Mark Loretta Talks Hitting

Mark Loretta was a solid hitter over 15 big league seasons, and he was especially good in 2003 and 2004. Over that two-year span, the right-handed-hitting second baseman slashed .325/.382/.469 with 75 doubles, 29 home runs, and a 129 wRC+ with the San Diego Padres. Contact was one of his strong suits. The Northwestern University product had a 7.9% strikeout rate to go with an 8.2% walk rate in 2003-04, numbers largely in line with his 9.2% and 8.5% career marks.

His overall production was comparably modest. Loretta consistently put up high batting averages – they ranged between .280 and .335 during his 11 full seasons — but he went deep just 76 times and finished with a 100 wRC+. Those numbers came over seven-plus seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, three with the Padres, two-plus with the Houston Astros, and one each with the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. Your prototypical “professional hitter,” Loretta debuted in 1995 and played his last game in 2009.

Now a special assistant with San Diego, Loretta sat down to talk hitting when the Padres played at Fenway Park in late June.

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David Laurila: Looking back, what style of hitter were you, and did that change over the course of your career?

Mark Loretta: “That’s a good question. I would say that I was developed and came up as [someone who hit] inside the ball, hit the ball up the middle, hit it the other way, hit it where it’s pitched. I was very contact-oriented. I didn’t really sit on pitches or sell out for fastballs, I mainly liked to see the ball get deep.

“About halfway through my career I made a concerted effort to learn to pull the ball better, and more often. I think that’s when my career sort of took off. I was able to get to keep that contact-hitter, hit-it-where-it’s-pitched approach, but also handle the ball inside much better.

“My power — more doubles, more home runs — came when I pulled the ball. For a lot of my career, pitchers would pound me in, pound me in, because I hit the ball well the other way. I made a couple of adjustments with my swing and started looking a little bit more in when I was in hitter’s counts. I would lay off the ball middle-away when it was 2-0 or 3-1.”

Laurila: How much has hitting changed since you played?

Loretta: “Well, I think the approach to hitting has changed. The goal is still to produce runs — you’re either trying score runs or drive them in — but now the onus is more on exit velocity. There are things we didn’t necessarily think about when when I was playing. My last year was 2009, so it’s not like it was 40 years ago, but the style has definitely changed. You see a lot more guys go up there thinking, I’m going to try to fire off my A-swing for three strikes. We never thought that way, or at least I didn’t. We were more concerned with having a two-strike approach and making contact. Striking out was kind of a black eye. Nobody liked to do it, whereas it has become much more acceptable. Certain things are valued differently.”

Laurila: Let’s say you were playing today. Do you think you’d be the same hitter you were?

Loretta: “I think it would probably depend on what organization I was in, quite frankly. In terms of bio-mechanically… I never really broke down my swing in terms of, Here is leverage, here is the way to hit the ball. I never tried to hit the ball in the air. I was trying to hit a line drive. Maybe I would have changed that approach and tried to hit more fly balls. I don’t know.”

Laurila: Are there any players on this Padres team you see as being stylistically similar to who you were as a hitter?

Loretta: “Maybe Luis Arraez? He’s a guy with a short swing. I was right-handed and he’s left-handed, and we’re different in our styles a little bit, but I do think the pendulum is swinging back a little bit to putting more emphasis, and value, on contact and situational hitting. [Padres manager] Mike Shildt and our guys talk a lot about that.”

Laurila: Can you elaborate on how you and Arraez are similar?

Loretta: “Just really short to the ball. Not huge bat speed. I wasn’t a big bat speed guy because I didn’t have a big load. I was more trying to be short, compact, direct to the ball. I wasn’t selling out for power.”

Laurila: What are some of the conversations you were referring to? What is the organization looking for?

Loretta: “To use a golf analogy, we’ve more or less come to the conclusion that you want to have more than one club in your bag. Let’s try to have balanced hitters, a balanced lineup to where if we’re not hitting the three-run homer we are getting a bunch of hits. As you saw last night, we scored nine runs in one inning before making an out. There were a couple of home runs in there, but there were also a lot of singles. It was a contact-oriented inning. For us, the idea is to be a multifaceted hitter.”

Laurila: How does the organization approach hitting from a training perspective?

Loretta: “On the player development side, we focus a lot on training at high velocity. We’re taking a lot more batting practice off of high-speed machines, versus off of a coach’s arm or the type of thing that really doesn’t mimic hitting in a game. There is a lot of emphasis on biomechanics, getting your body in the right position. And then there is obviously controlling the strike zone, pitch recognition. We chart that. We value that. We look at all different metrics on that.”

Laurila: How is power approached within player development?

