Dodgers: Cody Bellinger Talks Beards, Hitting Adjustments In Interview With David Vassegh
Cody Bellinger’s 2018 season has been peaks and valleys. The month of May was a very rough valley, followed by a short reprieve in June where Bellinger homered in four straight contests. Such is life with a young player – and it’s often tough to know what is going on in the mind of a 22-year old going through his first full big league season.
David Vassegh of AM570 recently caught up with Bellinger in a candid interview. Within in, they talk about Bellinger’s recent adjustments he’s made in the batter’s box to his approach. Bellinger gives some credit to Matt Kemp as a veteran who has worked with him to have success.
ICYMI: @Dodgers 1B/OF @Cody_Bellinger joined @THEREAL_DV to discuss his new beard, what it's like playing with @TheRealMattKemp and more
Full interview ? https://t.co/8v1JlplEkL pic.twitter.com/j3p9lq255K
— AM 570 LA Sports (@AM570LASports) June 19, 2018
“He’s helped me a decent amount in the cage, trying to get me to spread out. That’s where I started it.”
Bellinger is referring to his semi-new stance. The first time we saw the stance was in the series opener in Pittsburgh, and Bellinger homered to center field.
Bellinger had a very nice run of games from June 5th to June 13th. Still, he’s seen some of his old struggles return since that time but overall seems a more patient hitter. Evidence of this is Bellinger has drawn 13 walks in his last 11 starts, striking out 17 times during this period. If Bellinger’s adjusments can feature close to a 1:1 walk to strike out ratio, good things should follow.
You can hear the entire interview between Bellinger and Vassegh here. They also talk about his beard, playing at Wrigley Field, and Matt Kemp’s influence on the entire lineup.
Analysis
Bellinger sure is a likable player who comes off easy to root for. These type of confounding seasons happen to young players in the game of baseball, which is one of the most difficult sports to play on earth. If Bellinger continues to work hard and listen to veterans like Kemp in regards to his approach, one must figure he will find a way to hit his way out of this slump. These stretches serve to frustrate fans. Still, his long-term outlook as a player is a high one. All signs point to Bellinger an excellent player for the Dodgers for a very long time. His 2018 season numbers of 12 homers, 32 RBI, and a .778 OPS start to climb in the near-term due to these offensive adjustments one hopes.
Bellinger needs to study Ted Williams’ book “The Science of Hitting.” Williams’ points as spot on as they were when he was playing. Bellinger and Willams very similar in size (Williams the Splendid Splinter) I think Bellinger would fix many of his problems by emulating one of the greatest hitters of all time.