20
2013
Duda’s Bat Is Showing Signs Of Life
An article by 
Lucas Duda got off to one of the more forgettable starts that a player can have when spring training opened up back in February. In fact, for the month of February, he was 1/10 at the plate with seven strikeouts. With numbers like those, fans began to question whether Duda would ever be able to put it together at the big league level.
Duda was given a few days off after his slow start, and the fact that he was recovering from a fractured wrist and that he changed his stance started to become the excuses for his slow start. Mets fans were skeptical, but the month of March is proving to be much better for the left-handed slugger.
Through the 18th, Duda is hitting .286 with three home runs—not too shabby.
Hitting is funny like that. You can go weeks without hitting water if you were to jump off a bridge, then all of a sudden be on complete fire again. One of the smartest decisions I have ever seen Terry Collins make was to rest Duda for those few games after his slow start. A decision like that could have potentially saved Duda’s season. Sure, Collins could have let Duda keep going out there and try to swing his way out of his slump, but what would have happened had it not worked? A young player like Duda could have been mired in that slump for weeks, and maybe get to the point where he’s trying to figure it out down in Triple-A again. Another demotion could have been detrimental to Duda.
Instead, Collins made the right decision in giving Duda a few days off, and Duda has responded in March with very formidable numbers thus far.
It wasn’t until the opposite field homerun that Duda hit on Monday (3/18) that I started to really get the sense that he is finally coming around. As a hitter, you know you are locked in when you are taking the ball to the opposite field gap. For Duda, the left-centerfield homerun shows that his bat had officially awoken from its February slumber.
In a quote from the New York Post, Collins stated “That’s one of the biggest things of spring training that we’ve been trying to get from him, and before that. To get him to understand the great power he’s got to center field and to left-center field, and certainly it’s good to see it.”
I always remember growing up as a ball player and having it drilled into my brain to work on hitting the ball to right-center (for a right-handed hitter, opposite for left-handed). It helps to keep the hitter inside the baseball, thus becoming a more complete hitter using all fields. This is a difficult philosophy to teach to younger hitters, especially power hitters who have the urge to pull everything. The key is to get them to trust their hands, and that not everything has to be pulled. The homeruns will come; they just have to trust their hands.
It’s good to see Duda taking the ball the other way with power. It looks like Duda is trusting his hands again, which is a great sign. It’s easy for hitters to try and break out of their slump by falling back into their comfort zone, which is pulling the ball. However, that just tends to dig the hitter into a deeper slump, and it isn’t until they trust their hands that the hits start coming again. It’s like the guy who just had his heart broken by his girlfriend in college, and now doesn’t want to leave his dorm room because it’s his comfort zone. It may be awhile before he trusts the opposite sex and gets that confidence back that he had before. But once he leaves that comfort zone, and starts to trust again, he starts getting the digits.
There is still a week and a half until opening day, but the Mets, and the fans alike, should be pleased to see what Duda has been doing with the bat so far in the month of March. If he continues to build on the success he has had in March, and focus on taking the ball to the left-centerfield gap, the Mets will have a very dangerous hitter on their hands in 2013.
About the Author: Mitch Petanick
Mitch is currently an Editor and Minor League Analyst for Mets Merized Online. His baseball experience includes being a former All-Conference collegiate baseball player who had numerous professional tryouts, and he is currently a hitting instructor. He has been involved with the game of baseball for over 30 years now as a player, coach, and consultant. Mitch is also a former Featured Columnist on Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @FirstPitchMitch.
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I have always respected Duda’s power but still feel his best position would be as a DH in the American League or as a bench player for occassional duties as a first baseman or outfielder in a platoon situation. I just think he is a primary DHer like Ortiz in Boston or Jason Giambi at the end of his career. That is where I project him to be and maybe sooner than later.
We can just hope for the best
Hopefully he can become a poor mans Adam Dunn
How about a modern day Ralph Kiner?
duda never was (coming up) a traditional dead pull big swing power hitter. He was more of a bat control, use the whole field, don’t K much type of guy. if anything, he downplayed his raw power.
so if he is working on going back to that, it is a reversion, not a reinvention. if anything it was last year getting away from it (trying to pull more HRs) that threw his approach off.
in 2011, he had an extremely good year on offense, and in the 2nd half when he became a regular, he put up huge #s (something like a .950 OPS and a .325 BA).
if you need a reason why they are still playing him out in LF, it is that. They really need a bat that can do what he was doing (including driving in runs) and he is getting every opportunity to prove he can be that guy again, and field well enough to cover for the glove.
