 What's up everyone? Welcome back to Sequence. I'm your host Trevor Ploof and today we have a very special guest, five-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger, Gold Glove winner, 2013 NL MVP, Andrew McCutcheon. What's up man? What's up bro? Thanks for having me man. I love having you on here. We go way back. 2007 we played together in the Arizona Fall League and man it's been fun to follow your career since then. I asked you to come on and you were gracious enough to bless us with your presence and we had a couple of bats we were going to go through. And this one in particular you said, I had an aha moment against Zach Greenke in 2014. Can you go ahead and tell us what that aha moment means to you? Yeah, so anybody in baseball world they know what that means. You've been there. We've all been there when we're just hitting one day and then we say something like something just clicked. And for me at that moment I was pretty good numbers. I mean I was hitting right around 300 but my power for myself, I had a standard for myself. I just felt like my power really wasn't there. I was getting my hits but I wasn't hitting for power like I felt like I shouldn't be. And if anybody could remember like 2012, 13 and a little bit of even 14 I was, I used to hit with the bat rested on my shoulders. So I got to this point this was the first day I decided you know what I'm not going to hit with the bat rested anymore. I'm going to take the bat off my shoulders and I'm just going to give myself a little bit of rhythm and maybe that's going to help me get in the position to be able to just get my foot down and be able to fire. So I worked on it in the cage and right when it from the like literally the first swing I just went that's it. I looked at my coach I was like that's it. And he looked at me he's like huh I'm like that's it. That's exactly what I've been trying to feel. That's what I've been trying to feel. And fast forward at this point my first at bat had already hit the double off the wall. And then this at bat right here was the next the next at bat and it was the first pitch of this at bat. And that's when I like after I got this hit or this homer I was like yeah this is this is this is it I'm right where I want to be. Did you just decide to do that on a whim or what was the influence for that did you see somebody else with their bat off the shoulder or just decided one day like I need to do something a little different. You know what it was it was my decision. Just for the fact of, you know, I like but also know where I know I can be at that point I knew I could be a little better than what I was. Of course my hitting coaches or whoever they thought I was crazy because I was hitting 300. I was you know I had coming up in MVP season like they're like dude don't change a thing you know like you're fine and I was like trying to tell them. But I knew there was no convincing them because they weren't feeling what I was feeling. I'm like yeah I can get my hits like of course I can get my hits but I know I can be better than what I'm at. I want to be able to repeat as much as I can and I was just I was I wasn't struggling to repeat. I was just struggling to get myself in a position that when I got the picture I wanted to hit. I was crushing it. I wasn't just getting hit. I was actually like backspinning it. So that was that was from my decision after we're just flying over from New York playing the Mets. I think I faced the Grom. I don't know who else I faced there Bartola Cologne when he was there and he was he was nasty and 14 for them. And I got a couple hits against him. And it's one of those things where like I could I had to keep it to myself because I was getting hits and I was and I was getting like mad like mad upset at myself. And so I couldn't tell anybody there because you know you know you got to be cognizant of your surroundings. And you know if I'm getting hits and I'm over here getting mad at myself and some dude over there sitting next to me is hitting you know bug 80. And I'm saying like dang man like you know again you know he's gonna look at me like it's like crazy. So so I was just like keeping it to myself and I left out I got a couple hits against Cologne or you know rollovers now nowadays it being out because they play in the sixth hole. But yeah that's that's that's what I made up in my mind like you know I need to I need to switch this up. I need to figure this out. I've always loved your setup. And you know there are times where I'll try to help younger hitters out or like I even gave lessons for a little bit a while back and the thing I always tell these guys is number one thing he's got to be on time and my lingo to them will be smoothly on time. I don't you rushing anywhere. And when I think about you and your swing. I think about that really slow gradual kind of load. Or I don't know what you call it. But is that something you've always done or where's the influence for Andrew McCutcheon swing. Yeah. So not to like die sick or go too much into 30 minutes just talking about that. But when I was 12. I remember a perfect game or something like that. I think that's what the camp was. You're you're you're a Cali boy. So you're more like Eric. So but I love a perfect game. Yeah. And at 12 years old I got to go to a camp in San Juan Puerto Rico or is a broken mini camp got to go to it was this hometown 200 kids there. And I used to hit with my elbow really caught high and my there was a guy by the word who was there two people in the game. Now but he was like lying your knuckles up and I was like what do you mean by that. And he kind of explained show me how to lie my knuckles up on a bat. He's like you just want to be as relaxed as possible like when you hit you want you want to feel like you know the bats almost going to slip out of your hand. So it felt weird at first but it kept doing and it kept doing it. And then eventually that's kind of how I like I don't know if anyone really pays attention to my hands. But you know my top hand you know my fingers are like barely on the bat. I don't like I'm not really like touching the bat that hard. So but that's where that came from was from that that tournament and just kind of just gradually gradually becoming more and more comfortable with it. And that's how that's that's how I began and how it kind of started my journey of like my stance and setup. I love that it was like at a Roberto Clemente camp and you end up getting drafted by the pirates doing your thing as a pirate. You know that's that's coming full circle. