Which is better at the plate, a patient hitter or an aggressive hitter? 

Let’s  get aggressive ….

Aggressive hitters go after many pitches and always try to hit the ball.  You approach the box as if you’re going into battle and ready to attack! Being aggressive can be a good and a bad thing.  You don’t want to be too aggressive because you can become too predictable and swing at everything.  Yuniesky Betancourt of the Royals (2011 Brewer) is a great an example of being too aggressive.  I had to watch his horrible hitting and it was painful.   Occassionally, he would crush the ball, but that didn’t overshadow what happened most of the time. Was it just me or did he swing and pop up the first pitch almost every at bat.  He made me sooooooooooo frustrated.  Betancourt seemed to have the mind-set of “I gotta swing at every pitch and get a big hit it!!!” Almost desperate to make something happen, he swung at almost every first pitch often popping up or striking. If I could predict what he would do at the plate,  the pitchers definitely did and used it to their advantage.

There are also many great aggressive hitters.  If you are a good aggressive hitter you always will go up to bat with a mind-set of “I’m gonna hit this, but I won’t swing if it’s not near the zone.”  These types of hitters are always ready to take a wack at the ball and make some sort of contact, but if it’s not there they simply don’t swing.  Josh Hamilton of the Rangers and Ryan Braun are great examples of great aggressive hitters. They approach ready to battle but will lay off the “bad” pitches.  My baseball coach has this philosophy and it really works.  My team was crushing the ball over the weekend with 3 home runs and many monster hits.  In the next few days I’ll be talking about patient hitters and my personal opinion

Please Comment on your opinion of aggressive hitters.