 What's up everybody? Welcome back to sequence. We are here for at bat number two with 2019 All-Star David Dahl This one's against Walker Bueller and why is this video important to you? I think just because the you know, how good Bueller is he's one of the best pitchers in the league He's he's young. He's gonna be one of the best for a long time and it's always a battle when you're facing a guy like this um guy has some electric stuff hundreds spin rate top of the zone Cutter slider change curve like he has he has it all so he's he's definitely tough at that so just be able to To to get him on a high fastball was it was a good feeling and it's actually a cool. So I made an adjustment going into the 2019 season so in 2018 I had a had a pretty good year had a good run at the end there and then I really struggled with the playoffs and uh We wanted to me and my guy uh, Trent Otis We we worked in the off season about cleaning some stuff up and how to go about that So a lot of times I was a guy my hands were high I would load and sometimes I would load too much and activate my shoulders And so when I'd activate my shoulders, I'd get super You know I start flying open and I would struggle on I would miss some pitchers that I should hit And so we really wanted to clean up some of that clean up or you know We did a lot of bat path work Clean up that path on certain pitches A lot of the times especially for me It was like the low and end pitch out of out of Tennessee to fly open But also I'd hit that ball on the ground instead of you know, or a lot of lefties You know, they love the ball down and in and they drive it So we did a lot of a lot of work with that a lot of just getting into our launch position Our launch spot and working from there and just trying to be quick with the barrel So we made the adjustment to in order to do that My adjustment was we experimented kind of moving my hands a little lower and just trying to get You know more relaxed. I think we talked about you know, Justin Turner His hands are pretty his hands are pretty low, but he's just very relaxed up there So I wanted to see if that could help me You know get a little quicker and kind of just relax the upper body and let the legs kind of do Do all do more of the work and then another thing was we worked on Hinging just a little more instead of because sometimes I had a tendency just to stay upright and not like Have any kind of tail or hinge and so that kind of would help me Clear out my path on some of the lower pitches that I was getting So going into spring training and and early in the season it was going really well. It was working for me and You know This was early in the season so we can I ended up making another adjustment kind of towards the like middle of may But we can I can go over it after we after I Face be aware When you're talking about off-season adjustments and you're saying, you know, you're working on your launch position What what drills were you doing? What or is it just straight up? Stance and posture and hand placement or were there actual drills where you were yeah, there were drills I did a lot of uh drills on off a tee where it was like some constraint drills where I would put The tee with the ball on it here and then next to it like closer to me I would put a tee up and it would allow like I ended up having to Like it was a constraint So if I ended up like kind of going forward or you know going down like too much or pushing I would end up that that tee would get in the way So in order to hit like that down an end pitch I had to like really turn the barrel behind me get underneath it and and so we did a lot of stuff with the tee We did a A lot of uh, you know some stuff on up against the net A lot of like quickness drills where I would just get into my launch setup And he would come over with a ball like next to me and just like sit here and then drop it And I would have to hit it before the ball hits the ground And I think on my I've actually posted a lot of my off-season work on like my instagram and twitter I think so if people are interested they could see that and I'm actually I think today I'm going to hit and we're actually Going to make like a cool series of drills that I do and kind of like the progressions that we do and stuff That's just kind of helped me like, you know, it might not work for everybody this game You know everybody's body is different their thoughts are different, but just kind of You know stuff that's helped me, uh, you know get better and uh, yeah, those were those were the drills We did it a lot and then you know was able to have pretty instant success kind of that season I I started out really hot Was doing a lot of stuff But one thing I was doing was striking out a little more than I wanted But you know, I made the adjustment a little like in may that really helped me even more But we can kind of talk about that one the next to that I I love hearing that from guys because it's a it's a sentiment that I share You know, there's not one way to do things and every single guy that we've had on here says that And you have to have the ability to Make adjustments Find drills that work for you and your body because not everyone's built the same So I think it's great to have guys like you building resources Of these drills, you know, if some guys like, hey man, I kind of look like David Daum I kind of swing like him. What drills is he doing? You're putting it out there and I think that really I mean, I would have loved that when I was a kid to have some some A big league all-star show me what drills he was doing I would have just practiced him all day. So I think what you're doing is great work, man There's actually a cool draw I did before I faced Bueller that I did in the off season that I do a lot now when I face Kind of guys similar to Walker where they're throwing, you know A lot of guys now are throwing that top of the zone 100 mile an hour