Mechanical Breakdown Series - Volume 38: Fixing Co

Soft rock band music Hi everybody welcome into another edition episode 125 of the lab Epstein hitting podcast mechanical breakdown series doing something a little bit different today breaking down the swing and fixing that of Cody Belinger so please subscribe to the podcast if you haven't done so already Apple Google Spotify lever review wherever you get your podcasts it doesn't matter and you can watch the show

of course on YouTube the lab Epstein hitting podcast page let's get into it let me bring in professionally valueiter successful business owner former coach friend and co-hosts coming off a long day of lessons and he's got a new member of the family Jake it's a dog no more kids please no more kids no more kids but no more dog fun week is a fun week GM

meetings are always fun a lot of action happening in Major League baseball I think the NFCA Convention softball conventions going on this week so kind of a lot of a lot of cool stuff going on out there yeah and then of course we reached the holiday season now and before you know at the count mechanical breakdown series fixing Cody Ballinger's couple of things that Ep and

I are gonna break down with his swing with video so be sure to watch on YouTube of course with his swing breaking it down fixing him and giving him a little bit of advice so hopefully he actually listen to us but You're right you said the Cusby a good fit for him I said for the Elf you but either way you were right about Chicago I'll

say this last year Rigley field Produced 1.2 home runs per game that was third most in all of Major League baseball You can't discount psychologically a hitter who had a lot of success Cody Ballinger in 2019 won the National League MVP award struggle the last couple of years last few years really has struck out a lot Psychologically for him playing in a small ballpark though Ep

like Rigley field for example a band box that short porch and right you can go the other way hit it out to left at something they can't be discounted especially with Cody Ballinger is put up some great slugging numbers and home run numbers in the past you know he just needs a fresh start so I think that number one being in a new place you know

there's there's pressure isn't as great I mean it's a large market don't gonna be wrong but the Cubs aren't the Dodgers that have to win right I mean they It was a bad year because they didn't win the World Series last year even though they I don't know how many games in 111 games or something like that so He won't have that pressure as much which

will be really nice for him it is gap to gap the gaps are so short there and Rigley now the win does blow in when it's cold in the beginning of the year so he's got to get through that but He and we'll look at the video today of this swing that he it's a line drive the left center field he it's the ball well the

other way so I think it's gonna be a good ballpark for him to be in for sure I think it's a fun plate I think the fans are great there there's a lot of energy around the city around the team around the ballpark so I think it I think it'll be a really good fit for him I like the one year deal on both sides I

thought it was a win win for for both the Cubs and for B Belinger he's getting a pretty good paycheck that was almost as much as a qualifying offer I think was at 17 he makes or 17 and a half for one year for a guy that hit under 200 that's a pretty smoke and deal but then the Cubs are essentially renting a guy for a

year that could go out and hit 30 home runs could drive in 90 to 100 runs and he's gonna play in the field so I really do think it's a win win for both sides and I hope he he comes out on top and and proves himself and helps the Cubs and in return he'll be rewarded for a nice contract next year. I'm a May Cody

Belinger by the way struck out over 200 times in the last two years last week we talked about two strike hitting go back and the archives and listen to that episode 124 but I'm amazed that it's some research for that two strike point that I wanted to make from last year. But the first one the amount of players that struck out looking across Major League Baseball

I couldn't find I looked everywhere this week I'm amazed that we have every statistic we have OPS++++ slugging++++++ ballpark factor this factor that factor and I can't simply find how many times cross Major League Baseball hit or struck out looking last year. Sorry about that. I you know what? I can't I'm sorry I couldn't find it this week but but I do want to ask you

about that. I also have some bad news I just realized something we had an email from I think it was Mike this week. Jimbo podcast 21 at gmail.com. I don't have it in front of me. I'm sorry. So Mike if you're listening I'm sure you are. Because he emailed before we'll get to your question next week and it was a good one too is about Cody

Belinger. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We're man in the business for nothing. We'll get to I promise Mike we'll get to that. So we have no questions this week. We'll get to that question. We'll have a good follow up on the Belinger. Everyone will have a chance to see in the video and everything about it. Yeah. Jimbo podcast 21 at gmail.com. Anyway, two strike hitting really quick.

