN, then with San Diego, noticed that the fielders always seemed to be in the right places at the right times. "What they've been able to do with their pitching has a lot to do with their defense," says Epstein, who's implemented a precise defensive philosophy with the Red Sox, much of it rooted in statistics. Instead of alignments based on general spray charts, Boston factors in such variables as pitcher, pitch selection and game situation. In other words, where's A-Rod likely to hit the ball when he's behind in the count against a sinkerballer who's throwing a breaking pitch? Galen Carr, Boston's advance scouting coordinator, processes reports and data and briefs coaches Dale Sveum and Lynn Jones, who monitor positioning pitch by pitch. In the division series last season, the Red Sox shut down Angels leadoff man Chone Figgins by crowding their infielders toward the foul lines and either pounding him inside or throwing far outside. "Our staff has done well in making this a priority," understates Epstein. Maybe that's what TOM YAWKEY'S Red Sox were missing all those years.

FLIGHT PLAN
Swiping second base used to be a simple drag race between a runner breaking from first and a pitcher unloading the ball toward the plate. But over the past decade, pitchers have turned to covert ops in their efforts to slow basestealers. Among other things, they tend to hold the ball longer after getting the catcher's sign. The longer the pitcher waits, the theory goes, the more likely he is to take the spring out of a runner's legs. But CARL CRAWFORD, who paced the AL last season with 59 steals and scored 104 runs, has some countermeasures of his own. "They want to get you flat-footed," says the 23-yearold Devil Rays outfielder, "so you have to make sure your feet are in ready position. You have to stay focused." Crawford is also armed with an enormously important piece of knowledge, a tip from D-Rays coach Billy Hatcher. Most pitchers don't attempt pickoffs after holding the ball at length, because they're not in rhythm to step off the mound and throw. "You pretty much know he's going to home plate as soon as he picks up his foot," says Crawford. "And you can take off."

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
As a TV analyst during the 2004 playoffs, Al Leiter repeatedly lamented hits allowed on two-strike counts. When you're ahead 0-2, the 39-year-old lefty maintained, you have three chances to lure a hitter into flailing at a ball out of the zone. But today, young pitchers attack the strike zone when they're ahead in the count. "You want to put hitters away," says Astros closer BRAD LIDGE, 28. "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to waste pitches. You see a guy like Greg Maddux nibble on the corner, that's one thing. He's a master of that. But someone who comes up and is not aggressive probably won't last in the big leagues." In 2004, Lidge averaged 4.00 pitches per batter and 15.6 per inning, despite racking up 14.9 K's per nine innings. Leiter averaged 4.33 pitches per batter, 18.7 per inning. The shift in strategy may be due in part to MLB's efforts to establish a uniform strike zone; pitchers no longer have an extra two or three inches off the outside edge to nibble. And, as Lidge points out, hitters are more likely to swing at bad pitches if the pitcher's rep is to attack the strike zone. "If they know you're a nibbler, they're going to wait and look for that," he says. "Hitters have to be more aggressive if you're more aggressive."

BACKHANDED COMPLEMENT
The infielder's refrain is as old as baseball itself: get in front of the ball and use two hands. But, particularly for shortstops, that advice is outdated. Now, infielders are taught to backhand grounders hit to their right and trust their glove work, a technique that coaches believe was imported from Latin America. Watch the master, Omar Vizquel, use his glove hand like a fencer, moving freely and stabbing at grounders, reacting easily to bad hops. Coaches still advise two hands on routine plays, but they teach the one-handed method on grounders hit into the hole because it allows shortstops to reach the ball on a direct line, instead of circling. As a kid growing up in Venezuela, Dodgers SS CESAR IZTURIS watched videotape of countryman Vizquel and was amazed. Then, when Izturis signed with the Blue Jays in 1996, he was formally taught to backhand. "You can be much quicker with one hand," he says. "You can set your feet faster. Even before I field the backhand, my feet are set and I'm ready to make a throw." Last year, Izturis won his first of what's likely to be many Gold Gloves. So remember, kids: if it's in the hole, don't get in front of the ball and use one hand.

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