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Yasiel Puig

Puig came down from the big league club in August of 2016. With most players, I try to go back and look at their history and how they have arrived with this swing.  He was struggling to get to the fast ball in 2016. One of the first things I noticed from his rookie year was how his hands would ride up in '13 and now they just fell back behind him. He was a lot more open and didn't have that turn in in his gather. This was making the swing longer and he couldn't create space to allow his hands to come through the hitting zone. The question that I asked myself was how did he arrive with this swing. He was a lot larger now then earlier in his career

In BP, I just wanted him to understand how in his sequence how he pulls his hands back when he goes forward. With the drill he would pull his hands down first then pull his hands backward. When he first arrived he would just push them straight back while he was gathering. This move allowed him to work with his movements and created a better mechanism for his swing

I got him to do some drills to feel how the body was supposed to work. 

Another thing that he worked on was creating a better path with his bat and lead elbow. He would do a lot of cage work. Just feeling it

He would pick certain ABs when he couldn't feel the timing of when things were supposed to happen. He would do the drill in the game

He started to create better rhythm with his hands and body. His posture started to get more athletic with each day

2017

In 2017, I was working in triple A and in the big leagues. Puig was struggling again in May. After one game, he wanted to work. We went into the cage. I kept asking what he is trying to do. He said separation. I asked him how separation works. He said push his hands back. We talked about the year before when he came down and hit.  

5-29-17

Had really good success with the batting glove drill. It shorten everything up as his hands entered the hitting zone

5-27-17

Swings leading up to the adjustment. 

5-28-17

5-30-17

8-16-17

10-24-17

10-29-17