fastball or high 90s with plus spin plus extension You know all this stuff and so a drill that I do Is I take a it's it's two teas, but it's a high tea drill where I'll have like the tea set here You know at the top of the zone or whatever and I put another tea behind it But a little lower and when I swing my thoughts are like down to the ball get on top of it Especially with this kind of picture. That's what I feel like I need to do And so I you know, I take those drills. I do those swings and If you drop the barrel you hit that tea behind it and so definitely reinforces like you know Staying above the ball staying on top of it and and it really helped me And then I would also face like the Velo spin rate machine before I face guys like this and just try to be quick and and Stay on top of it. So it it helps me when I face face guys like this for sure All right, let's get into the about I mean look everybody knows who Walker Bueller is one of the best pitchers in the game I'm from LA so all my friends talk about the Dodgers and We've been saying it for a while like he's it's kind of a changing of the guard in LA like this is their ace Yeah, Clayton's a stud still and they have a lot of good pitchers there, but this is this is the guy And there he is It's crazy. It's crazy too. He throws that hard because He's not like he's not the biggest guy in the world, you know, he's he's he's tall and kind of lanky But the dude's throwing easy 98 like it's You don't see that too often like it's it's pretty impressive what he does So Yeah, I think so my first about against him He threw a curve ball and I I think I got a single on it. So I was really kind of I had a feeling he was going to challenge me with the heaters, especially when I got to two strikes. He does that a lot. Um but First pitch here, it looks like he's giving a heater away That's a good take Good take. I usually say right there. That's that's a surprise and take for me. I'm up there hacking man I I see one thing I need to get better at is is uh, You know not not swinging at everything. That's one thing I'm working on And that's one of those pitches with a guy with that plus spin like that You know the efficient spin rate that balls down And a lot of times you think it's down and just stays right there and they can they can call strikes on that pitch But that was a good take I didn't call it a strike because it was it was pretty close We're seeing the shift right here. Yeah, you ever think about that No, the shift doesn't bother me too much because I feel like I do a pretty good job going the other way. So Um, you know, I typically don't get too too bothered by it. I don't really even notice it half the time How many bunts against that shift you do you have? I don't think I don't know every time I try to bunt. I end up falling off and I strike back It's the worst feeling ever man Tell me all the time and like double a and the minor leagues like hey, you need a you know You need a butt you need a butt you need a butt and then it got to the I started hitting a lot of homers in double a in 2016 before I got caught up and And they you know, they kept saying it and then finally they called me and it was like Now we're not gonna bother you anymore about that There's a divide on that, you know, I think a lot of people like they see this But I feel like so actually a funny story here in 16 I did we're playing the nationals and I think no one was on first base. It's a pretty close game And um, I tried to bunt. I fouled it off and then I hit a double And I remember coming in and nick humley was on on our team and he goes. Hey, don't ever try to bunt again You just hit All right I I tell people there there are times where bunting is okay for a power hitter if you're in like a slump Oh, yeah, I would do it if I'm like not seeing anything. I mean I have I probably have one or two butt hits but not not too many It's something you actually if you want to bunt though, you got to work on it. It's not easy to to drop bunstone It's not people think it's easy. Not easy. Dude. It's not easy. So, okay. We're not caring about the shift right now You're 1-0. We love 1-0 Here we go It's a challenge pitch right there That's like I'm coming right at you 95 with spin and I felt like I was a little obviously I'm a little late there Little loopy. So and I'm right. I'm choking up. I'm like, I'm gonna I'm choked up I gotta Gotta get the head out here. I don't know what he throws actually this next pitch I forget we got 1-1. That was kind of like a little two seam or a random like that Yeah, so now, you know again 1-1 prime count here Tough count. Yeah, you gotta you want to win this count, but I don't think I do Oh nasty slider. Yeah, that's I want to go back to that pitch right there. That was nasty I mean, I'm trying to get the head out. I'm like, I'm not missing this heater. Whoo Really we talk about tunneling on this show. He tunneled that last pitch Yeah, and one went the one way and the other one went the other way. So that's That's that was nasty. Yeah, not easy. So One two this might be the pitch. I'm I'm choked up. I'm like get my foot down Get the head out. I'm still like on the heater. I'm still on it and this is this is the pitch Yeah, so I want to go back and just get your mentality here. So one two. He just threw you the slider I'm I'm just still I'm like, all right. He's I feel like he's gonna try to beat me with his best pitch His basketball up like that's I I have a good idea that he's going there. I've had some of bats off You know, I'm based him in the past. I know what he's done to me So, uh, I really just had a had a good idea and I know the Dodgers like throwing up there So I just I had a feeling he was going back up there. So I was like I can't miss it. Can't miss this bit. Okay. All right. So yeah, here we go. It's one two Beautiful sunset Just have to sit on that pitch up but you said you're on it. Yeah, I just I I've hit