Just want to circle back and time some loose ends from last week. How does two strike hitting for any hitter? How does that change as it pertains to going second or third time through the line? I don't know if it was early in the first time through the lineup. He got ahead with fastballs or he got ahead with break. He maybe got ahead with breaking balls

the first time through and then was putting guys away with fastballs and then the next time I'm going to go back and do a little bit more. He went 180 degrees with that. So as a hitter you have to you have to see that. If you're hitting first in the lineup it might be a little tougher but if you're hitting later in the lineup. You can

see wow. He's now all of a sudden he's throwing stuff hard early in the count or software early in the count. Let's see how he's going to put me away with two strikes. So you have the deeper you go into a game the more facts you have the more pitches you get to see plus you have a reference while his fastballs jump in today. He's throwing

really hard. He's probably going to want to put people away with that or what his fastball isn't as good as it normally is. So he's living with his break and pitch or she's living with break and pitch is a little bit more. So obviously more information helps the deeper we go through the lineup. But we still have to fight with two strikes. Two strikes is a

mindset. Two strikes is that person isn't going to beat me. I'm in the trenches. I'm going to come out on top here. I'm going to scrap and claw and do whatever I can to get some barrel on the ball. If it's ugly it's ugly but I'm going to fall it off and see that next pitch. I think that mindset is gone. I think it's still pretty

good at the college level that's preached a ton at the college level. But I think in Pro Ball it isn't a badge of honor to fight with two strikes and to scrap out a base hit with two strikes where it isn't college and it isn't high school. And then people in the minor leagues are like, okay, I struck out no big deal. The camaraderie isn't there

with the team. I really do. I think it comes with, yeah, you have to have a plan that, hey, what is this guy doing? But with two strikes you're opening up the zone. You have to cover fast and slow. You have to cover, cover in and out and up and down. So you got to dig in and get nasty and try to win that battle. Last

year Brandon Nemo struck out 116 times. And as we record this on Thursday night he just resigned or at least made an agreement with the Mets eight years 162 millions. He'll be back in center field for New York. This week just agreeing to an a deal with Philadelphia Phillies. He'll be there for 10 years, $300 million. The Phillies will have a great lineup. The Mets will

as well. And of course the Braves. So the National East next year will be a lot of fun. We did a mechanical breakdown. I think it was the last off season on Trade Turner. I think I'm not sure we did. We have done one on Trade Turner though. So go back in the archives, find that and take a listen. There's one thing I'm kind of curious

about though with the National East speaking of which I'm looking at. Mets Phillies Braves. They're all going to be in competition next year. The Marlins will probably play spoiler. And again with the Nationals who even knows. I mean they're up for sale right now. So those are going to be the three teams. And there's one glaring hole that the Braves have right now. It's a shortstop.

They don't have that position solidified. I'm wondering why they have not resigned. Dan's be swanson. And I'm thinking because they're smart team they extended like everybody. I'm thinking they see something that the rest of us are missing. I haven't signed any idea of what it might be. But why do you think they haven't? I'm putting you on the spot here. I apologize. Why do you think

they'll they haven't resigned. Dan's be swanson at this point or at least try to extend him because look the Mets. Here you go. Paying out all this money. The Phillies. Paying out all this money. Braves. They did that in season extending certain guys. But they haven't done that with swanson. Maybe they don't have the pocketbook for it. Maybe swanson wants a little bit more than what

they were entertaining. Maybe swanson is a little bit more than what they were entertaining. I'm not sure if they're going to be able to do that. But I think swanson is a little bit more than what they were. They're not going to be able to do that. But I think swanson is a little bit more than what they were entertaining. They can try to push the

envelope because nobody's left. I guess you got Kareya left. But it kind of fills in what we wanted. I thought Turner was the guy. I liked him the most out of the group. You like Bogart's the most out of the group. And I think those two guys fell right into place. It'll be interesting to see what Kareya. I don't know what he brings to the table