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. All right. Well I have a little experience with that knuckle lining up. I was always a top hand heavy guy and I tried to do that as well. And it was really tough for me but I do know that watching good hitters most of the time they are like that and it really helps you stay in that path or get to the path and stay in it longer. Is that something that you felt. Yeah I felt I felt in the sense that it I was trying to take my top hand in the beginning of everything I was trying to take that out of the equation. So what I mean by that like when when I was in my setup and I'm rocking in the pictures before even. I'm in my little rhythm almost not I don't even want to think about my top hand so much like I really want to think about really guiding that bottom hand to the ball. And when that ball is coming like I'm really focusing on just bottom hand to the ball like you know I feel like because your bottom hand supposed to be essentially it's a shorter path to the ball is quicker there than your top hand will be so I kind of just take my top hand out of the equation. And I think with that you know just having my hand my hand be really really relaxed. I think that helps me just getting that in that position where I'm as relaxed as I can. And I'm able to repeat that a whole lot. I love it. All right well this is kind of a dig me especially because it's against a guy like Zach Greenke. I mean this is one of the best pictures in the game he's been up for a long time. Yeah I mean he was having he was having a heck of a year. I mean that year 2014 I mean he was he was really balling. So that's definitely I mean they even help like you know solidify what I was what I was feeling. Oh yeah. Yeah so you said you have the epiphany right before this game first to bet double off that's always good to get an instant result and then you come up here top of the third and we'll just get into the bat. It's a short at bat but moments like this this is why I love doing this show because sometimes you just have a moment like this where it's like OK like I get it and you did it. Yeah. At Daughter Stadium against Zach Greenke. Yeah so you see now like if you see the picture now the bet is on your shoulder but you're going to get it off of it. Mm hmm. OK. Mm hmm. I started up. All right. I see it right there. Now you're off of it. Yeah. Now you're off of it. Set up. And does that feel like a crazy adjustment right there. Do you remember that. Yeah I remember it because I was trying to figure out how can I repeat my rhythm. I keep a rhythm where I'm not rocking too fast and I'm not rocking rocking too slow. I don't feel like I'm I'm somewhere where I shouldn't be. So what I would do is prior to me I would I would rest the bat like I'm used to resting it and then and then when I felt ready I would just bring the bat off and then start my start my rhythm. So that was that was kind of that kind of helped me not feel like I was just out of sync or out of whack with it being the first time in a long time that I've done it. So I just and even maybe sometimes the pitchers will hold a long time I will rock rock rock and then I will stop I rest it and I keep going again just to not feel like I'm you know I'm in no man's land when I'm when I'm up there. Yeah like you if you have a spot that you're resting on your shoulder that you know where your barrel is at. And now when you take it off. Like you're saying you got to be able to repeat it you have to know where your barrel is so that's I mean it's impressive that this happened and you took it right to the game. So yeah bat off the shoulder first pitch crack you know we're going to go back and watch it again first pitch and he set up a way. I love how you're loaded and I think you're just you just have like a simple setup and it really allows you to be consistent with it. Yeah. But now this is this is where you said the power comes in. Yeah. See because before before this is I was getting that pitch before I got was in the setup I was getting that pitch and I was either rolling it over. Or I was I was hitting it up the middle for a line drive or something like that but I was not putting power behind especially to the opposite field. Yeah. So for me when I was able to get this pitch it be first pitch it be middle way and me to be able to deposit in the right center the way that I did. I knew at that moment like this is exactly what I'm searching for. This is like this is that feeling that I'm looking for. I felt like I had all the time in the world to see the ball out of green keys hand to recognize it to get my foot down and then to be able to put force behind it. And do it effortlessly. So I was like man this is this is I have all the time in the world right now I feel like I have so much time. I can just wait till he throws the ball and then I can make my mind up. In my mind that's what I felt like when I was at that moment that's what I felt like. That's a great feeling. And do you think it's because you kind of eliminated that step of having to take your bat off your shoulder. You already started there. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And that's what I felt like. And I was like because there were times where I felt a little rushed when I rested back because there was that one piece that I had to add in to get everything started. So I was like let me just get that away. So should load get my foot down get through the ball. I was like so now I'm eliminating one thing. So let's give me some little extra time to be able to let the ball travel a little further. Let's watch it one more time. Just dig it a little bit more because this is a bombing right center. In 2014 an opposite field home run meant a lot. It did. Nowadays you know like it might have changed a little bit but that it might have. It might have. Yeah. It might have. I just remember hitting it and I remember Adrian Gonzalez looking at me and give me that look like how does this little dude hit a ball like that. I got the hardware baby. All right here. Let's take one more look at it. Yeah. Oh baby. Sweet. No just still feel that one. That's the catch I remember right there. Oh everybody like bringing dreads back man. I just you know the pirates dreads nothing better than that. Yes sir. I appreciate you coming on sharing the insight with us. We'll be back with a bat number two. Thank you again for coming on man. Yes sir.