VIERA, Fla. (AP) -On one of his first swings of the first batting practice of the first official full-squad workout at Washington Nationals spring training Thursday, Nick Johnson smacked a shot to the base of the chain-link fence in left field.
The crisp contact of bat on ball was greeted with a yell of “Nice, Nicky!” – words of encouragement courtesy of new Nationals hitting coach Rick Eckstein, crouched down nearby with a tiny video camera in his hand.
As Johnson returns from his latest in a long list of injuries – he played a total of 38 games the past two seasons – he is retooling his approach at the plate with help from Eckstein. Oh, and Eckstein’s vast video archives.
“My thinking over the years,” Johnson said, “has been completely backward.”
Really? Johnson, let’s not forget, produced 23 homers, 46 doubles, a .520 slugging percentage and a .428 on-base percentage in his most recent full season.
y” just the other day.
So, he must have been doing SOMETHING right as he progressed from being drafted by the New York Yankees in 1996 to starting at first base for the Nationals.
Still, he believes this new way of doing things is a better way, even if it feels awfully odd at times right now. “Awkward” is the word Johnson keeps using. That’s OK, because opening day is 1 1/2 months off.
“I thought it was crazy, too. It’s still taking some time,” Johnson said. “But I’ve got to keep working on thinking completely the opposite in my head.”
Eckstein – whose brother David was the 2006 World Series MVP for the Cardinals and now is with the Padres – wants batters to keep a consistent swing, regardless of what sort of pitch he sees or where he wants to put it.
Stick with your swing, Eckstein says, and the hits will come. Just get that barrel of the bat on the ball. Don’t keep making too many adjustments between pitches or between at-bats.
“We’re talking about a different sound off the bat,” Eckstein said. “We’re talking about the ball clicking off the bat” – here, he snapped his fingers – “with that different sound. That’s what we’re trying to search for. Whenever he hits the ball, that different sound shows up. That’s what an ‘A’ swing is.”
cked in – that Eckstein suggested after the pair watched video at the coach’s home near Orlando.
Johnson spent time at Eckstein’s house last weekend, examining tape of himself with the Nationals and back in his days with the Yankees. Eckstein also had Johnson watch some of baseball’s greatest hitters, including Ted Williams, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds.
“They have a lot of things that are similar,” Johnson said.
This offseason, Eckstein called every Nationals player who was in the country and made the same offer: Stop by my house, watch some video, and we’ll work on hitting. He even told everyone they could stay with him, if they wanted.
“I try to understand each guy individually – what they do and what they do well – and then try to understand how can we maintain that and how can we potentially talk about improvement,” Eckstein said.
Among the Nationals players who took him up on it: Ryan Zimmerman, Austin Kearns, Lastings Milledge.
“He works with what you have,” Milledge said.
After watching, Johnson worked, heading straight out with his new hitting guru to take some swings in the cages at Seminole High School in Sanford, Fla. – where the Eckstein brothers went.
The lessons have continued in the days since, right up until Thursday, when the real work of the spring began.
unn – the slugger who signed a $20 million, two-year free agent deal – was practicing with the outfielders. There’s some question as to whether Dunn or Johnson will be the starting first baseman on opening day, although Acta’s preference is to have both in the batting order.
“It makes a lot of guys salivate, including myself, to have two guys like that in the lineup,” the manager said.
For Johnson, one key issue is his health.
He missed time while with the Yankees and Expos-Nationals with thumb, left wrist, right hand, back, broken cheekbone and heel injuries. All of that came before he broke his right leg in a collision with a teammate during a game late in the 2006 season. He missed all of 2007 because of that, then had his 2008 season cut short by a torn ligament in his right wrist.
These days, a black, Velcro wrap on that wrist is as much a part of Johnson’s accessories as his red glove with his nickname, “Slick,” stitched on the side or the red socks he wears pulled up to just below his knees.
The wrist is mostly fine, just a little sore now and then, Johnson says.
It’s his new way of looking at things when he steps to the plate that is going to take more time to get used to.
“It’s a work in progress,” Johnson said.
Which is why after BP sessions this spring, he’ll take time to watch the video Eckstein shoots each day, then head back out to take some more swings.
“He’ll put in yesterday’s and he’ll put in, like, a really good swing of mine from the cage and you compare the two,” Johnson said. “And sometimes the sound and everything is a lot different, and then you go back to the cage and try to get the awkward feel – which, I guess, is the right feel.”
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