that those other two that we just mentioned don't. I don't think it's number like I don't know. Maybe he's got a little bit more pop. I don't know. I don't know what the deal with swanson. Is he injury prone? Does he? I haven't had a theory. Yeah, what's your theory? A hitting theory though. Okay. He can't consistently hit a great above average fastball hard. Okay. My

theory. He does it certainly. That's what's made him a very good player. And I'll start type player. I'll start a caliber type player. But he doesn't do it as often as a Turner as a Bogart's. As a Kareya out of those four Bogart's in no particular order. Bogart's Turner Kareya. Swanson out of those four. What do you think is the weakest one? Who would you? Who

would you not want to have at the plate? In the biggest situation with your season on the line. I know who I'd want. I love trade Turner. Top of the order type guy. He's got speed. He's a guy who's never going to age at age 43. He could probably still play baseball. And still batten the bottom of the order. And he could still be a real

good player. And still be productive. Out of those players though, my guy would be Bogart's. That doesn't take anything away. I love trade Turner. But out of those four. There's one guy who I think I would chop off or vote off the island, so to speak. And that'll be Dan's Be Swanson. And I like Swanson. I think he's a great athlete. But offensively there, something is

missing. And I think it's his inability to consistently hit a really good fastball, especially away on the black of the plate or at least foul it off. I mean, the game is hard. He's in a group of elite athletes. Swanson's a great player. If he was the only free agent shortstop available, if those other guys weren't available, Swanson would be the guy. But those guys are

perennial all stars. Those guys are the top guys that they're positioned. You know, I mean, you have Seger, right? Seger was the other guy that was a very offensive shortstop. So I just think he's. Not the hitter that the other guys are. That's just a fact. Like sorry, not everybody's amazing. You know, some people are just really gritty and good. And that's him. He's gritty and

good. He's a great defender. He's a great teammate. He's a great human. Yeah, he would be the last guy I would send up of that group of people. I think that's why he hasn't signed yet. I think, you know, he'll be the last one. If, and something you see too, as if you see a guy that I don't know how old he is. But if he

struggles with. They're going to be ultra performers when they're 38, 39 and 40. If you're having a hard time with a fastball, now you're going to have a really hard time with a fastball when you're in your late 30s. Right. And maybe he wants an eight year deal. And. And you mentioned, you know, the braves not having the pocket, but pocketbook for it. I, you know,

look, they probably do. Yeah, they probably do. Yeah. I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to counter what you're saying. But I'm not 100% sure that they extend all these guys. And they don't stand their shortstop one of the most important positions on the field. Mm hmm. I don't know something. Something there is a miss. Do they have any. I don't know what their farm systems

like either. Maybe they got somebody they can always move all these. They can move all these to short too. That's another option. So he's athletic enough. I do see Swanson, you know, Andrew Friedman for the Dodgers. He's their president of baseball operations for those who don't know. He likes to let the market break in his favor. We may see Swanson in the Dodgers uniform. In fact,

I wouldn't be too surprised if they came out of nowhere and gave Swanson a deal. Yeah. They need somebody. Yeah, because they lost trade turner, which I think they knew they were going to lose him anyway. By the way, the Padres won after trade turner too, which is, I mean, the Padres, they just know how to spend money now. They just, they just turned into a

big market team overnight. Apparently, wasn't a good enough shortstop. So we're going to get somebody else and throw a Tateeson center and do it. Yeah. Now out of that group, the four short stops I mentioned, trade turners, the best athlete, because he can also play center field too. I'm telling you, that guy's going to be able to play baseball at age like 40. Yeah, he looks

like a guy that could do that too. Yeah. Great athlete. He's like, he can talk about the slide. More athletic. Oh, I know. Crazy, crazy agility. He's a winner too. So, but if you got a good one there, that's have a good one with Nemo and the Padres got a real good one with Xander Bogart. I think it's getting a good one too. I look at

it. Mano, we mono my brother episode 125. How about that chemistry? I think he's got a good one with Aaron Judge. Who would want to go play if you're Aaron Judge, right? Or any slugger? This is Ghost for Balinger too. We'll break down his swing here in a couple of minutes. But who would want to go to San, no disrespect to San Francisco? Beautiful ballpark. I'm

