Chris Sabo knows hitting, but is anyone listening?
Experience seems to be losing its value to MLB player development departments. Scouts are being replaced by Ivy League numbers “whiz kids,” and iPads seem to have more answers for players than coaches with years of on-field experience. This trend doesn’t offer any hints of slowing. One would think that former players with success between the foul lines, many with glaring statistics of envy, these pros would be in demand by analytics departments with all 30 MLB franchises.
They aren’t.
Cincinnati Reds All-Star Elly De La Cruz, already among the most dynamic shortstops in the game, seems like he could even further his budding career with the assistance of a “seasoned” baseball mind as Sabo. As exciting as the young Dominican is on the base paths, and swiping 99 bases in less than two full seasons with the Reds heading into this evening’s game with the Minnesota Twins is no easy task, he continues to struggle at the plate.
Cruz, 21, has a significant problem putting his bat on balls pitched to him. Last season, his rookie campaign, the Reds’ shortstop collected 91 hits in 388 at-bats—but he also struck out a glaring 144 times. This season, Cruz’s whiff numbers continue to soar—560 plate appearances have resulted in 145 hits, coupled with 196 strikeouts. With 14 more games left on the Reds’ 2024 schedule, it is a very real possibility that Cruz could reach the 350 combined strikeout mark come Sept. 30.
Former players like Sabo could make a difference in working with Cruz to where he makes more contact when at bat. When Cruz gets on base, stretching a single into a double comes easier to him than to most of his peers. Getting Cruz from good to great should be a priority for Reds’ General Manager Nick Krall. With so many accomplished Reds alumni who were good contact hitters, including Sabo, Cruz’s cutting down on his strikeouts in the off-season must be a priority.
Listening to Sabo, a former three-time all-star with Cincinnati and inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame in 2010, could be the best advice Cruz can receive.
“When I played, we were always taught to battle, to put the ball in play,” said Sabo, a 9-year MLB third baseman, to the Epoch Times earlier this week. “He (Cruz) is a great player. Striking out is no play. He needs to have opposing pitchers force a play on him. It seems today, batters swing as hard as they can and hope they hit it.”
Sabo expressed little doubt that, based on what he has seen so far in Cruz’s game, if he hits the ball more, he is a hall-of-fame type of guy. When Cruz does make connections to pitchers, nothing is off the table as far as where his legs will land him. Last season Cruz hit for the cycle. He does have a pop in his swing, as Cruz has hit 23 home runs thus far in 2024, which is 10 more than in 2023. However, even a player with statistics like Sabo sounds pessimistic while speaking from his home in Florida’s Manatee County, saying that changes will come for Cruz and his contemporaries any time soon.
“This is one of the reasons I’m not coaching this year. I have been coaching for the last 10 years. The kids are respectful, they listen, but it goes in one ear and out the other,” says Sabo about hitting situations. “I’ve tried to teach them about two-strike approaches. Today’s players want to do what they see others playing on TV do. This is frustrating as a coach.”
As Sabo obviously points out, winning is what ultimately matters. When reviewing how “swinging for the fences” and pitchers throwing a ball, at all times, as hard as they can, the Reds’ second-round draft pick in 1983 questions himself on where some of the MLB’s top stars of his era would fare today.
Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, a four-time National League Cy Young Award winner and winner of 355 games, is a pitcher Sabo wonders if there would be a place for him in today’s game.
“Would he (Maddux) even get drafted today? Maddux was a great technician. He threw hard when he was young, but he didn’t throw 100 mph. Today, pitchers throw with maximum effort every pitch. You wonder why there are so many arm injuries?”
Sabo points to his former Reds’ skipper Pete Rose as the type of motivator Cruz could benefit from this coming off-season. During his 24-year MLB playing career, Rose never struck out more than 76 times in a season.
“Pete told us, you hit the ball and run as fast as you can. If you hit a single, think double. You hit a double, you think triple. You force the other team to stop you. My philosophy is go, go, go—until they stop you,” Sabo recounted.
Labeling Cruz’s presence “fun to watch,” Sabo reflects on one of MLB’s finest of all time—Hank Aaron. As much as Aaron is known for slugging 755 home runs, he also collected 3,771 hits. The late Hall of Famer was a contact hitter. In 23 MLB seasons, Aaron never struck out more than 97 at-bats and as low as 46 times when playing a full season. Hitting, as Sabo sees a batter’s box approach, isn’t just about connecting with home runs. Connecting bats to the ball remains paramount, and where the ball lands is secondary.