Maybe, Just maybe, like murphy and Ike Davis, this new philosophy install in the mets organization of “Wait for your pitch” affected his game going forward. as you mentioned, after watching Duda coming of ages in the second half of 2011 we all had high hopes for the guy, then… Dave Hugens happened imho…
except that Duda all through the minors was the poster child for this approach. He was always patient, had a high OBP, etc. If anything, he was not aggressive enough on turning on pitches early in the count.
and since that is exactly what Hudgens preaches, buying into it should be a fine thing for him.
My guess, if he changed anything, it was going away from the overall approach of hunting a pitch and using the whole field, and going for more pulling to hit more HRs.
and Murphy and Ike are not valid references, since you can’t say that Hudgens (who at least Murphy raves about) approach had any negative impact. TRS has even supplied #s a few times on Ike (about 1st pitch swinging). But I guess you are giving him credit for “fixing” ike last year and helping him hit 32 HRs?
and murphy seems to be the same hacker he always was.
Off topic– If Wright and Murphy start the season on the DL, and Valdy plays 2B, who is he 5th OF? If Duda, Cowgill, and Byrd are the Starters, and Baxter is 4th? The only other OFers on the 40 man roster are Kirk and Lagares. I assume they won’t want to burn a 40- man spot for a short term add like Brown.
Assuming IFs Turner, Lutz, and Q (Hicks DFA’d for Q), there aren’t any IF candidates on the 40man either. You could start Q at 2B and have Valdy as a co-starter in the OF I guess…
Dave, Don’t worry, sandy has a plan for when a player goes down due to injury. Just have faith, or a calculator
depends on who the extra guy is that makes the team instead. But, Valdy can also serve as the 5th OF, if the murphy replacement is another IF.
You could play Q at 2b and Valdy in the OF, but I don’t think they want to burn a 40man to keep Hicks or add somebody like Satin for the IF.
depends on Wright also. If he is out, you likely get Lutz (already on the 40 man) and with Turner, you can fill out the IF if Valdy is in the OF.
Hicks of Bixler (can’t remember which) is already on the 40 man, so that is your likely guy.
There would be no need for an additional OF because even though Spin would get some time at 2B, he could move to the OF in a pinch, should a need arise…
[...] could be really bad, just like the 2000 outfield was on paper. Besides, if Lucas Duda can keep hitting the ball the way he has lately in ST, maybe he can make us forget that he has the range of and Easter Island statue in [...]
Hopefully all that work this Spring will finally pay off for Duda.
Couple of things about the Dude, who I’ve followed fairly closely.
The first is that he seems to be Teixiera-like in the way that he gets off to slow starts. He had dismal numbers at the start of his stints in both 2010 and 2011.
Secondly, It looked to me that in the 2011 season he pulled out of the opening slump by going for contact, hitting the ball the other way. Once he got his average up, he started to hit for some power. Last year, I think he got it into his head that he had to pull more and wound up pounding the ball into the ground to the 2nd baseman.
I know we all have guarded feelings about his ability to stay in the MLB….
But we also should recognize that NO ONE on this team could do more for making it a formidable and competitive team than a Duda with a reasonable average and a potential 30+ HRs would bring to it…..
He will cost us at times with the glove….And he may never be in the running for a batting title…
But in a VERY BAD 2/3rds of a year he knocked 15 Dingers
if he can just bring the average into the .265+ range while hitting homers at a similar rate to last year this team would be involved in a Division race!
Add a stanton to that and we are the team to beat in the Division….
So all those who think being positive in the face of disaster should be hoping and praying for Duda to get it going.
If Duda hits .260/.330 with 20+ HR then his defense in LF should not be too much of a concern as Baxter/Cowgill can adequately play LF late in games…
With no prospect in waiting, Duda is the logical choice to play LF on opening day.
I know everyone is going to be up in arms when Valdespin doesn’t start opening day, but we face a LH starter so Turner would start over him at 2B and so would Byrd and Cowgill in the OF.
That might be true but Valdy is hitting lefties as well as righties.
leave it to Terry to bench the only guy showing a speed/power dynamic in ST to start a coming off injury mediocre hitting and fielding RH batter that actually has reverse platoon splits.
Turner should never get a start unless it is a scheduled day off for some regular.
In his limited time in the majors last season, Valdespin struggled mightily against LHP and all his power came against RHP.
It’s only april so the manager is going to go with the player most likely to produce on a given day and when a LH pitcher is on the hill, Duda, Cowgill and Byrd are more likely to be productive.
When that ceases to be the case, he will get more and more AB…
If he shows it in the regular season then that’s a different story, but he will be platooning early on.
Duda and Valdespin will always start against RHP and Cowgill and Byrd will always start against LHP. My inclination is Duda and Cowgill will get the most crossover AB although if Murphy is back, people should get ready for Valdespin not playing as much as we want him too…