sure it's a great town, you know, whatever. That was winning franchise. Right. They've got a good reputation as a franchise high end upper class type franchise. But who would want to go there with that big ballpark? You know, that would have been career. Especially if you were that friend. Yeah, especially if you're right handed batter. He's he and he hits how many home runs I would

love to do we could look this up. But the amount of home runs that he hit like how many home runs that he hit last year in New York. That would not have been out in right center in San Francisco. That is huge. Like right center in San Francisco. Triple Zalley. They called that for a reason. His three hundred and seventy foot home runs are not

going out there. Three hundred eighty like those or three sixty whatever it is to right center there in New York. There's no chance those balls are going out plus the the air is heavy. The fact that he even entertain that would have is would have been career suicide. He never would have had the the same offense that that he has, you know, playing half of his

games in New York. So I was blown away that they were even entertaining or he was entertaining going there. But because it's not a good ballpark to hit. It hasn't been for anyone. Okay. I'm trying to look how many home runs he hit last year. Yeah. So you got to I mean he hit it would it 10 maybe 10 home runs to right center. That wouldn't

have gone out. That may have been caught or would have been doubles. So it's a it was those were polar operas that I'm thinking that unless Miami is but I'm thinking that right center in San Francisco is the largest ballpark. And I would assume that New York that portion right right field right center is the shortest. So you know, you definitely don't want to go from

one to the other. I'm sure going from San Francisco to New York. So San Francisco though, just to add a little more context. They I mentioned earlier, wriggly field being the third one point to home runs per game. Third most in all of Major League Baseball in 2022. San Francisco was in the bottom third. They were whatever. How many teams are in Major League Baseball 32.

So they were 30th 29th 30th in home runs per game at that ballpark. Yeah. It's just. It's just tough. Yeah. It's tough. Alrighty. Well, you're ready to get into Cody Belinger. Be sure to email us. Jimbo podcast 21 at gmail.com. Subscribe to the podcast. Follow us on social media at Jim Tara at Epstein. Hitting and don't forget new episode of cross functionality. This Wednesday with Cassie

Riley Bolshin. I so tune into that. The episode will drop. Of course, as it does every Wednesday at 9 a.m. on Apple Google Spotify or wherever you get your podcast or the softball strength academy. YouTube page discussing all things. We're going to go back to how things were and be unsuccessful with the cups. And we don't want to see that. So you say timing and rhythm.

We're about to get into a swing. What can you do with his hands? Because it does kind of have a little bit of a hitch and his and his swing. It's again, he's slate on everything. What about the hands? What is something you can kind of cut down on that would help with his timing and rhythm? I don't think he needs to. I think he needs

to get his body going more than changes hands. We'll look in this video and his swing plane is actually beautiful on this swing. Of course, he does hit a line drive to left center field. But his swing plane is way different than it was, I would say early. This was taken later in the year last year, 2022. And it seemed like he was really adjusting and

trying to work probably machines that velocity up in the zone. Because that's how everybody was beating him. And so he he adjusted his swing appropriately. And he did a really nice job with it. The problem is he can't make any adjustments to pitches. Like if he doesn't sit on a certain pitch and get that exact pitch. So I think his hand pad is actually quite good

based on this swing. And I haven't seen a tent of the swing. But based on this swing, his hand pad is excellent. He can definitely extend more. He cuts his swing off a little bit with his top hand. So he can extend more to stay on plane longer so that he can get to the pole side balls and the air instead of rolling over for sure.

But it's really about it's it's not just his movement of pitches, but it's his legs. He doesn't get into his legs at all. He's right with everything. And so when you're real upright, you can't shrink the strike zone on on low pitches. You know, you got to take your hands from point A, which is way up here all the way down to cover a low pitch.

