While I am watching Major League Baseball games on TV I keep hearing former MLB players talk about what a hitter is doing when they hit the ball hard, they say:
He has fast hands
He stayed back
He twisted his hips
He swung down through the ball
He got on top of the ball
You even hear these things on ESPN when former players are analyzing a hitter that just hit a home run. When the very best MLB players are hitting their best they are doing none of these. When they go into a slump they are doing some to all of them. Any one of these will make you swing mainly with your arms and take your weight out of the swing, causing less force and hit less line drives. Home run hitters use their body weight to hit the ball with power. When Josh Hamilton hit his four homeruns during a game four years ago they analyzed it on ESPN, they said he had the fastest hands in baseball, in reality he didn't use his hands, he swung with his 240 lb body to let him hit the ball much harder than a player that weighs less.
I looked at the five top home run hitters from both Leagues. I found out the average height of these ten players is 6 feet 2 inches, average weight is 225 lbs, and average age is 30. I also looked at five players from each league at the bottom of the home run leaders that have at least one home run and have over 170 at bats. I found their average height is 6 foot, average weight 189 lbs and the average age is also 30. This means the home run leaders are 2 inches taller, more importantly, they weigh an average of 36 lbs more than the players at the bottom of the leader board. Does this mean the leaders in home runs have faster hands than the players with one or two home runs? NO, this means they hit with more force because they have an average of 36 more pounds to hit with and they are using it to hit the ball much harder. If they used fast hands, instead of their body, they would hit with much less force and have half of the home runs they do now.
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