it before so I felt like I didn't get it I mean you got to it. Yeah You let him know a little bit right there I had to had to To against a guy like Walker and be able to be able to do that. I was I was pretty happy because I remember this about really well, so I mean he was standing there like did he really just get to that pitch The catcher too was like wait because he hit a spot. Like it was a good pitch I just you know, I had a good idea that he was probably going back up going up there And now we see a little bit slower truck in video one. This was actually So we they replaced the lights and stuff to like the led or you know the lights and This was the first homer. We've hit it It was our like first night game at cores during the season and they were they're flashing the lights Like it was like a strobe light and they're playing our walkout music round in the basis So I was like, I might take my time and enjoy this a little bit So show I love that. Yeah, absolutely from now on you're an all star You got to take your time. All right. I love the slow most here. Let's see So we talked about you're a little more hinged this at bat Yeah, we wanted to get there early and you're here comes a fastball. You can actually see it. Let's go back just a little bit more We can actually see kind of the trajectory of this ball in the slow mo which is really cool boom boom Look at this Yeah, you see how like usually guys when they're throwing fastballs They have have some down angle or stuff, but his thing just stays up there like really rides through that zone I want to talk about this because Yelly came on we talked about swinging down the ball You were preaching that you were working on swinging down the ball to be able to get to this pitch when you look at this Swing path here clearly you're not swinging right down Yeah, it's a thought process. It's a thought process. It's a feel and it's and that's I don't like Telling someone there, you know, no one no one's right. No one's wrong. It's whatever works for you It's whatever, you know thoughts that you need to go take the game swing and and have results and yeah, I'm I'm thinking I'm literally thinking here You literally can't swing that way though Yeah, I'm not doing that But that just I felt like that helps me kind of just clean the path up and get a little quicker on guys like this Like if I'm facing a sinker baller off speed guy throwing low, I'm not I'm not thinking down I'm thinking more like turning behind me get underneath it and try to try to lift it in the air So it's just it's who's on the mound? It's it's everyone's thoughts and feels are different So you can't sit here and say there's one way to one way to I wasn't expecting that watch this bat path I'm gonna show it show it. You're so clean through it. Look how long you stay through this Yeah, and then I had the high follow through Oh good. It's it's fun to watch these it makes me you know, it's like, all right. I can do this I want to touch on that one just one thing real quick before we end this about you said It depends on the pitcher and I firmly believe that you got to have a bunch of different clubs in your bag You can't just have one swing And people talk about a swing all the time get your a swing off get your a swing. What what is an a swing? you know, so Tell me what you mean by Or what we when players talk about hitting and having clubs in the bag. What do we mean by that? Just uh, there's more there's more to it to go out and put up results in the game like you people You know, there's drills and thoughts that I have in the cage where it might not be mechanically the most The best swing ever but if it helps you go take that game swing or Um, then I think you can't sit here and like and dog someone for it or trash someone's opinion or their thought about their hitting um, there's just there's a lot of ways to There's really a lot of ways to do it. Um You know, like I said, there's most of the time I am thinking top hand down to the ball because everyone nowadays are throwing 100 up in the zone This and that but you run into guys that are still sinker ballers off speed pitches so For me to sit there and try to Do this and think that on a ball movie going down this way. I'm just going to chop it to the ground So I need to figure out a way to To get more on playing with it and the way to do that for me is by thinking Okay, I need to maybe have a little more tilt on this guy and turn the barrel behind me a little more and kind of get on Playing quicker so I can so I can lift this pitch. Um Yeah, there's just there's no one way to do it. There's no one right Thought and that's that's kind of how I think about it You got you got a lot of the new old school versus the new school stuff And I'm kind of in the middle of both of them I think I think both ways kind of you know, just like it depends who's on the mount. I think that's how most people Should feel like you can't be Speaking in absolutes when it comes to hitting because we don't control the variables like you may You may watch, you know, certain hitters bond trout the best and they look like they're doing something But you need to dive in a little deeper and think about, you know, what what are they thinking? What are they feeling? What's their work in the cage that's able to Translate to that swing in the game, you know, there's there's a lot of different factors into it All right, man. Well, that's about number two So another good one for the memory bank, bro Walker beeler And I think they're all against the Dodgers I like when you hit homers against the Dodgers and feel really good just because they're such a good Their fans are, you know, their fans are are wild. They're always they're always giving you crap So it's it's a good feeling when you when you hit hit uh homers off Dodgers Spoiler alert. We got another one coming up here with the Dodgers and it's off the Dodgers. All right. Thanks, Dave