Where if you use your legs, you can use your legs as elevators to get down to that pitch. And then you don't have to move your hands quite as much. Because our legs are a lot stronger and more stable than our hands are. So he just he kind of has a I mean, he definitely needs to get going sooner. That's kind of an o-brainer. He needs

to change his stride in order to do that. But he also needs to get into his legs a little bit more. All right. Well, let's get to the swing mechanical breakdown series. Our first edition of a new type of thing we're doing here with our mechanical breakdown series fixing a hitter. And today it's fixing Cody Belinger. What do you got? All right. So here's Belinger. And

this is great because most players when when the pitcher starts to break his hands. And let me zoom in here. Again, this is a two to count. So we have a you know, a two to count here. I'm just going to zoom in a little bit more so we can see. But you'll notice he hasn't moved yet. The pitcher lifts his leg. Now the pitcher's breaking

his hands. There's zero movement. He's not. I don't care if you're not striding, but you at least have to get into your back leg and your back hip. Okay. He still hasn't moved the pitcher's arm is all the way down and back. Belinger still hasn't moved. Okay. Most players are starting to lift their leg. Well, in order to lift your leg, you got to transfer your

weight into your back. First, he hasn't done either of those. Now the pitcher's arm comes forward or up. So as his arm comes up and forward, Belinger kind of bends his front knee a little bit like, okay, I'm getting ready to step. Now the ball's released. And his foot is still on the ground. His heel is up, but his foot's on the ground. So at release

or down, depending on where your stride is like. He's lifting it after the balls released. So two frames after the balls relief, he finally gets his foot up. And now he's got to get his foot down in time by the time the balls 10 to 12 feet in front of the plate and get his swing off. Okay. It's just way too. If we put a timer

on it, it's probably a quarter of a second. Okay. Where. When you lift your foot and plant your foot, that number should be three quarters of a second. Point seven, five. Okay. I'm going to write it here on the screen. Point seven, five seconds from when you start to lift your foot to when you drop your foot. Okay. His is point two to point two, five.

That's the fastest and major league baseball. Okay. So that's that's the fact like it's obvious. Some guys are a second. A lot of guys are one second, point nine seconds. Guys that have a little bit more of a slow deliberate leg kick. Okay. So that's a number one. He's got a rush to this position. Essentially what he's doing is he's waiting for the pitch and then

making up his mind to step. Instead of stepping and reading the pitch while your foot's in the air, which is what everybody does. So he's making it so difficult. And I know I'm not the only one that sees this. I'm I would have to I would hope, but I'm pretty sure that the Dodgers see this. And they tried to get him to do it. And he

probably didn't want to do it or he couldn't do it when he got into a game. I don't know what the process was, but if somebody didn't see this, that would be a bit of a problem. Okay. Now we're going to see this. He stays on this ball. It's a thigh high middle away. And he shoots it in the left center field gap. Okay. So now

let's get a little side view of this. Okay. Everybody's going to run on the basis. That's fun. Yeah, hitting is fun again. Take my elbow guard off. Okay. So now we're going to see this. So we get a close up view. I mean, you can really see he doesn't lift his foot. Until the balls out of the hand. His foot doesn't come completely off the ground.

It doesn't have a ton of hand motion, right? He just kind of pulls him back a little bit and cocks him. But it's not bad. Now if we look at you can see, you know, as he hits this ball, his hips are facing left field. You know, he doesn't really get his hips through all the way, but we don't want to on this outside pitch. You

know, he brings his head down. That's fine. His grip looks decent. I don't see anything crazy with his grip. If we put a bat vertical angle on this pitch, here's the knob. Here's the barrel. He's at 29 degrees. That's fine for a pitch. That's at the top of the thighs. You know, I got there's nothing wrong with that. After he makes contact a couple frames. His

vertical bat angle is still pretty close to that. It's not exactly 29 degrees, but it's it's 20 21 degrees. So that that's age. He's different. That's why he tops balls to the bullseye because that barrel doesn't stay on that same plane as he finishes the swing. Okay. And then if we look at the side view here. Okay. You're going to see, you know, again, he's rushed.

