Iapoce offers ‘chapters’ of ideas to help besieged hitters originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
In the midst of one of the worst seasons in baseball history for hitters, a hitting coach who’s actually having success with some of his charges is eager to offer ideas to MLB consultant Theo Epstein or anyone else who wants to listen to ways to help balance the scales against today’s dominant pitching.
“I’ve got chapters of what we could do to help the offense,” said Cubs’ hitting coach Anthony Iapoce, whose hitters rebounded from team slump in April to lead the National League in hitting in May (.262) with 35 homers (fourth) and a .763 OPS (third).
The Cubs’ success at the plate in recent weeks hasn’t slowed the wheels of Iaopoce’s mind when it comes to the kind of changes being considered Epstein in his new role and others in the commissioner’s office — or even those of the Cubs’ early MVP candidate, Kris Bryant.
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“I think they should move the mound back to like 75 feet and they should throw underhand,” Bryant joked in late April when asked about what he called the “crazy” advantage pitchers have in the game today between increased velocity and spin rates.
In fact, moving the mound back a foot is one of the experiments on tap for later this season in the independent Atlantic League — a move designed to decrease the effect of velocity by almost 2 mph.
Iapoce doesn’t seem to mind that idea but is more focused on limiting defensive shifts that continue to rob lefty hitters such as Anthony Rizzo — and even some right-handers such as Bryant — of base hits.
“You get tired of watching left-handed hitters line out to short right-center fielder after hitting the ball extremely hard — 100 mph,” Iapoce said, “and Kolten Wong’s out there or [Jose] Altuve jumping up in short right field. Or Rizzo smokes a ball down the line, and the second baseman’s there [on a ball] that’s usually a double.
“I always think of Kolten Wong [of the Brewers and formerly the Cardinals] because he’s robbing us the last three years, doing that jump turn.”
Different versions of limits to shifts have been proposed. Iapoce’s is simple:
“Finding a way to keep the infielders on the infield, because that’s what they are; they’re infielders,” he said. “And keeping outfielders on the outfield.”
Then Iapoce got on a role and spent another couple of minutes on the next chapter.
“With the velocity the way it is now, the high strike — man, it’s really tough to cover both with the way the velocity and movement is now. So maybe lower the zone a little bit,” he said of another possible outcome of some changes being proposed by the crew working with Epstein, the former Cubs baseball boss.
“But I think it starts with just keeping the defenders [from extreme shifts],” added Iapoce, who described how difficult it is to “just go the other way” against 95-plus velocity with movement. “So players get frustrated with that.
“You train your whole life to hit the ball through the middle and the gaps, and now there’s people standing there,” he added, “so you have to rewire your brain to where the [fielders] are. And now you’re doing the best pitching on the planet. So I think that stuff could start in the minor leagues or even at the amateur level.”
And then lower the strike zone, he reiterated.
“And then they could just go from there.”
No promises from Iapoce on when his next few chapters will be available at Barnes and Noble.
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