Lorenzo Cain ... How much of hitting is talent?

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Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
The story of Lorenzo Cain is interesting. He never played baseball until the spring of his sophomore season. At 19, he hit .347 in the rookie league. At 20, he hit .307 in Class A. This year, at 28, he hit .301 in the American League and is the Royals' starting center fielder.

In some sports - tennis, to name one - it would be impossible to be a world class player if you stated at 17.

What does it say about baseball (and softball indirectly) that Cain can start so late, and do what he has done?

Let's take a travel softball, which assumes a player who is playing 50-100 games/year.

What makes a good hitter ...

- Natural talent, athleticism, hand/eye, etc.
- Practice, repitition
- Playing vs. good competition, quality of game experience
- Confidence/mental
- Mechanics

IMO, natural talent/athleticism is more than 50 percent of it, assuming you're a true travel ball player and getting at least the minimum that comes from that in terms of games, practices. The rest are enhancers.

What do you think?
 
Jan 7, 2014
972
0
Western New York
Larry Nelson took up golf at 21...he has 40 wins and 3 majors to his name

Larry Nelson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IMO there are several pieces here...

Athleticism
Fast twitch MF
Exceptional hand-eye coordination
Mental ability to learn\desire to excel
Ability to be coached\take instruction
Having someone see\recognize the potential

The last 2 is where I see plenty of failure...

- atrocious coaching...I'm sure we could all go off here...

- many coaches OVERLOOK athleticism

My guess is Cain had a coach that saw something and then Cain's desire\ability took him to the next level...he is amazing!

CP
 
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
Interesting....
Honestly, as far as results go. The best girl on my tb team practices the least. She is ALWAYS unavailable for this or that. Mostly due to the plethora of other sports she plays. She hasn't struck out in a game dating back to early summer. With a batting avg over .500 and a dozen HR's. Yet, others on the team work at it 3-4 days a week and struggle to hit .300....
She's an athletic phenomenon. God given talent, strength, speed, and overall game smarts. Just not fair !
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
The best girl on my tb team practices the least. She is ALWAYS unavailable for this or that. Mostly due to the plethora of other sports she plays. She hasn't struck out in a game dating back to early summer. With a batting avg over .500 and a dozen HR's. Yet, others on the team work at it 3-4 days a week and struggle to hit .300....
She's an athletic phenomenon. God given talent, strength, speed, and overall game smarts. Just not fair !

Had a girl on my team like that. Saw her my DD's first season of 8U rec ball, told somebody, 'That must be what a college player looks like at age 7.' She does practice a bit more than what you described, because her father coaxes her to do it, but puts no effort/concentration into it. Don't know that she's ever made a change to her swing that was the conscious result of coaching. Has no work ethic at practice. But when it's game time, she loves to play. Just steps up there and mashes the ball.
 
May 31, 2012
716
0
Cain had size and speed. That will get you drafted or signed. I'm not sure of the route he took.
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Interesting....
Honestly, as far as results go. The best girl on my tb team practices the least. She is ALWAYS unavailable for this or that. Mostly due to the plethora of other sports she plays. She hasn't struck out in a game dating back to early summer. With a batting avg over .500 and a dozen HR's. Yet, others on the team work at it 3-4 days a week and struggle to hit .300....
She's an athletic phenomenon. God given talent, strength, speed, and overall game smarts. Just not fair !

Unfortunately the athleticism will only take her so far. At some point she will start to lose ground to lesser athletes who have a strong work ethic. At which she will need to develop a productive work ethic or find something else she can excel at without a high level of commitment. If she develops her own strong work ethic she has a very bright future. The best of the best possess both the natural skills and the work ethic. Consider Michael Jordan one of the best athletes ever. Despite his natural abilities, nobody outworked him in practice where he was often the first to arrive and the last to leave.
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
Another reason that I brought this up was to discuss the value of a really good swing, ie, mechanics. So much of this forum is devoted to the pursuit of the high-level swing.

Just how valuable is a great swing?
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
Another reason that I brought this up was to discuss the value of a really good swing, ie, mechanics. So much of this forum is devoted to the pursuit of the high-level swing.

Just how valuable is a great swing?

That's an interesting question. I try to focus on mechanics as much as possible, but I don't see too many hitting experts posting video of Hunter Pence. Yet he has had a pretty nice career in the Bigs!
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
I wonder if you need a good swing to get noticed even if the batter has good results. Gets you in the door.

That's pretty interesting. Because in softball, recruits send video of them hitting front toss, or even off the tee. I realize that is merely the invitation to be watched in person, but I wonder how many players are ruled out just on the basis of the video swing, if only because coaches don't have time to see everybody in person and have to make some educated guesses about what is and isn't worth their time to pursue further.
 
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