There's nothing wrong with what he's doing with his hands. There's nothing wrong. It looks great in slow motion because the slow motion. It looks bad when it's fast. Okay. But you can see how narrow he is when he lands. Okay. You look at his head. If I draw a vertical line from his head, it's closer to his front foot than his back foot. I'm not sure

there's another major league hitter that does that. Okay. Most guys, the middle of their head is over their back hip flexor. So he's kind of forward with his head there. That's going to, you know, make it very difficult to get down to pitches. And then you can see his hands are kind of going. But his back knee is back heel still on the ground. You can

see his back heel isn't come off the ground until there, which is a long time. Okay. You can see how close his knees are. He's just very crunched up and why is that? Well, it's because he moves late. If you move late, you know, you got to get your foot down. He gets to here. He's probably like, oh fastball. I better get my foot down. So

he drops it early. But his front leg. In a perfect world. His front leg should be out probably five inches for it. And that would allow this back knee to come down and in. But if you notice his knees kind of just comes in. His heel doesn't get above his toes. He owes heels like behind his toes. Every other major league or their heel is up

here above their toes or even in front of their toes. So his spacing isn't good. You know, he's not getting into his legs. You can see his legs are so close together. I want everybody to watch right it is front knee after contact. Look how his back leg his back thigh pushes his front leg forward. That's why his fall through looks kind of funny because there's

just no room. For that back leg to come through. Okay. So that's that's the body, right? It's and he's always been a little funky with that. So now what I'm going to do. I'm going to draw the pitch plane. Here comes the pitch plane. Probably about five degrees. Yep. But if we look at his barrel. Okay, what do we talk about? We always talk about getting

your barrel to the pitch point about it your front knee. Perfect. Not back here. He doesn't hit the pitch plane back by his back hip. He gets on at his front knee. He's on at his front, whatever. This is the middle of his front foot. He's on it, right at his front toes. The problem is his front toe should be out further. So if I draw

one more line about four inches in front of his front toes is his barrel still there. Maybe, but you can see it's kind of coming off just a little bit. Okay. Now if you look at his left arm, if he extended his left arm, if he got to hear and then extended his left arm all the way through. You know, who does that really well as

Nimmo, by the way, does that. He has great extension. Then his barrel would stay on plane all the way to that last marker. I just drew. So you can see he kind of holds on to it with his left arm. So he could stay on plane longer. If you wanted to, he didn't need to hear. He hit it. But it's not what you would think it

would be with him with him. You would think his barrel. Oh, he strikes out a lot. He swings and misses a lot. You would think his barrel would kind of, you know, come down here underneath. And come up this way. But it doesn't. It kind of comes right in here. It's very shallow through the ball. And that's a swing plane that should play. So that's that's

that would be the scary part of his swing is, how are you struggling that much? How are you striking out that much when your barrel actually is on plane for a decent amount? Well, the problem is this pitches up. If you get this pitch down, you know, towards the bottom of his thighs or right above his knees. He's not. He can't be on this. He can't

be on plane as long because he can't get down with his legs as feet are too close together. So then on pitches down, he's got to drop his barrel a lot more. And then swing up a lot more to get to it. So where he's a guy that he's over compensated to hit the pitch up. Now, if you were a pitcher. Now would be the time

maybe throw him something up up at his belt to start the at bat. And then you would try to go down because he's not right now. He's not going to be as consistent on low pitch. So he's not going to be as consistent as he is just because his lower body isn't kidding. So recapping, you know, really quick. It's rhythm and timing. He's got it. He's

got to change his timing. He's got to change his rhythm. He's got to start sooner. He's got to start. I went back to the very beginning of the video. When the pitcher breaks his arms, he's got to start to pick up his foot. So that when the pitcher releases the ball. He's at the top of his stride. That's a number one to give himself a chance.

