Phillies

Breaking Down Kyle Scott’s Rough Day at Home Runs for Heart

By Bob Wankel

Published: May 2nd, 2019 · 1:49 PM EDT

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Our fearless leader went down to Citizens Bank Park yesterday to defend his illustrious 2012 American Heart Association’s Home Runs For Heart crown. As he tells it, he repeatedly launched missiles into the alleys and in “the general vicinity of the warning track” – direct quote – in a powerful display of pure manliness that left spectators in awe and his fellow competitors completely demoralized that day. In fact, here’s exactly what he wrote after his performance:

Everything got fuzzy from there on out. All I remember thinking – for a brief moment – was, holy shit, that ball has a chance to go over the fence at Citizens Bank Park. The Crowd rose to its feet. I think the light tower exploded. Angels may have been singing. I don’t know, really. But the Knights had won.

Jesus Christ.

I’m sure that he will tell you he was kidding, but I’m not so sure. Anyway, I was obviously expecting big things from the city’s most irreverent blogger in his return to competition yesterday, maybe even a homer into the flower beds fueled by his dad strength.

I mean, look at this guy. Virility. Strength. Explosiveness. All the physical attributes of the prototypical power hitter. And the swagger!

@CrossingBroad is up next! #HRFH ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/gkke7YC1yz

— American Heart Association – Pennsylvania (@AHAPennsylvania) May 1, 2019

Dripping with it. Just oozing with it.

To my surprise, and I’m sure to the surprise of anyone looking at the above photograph, really, Mr. Crossing Broad didn’t win the competition yesterday, nor did he even really come close. I wondered how this could possibly be. Fortunately, our video guy Craig was down at the yard yesterday to document what was supposed to be Kyle’s return to athletic triumph, so I can break down his swing, and you can laugh at it.

The stance

Not bad. I’d probably bring the hands a little closer to the body to get the top hand more directly through the zone, but nothing egregious here. Athletic stance with the knee-bend that sets up a decent base. I like lining up the knocking knuckles to keep more loose, athletic hands, but Kyle goes with the strangle-grip, lining up the knocking knuckles of his right hand with the top knuckles of his left hand, which creates a more powerful feel pre-pitch, but less flexibility to extend through the ball and finish the swing.

Positives

If you look at this still shot, there’s some decent stuff to build upon here. Eyes are on the ball, the front hip goes a bit too early, but the front foot is down and relatively closed. Lots of dudes would get in the box, step directly toward third base, and flail away, ass out. The weight isn’t on the heels, which is a common issue.

Full swing analysis

We have five of Kyle’s hacks to work with here. Let’s watch it through.

Yeah, not great. It’s actually not a terrible swing–if you’re playing co-ed weeknight softball. To be fair, it’s obvious that Kyle knows how to swing the bat a little bit and was probably pretty decent at some point, probably when Bryce Harper was in pre-school. I’ll even concede that from a timing standpoint, it’s actually difficult to hit off a pitching machine, especially when you haven’t swung a bat in over 2,000 days. That said, there’s a lot going on here and most of it is no good.

1. The hands drop

Those hands, man. You want the barrel of the bat coming through the zone right away, while staying connected to the body. Once his hands load, they immediately drop, causing him to come underneath the ball and cast the bat through the zone. That’s the primary issue causing the lack of contact we see above.

2. Weight is on the front foot too soon

He gets the weight back but the transfer to the front-side is way too quick. He’s not trusting his hands here and once the whiffs pile up, it seems like he begins to really press as he tries to find his timing. Maybe the moment overwhelmed him.

3. The follow-through is too short

Look at the second pitch–shouldn’t be hard to find–it’s the one he makes contact on. He goes down and gets it, but doesn’t really finish the swing. I don’t know if he’s surprised he made contact and just felt relief as he was coming through the ball, forgetting to finish, if his grip on the bat was so tight that he lost his bat control, or what. But there’s no extension through swing, something all great power hitters know to be key.

The Bottom Line

I’m not sure what happened in 2012, but I know this ain’t it. I will say, though, if he takes a trip to the cages, gets some timing, and eliminates the hand-drop, which, in turn, will keep his core more connected with his hands, I could see a redemptive performance in 2020. Still, word is that Matt O’Donnell of 6ABC’s Action News has a pretty sweet stroke, so I don’t know if there’s enough here for Kyle to overtake him by next year. He might just have to keep embellishing the athletic feats of his younger years, just like so many other guys do. You know the type. The dude that actually hit .389 at the JV level who now tells people he was first-team all-conference when he’s at the bar 20 years later. Uncle Rico/Al Bundy type stuff. Not saying Kyle is like that, or anything. But.