Inside Baseball

Wait and See  

By looking for a good pitch, third baseman Shea Hillenbrand has given Boston more pop

By Stephen Cannella

There was a simple formula for getting Red Sox third baseman Shea Hillenbrand out last year: Pitch him anywhere but in the strike zone. "Our book on him was that he'd be hacking all the time, so we could probably get away with not throwing him a strike," says Boston manager Grady Little, who was the Indians' bench coach for the last two seasons. "We had pretty good success against him."

Hillenbrand was a wild-swinging rookie last season, but now he has a plan before every at bat. Chuck Solomon

Hillenbrand put up respectable numbers (.263, 12 home runs, 49 RBIs) for a rookie last season, but he drew a mere 13 walks in 493 plate appearances, and no other hitter in the American League with as many trips to the plate saw fewer pitches than the 3.25 he averaged. "No one in the minor leagues ever really taught me how to hit," says Hillenbrand, who nevertheless batted .313 over five seasons in Boston's farm system and led the Double A Eastern League with 171 hits for the Trenton (N.J.) Thunder in 2000. "Most of the time last year I got myself out."

Now Hillenbrand is a man with a plan. After beginning this season with a 12-game hitting streak, he was batting .308 with 27 RBIs at week's end, but most impressive was his improved patience at the plate. He had seven walks -- last year he didn't get his seventh until July 27 -- and was averaging 3.76 pitches per plate appearance. Says Little, "He is much more disciplined." Indeed, in a ninth-inning, bases-loaded pinch-hitting appearance against the Devil Rays last Saturday night, he worked righthander Victor Zambrano to a 3-and-1 count before launching a grand slam into a Tropicana Field catwalk. "I forced myself to be patient," he said after the game. "When it got to 3 and 1, I knew he had to come right at me."

Hillenbrand spent the off-season at home in Mesa, Ariz., reviewing videotape of every one of his at bats last season. He didn't like what he saw: a hitter who went to the plate with no plan of attack. This spring he concentrated on looking for pitches in specific zones early in the count and laying off everything else. The approach has made him more comfortable at the plate. "Last year I'd go into my third at bat having seen only three or four pitches," he says. "Now I see that many in my first at bat. I've already seen everything a pitcher has."

Hillenbrand keeps his focus by continuing to study videotape and having frequent conversations with Doug Gardner, a sport psychology consultant who works with players in Boston's minor league system. After he beat the Yankees with a two-run homer on a 2-2 count against closer Mariano Rivera on April 13, Hillenbrand said he had felt "an aura" come over him at the plate. "I wouldn't have gotten that hit last year," he says. "I probably would have swung at the first pitch."

Issue date: May 13, 2002

For more Inside Baseball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, May 8. Click here to subscribe to SI.hey

 

Related information
Stories
Inside the NBA: Not-so-fine China Scorecard: Figuring It Out SI's Rick Reilly: Plenty of Fight in This Old Cub SI Online: Current Issue and Archives
Multimedia
Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day