He's legs a little bit more and that'll get him to cover more of the strike zone in a consistent, more consistent manner. Well, that's a great job. Great breakdown there by you and, et while you were doing that, I did get a peak at Cody Belinger's exit velocity in the last couple of years. And I just want to share something with you. His exit velocity, his

max exit V low 112.8. That was in 2017. That was a career high. And according to baseball, so fun.com. That was in the top 10% in all of Major League Baseball. Since then he is consistently dropped down to the point where last year it was 107.3. Now you would think with a guy like, that was his hit ball was 107 last year on average. Matt. What

I'm sorry. No, you're right. That was his average. No, his average. His average exit velocity last year was at 89.4 year before that 2021. I'm sorry. I'm ending everybody. With statistics, it was 89.3. So it's been consistently dropping. Now the max exit velocity last year. And I heard the surprise in your voice. It was indeed 107.3. Yeah, that's not that's not good. Not. I mean, not

not for a big league or you know, he's going to barrel up balls during the year. Right. And it just goes to show that he doesn't he's not using his lower half at all. He's doesn't have any rhythm. He doesn't have much of a wage shift. There's so much more juice on that. Yeah. Like he should be hitting balls 115 miles an hour. He's 6.3. I

believe like he's a big, lanky dude that can create a lot of bat speed. Yeah, and he has a power of 335 to 40 home runs. Absolutely. So yeah, he's definitely not not using his body like he used to. I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask anyway in regards to what you would do with Cody Belinger. If you had him

one on one for a couple of weeks prior to spring training, if you're with the Cubs organization, and you were assigned to Cody Belinger, what would the plan be to get Cody back on track? Move an early and slow. Move an early moving slow, still using his same strive. That's kind of a glide. It's just a very short fast glide. That same opening up and getting

into his legs more that would be the one thing that I would work on is just let's get moving early. Moving slower, so slow to fast, slow feet to quick hands. He's got quick hands. He obviously likes to use his hands. That's why he hits that way. He's just trying to like put the barrel on the ball right now. But if you can get him into

a better position mechanically with his with his body, he's just going to be so much more consistent and hit the ball so much harder. All right. Any questions about this. Emelle is Jimbo podcast fixing Cody Belinger, Jimbo podcast 21 at gmail.com. We'll get to Mike's question next week. Thank you for joining us. Today, Apple Google Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts and watching the show on

YouTube, the lab Epstein hitting podcast page. And if I sounded a little bit shitty tonight, I do apologize. I'm a little bit under the weather. And I just came from the gym and Ep just came from lessons. And now he wants to go play with his new dog. I think you sound great, Jim. Thanks. It's the mic. And you look at me up. Yeah. I don't

like the sarcasm. We all. I mean, it's a lot of sarcasm, but really you didn't sound bad. You want to tell everybody about the new dog or no? You don't have to. But it's the kind of dog you have when you have three daughters, and a wife that want a dog. It's a kind of dog that somebody's six foot five can't walk in public on a

leash. That's the kind of dog we have. It's a little tiny. It's a good dog. What's the dog's name? Poppy. So Poppy was my grandfather who was the greatest man ever. Nice man ever. Most caring man ever. From Philly. You can do that. And he had red hair. Like to the day, I think he was 90. Oh, my Lord. How old was he? So he had

red hair. And he was part of that red hair blue hair brigade before it was cool in 2020. Correct. Yeah. You had like real red hair. So this dog has similar hair and we were always going to name our next dog, Poppy after Poppy. So hopefully this is it for the dogs, by the way. Oh, gosh, hopefully. Now it will be at some point. The other

ones will die. And I'll need a big dog to hang out. What are we? It's pretty, pretty gloomy. What do you have coming up at the lab? I'm going to be down at the lab in about three weeks for all of our college stuff. So we have that right now. The my online Academy stuff, Epstein online Academy. We are using the next month, six weeks to

really dive into any mechanical issues that players have. And that was the time where we're, you know, we're indoors. For the most part, we're working on our isolation moves, get those IRED out. And then we can start working on timing after. So, you know, everybody's kind of in what is the most important thing right now to work on? Because it's a little bit of a downtime.

We're not planning any games. So that's that's what we're focusing on both for the online Academy, my lessons here in Denver and then the lab as well. Alrighty. Great stuff this week. And be sure again to subscribe, watch the show, Fixing Cody Belinger episode 126. Next week. What are we doing next week? I can't remember now. I'll have to tweet it out because I don't know

if you don't tell me I don't know. That's right. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening and watching and we'll talk to you next week.