Loretta: “I think it starts with trying to be a good hitter first. One of my least favorite scouting terms is ‘raw power.’ That’s more what you can do in batting practice, swing as hard as you can. Well, you can’t get to your raw power unless you make enough contact. So, I think you start off with a base — a good idea of the strike zone, good contact — and then as you get comfortable with that, the power can come. Jackson Merrill’s season has been kind of like that. He started off just kind of putting the ball in play, and then the power started to come.”

Laurila: What you like is game power…

Loretta: “Yes. Raw power is dumb to me. Who cares? You can get a bodybuilder out here that could hit for raw power, but if you can’t hit a 97-mph fastball, how are you going to get to that raw power?”

Laurila: What are some of the metrics you care about?

Loretta: “Swing decisions. In-zone contact rate. And it’s not about just swinging in zone, it is swinging in specific zones. If you’re swinging on 2-0 and the pitch is down and away, even if it’s a strike, that’s not smart. You should be looking for something middle-middle or middle-in where you can do a little bit of damage. I do think that exit velocity has value. You need to make contact, but you also want to hit the ball hard.”

Laurila: You mentioned wanting to not strike out. If you work deep counts, more strikeouts are inevitable…

Loretta: “You need to have a two-strike approach. You’ve got to give up a little bit with two strikes, particularly in situations where contact drives the run in. I mean, it’s one thing if it’s the third inning and no one is on base. Every scenario is different.”

Laurila: Who was the best hitter you played with?

Loretta: “Among right-handed hitters, probably Manny Ramirez. He was the most balanced. He had an incredible swing, but he also made good swing decisions. He obviously had game power. But the best hitter of my generation was Todd Helton. He was the best pure hitter I saw during my time in the game. He could make great contact with power. He could hit multiple pitches. He had more than one tool in his toolbox.”

Laurila: Any final thoughts on hitting?

Loretta: “One is that I never wanted to be in a position where I was automatically taking or automatically swinging. I see that a lot in the game. I see a lot of, I’m making my mind up to swing. The pitch always should dictate whether you swing or not. Hitting is a reactionary skill.

“Another is that a lot of players get caught up in their swings. To me, hitting is not so much about swinging. Obviously, you have to swing to hit the ball, but swinging isn’t hitting. Hitting is making the right decision. It’s knowing the pitcher. It’s knowing what the situation calls for. The swing comes last.”

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Earlier “Talks Hitting” interviews can found through these links: Jo Adell, Jeff Albert, Greg Allen, Nolan Arenado, Aaron Bates, Jacob Berry, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, Justice Bigbie, Cavan Biggio, Charlie Blackmon, JJ Bleday, Bobby Bradley, Will Brennan, Jay Bruce, Triston Casas, Matt Chapman, Michael Chavis, Garrett Cooper, Gavin Cross, Jacob Cruz, Nelson Cruz, Paul DeJong, Josh Donaldson, Brendan Donovan, Donnie Ecker, Rick Eckstein, Drew Ferguson, Justin Foscue, Michael Fransoso, Ryan Fuller, Joey Gallo, Paul Goldschmidt, Devlin Granberg, Gino Groover, Matt Hague, Andy Haines, Mitch Haniger, Robert Hassell III, Austin Hays, Nico Hoerner, Jackson Holliday, Spencer Horwitz, Rhys Hoskins, Eric Hosmer, Jacob Hurtubise, Tim Hyers, Connor Joe, Jace Jung, Josh Jung, Jimmy Kerr, Heston Kjerstad, Steven Kwan, Trevor Larnach, Doug Latta, Royce Lewis, Evan Longoria, Joey Loperfido, Michael Lorenzen, Gavin Lux, Dave Magadan, Trey Mancini, Edgar Martinez, Don Mattingly, Marcelo Mayer, Hunter Mense, Owen Miller, Colson Montgomery, Tre’ Morgan, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Daniel Murphy, Lars Nootbaar, Logan O’Hoppe, Vinnie Pasquantino, Graham Pauley, David Peralta, Luke Raley, Julio Rodríguez, Brent Rooker, Thomas Saggese, Anthony Santander, Drew Saylor, Nolan Schanuel, Marcus Semien, Giancarlo Stanton, Spencer Steer, Trevor Story, Fernando Tatis Jr., Spencer Torkelson, Mark Trumbo, Brice Turang, Justin Turner, Trea Turner, Josh VanMeter, Robert Van Scoyoc, Chris Valaika, Zac Veen, Alex Verdugo, Mark Vientos, Matt Vierling, Luke Voit, Anthony Volpe, Joey Votto, Christian Walker, Jared Walsh, Jordan Westburg, Jesse Winker, Bobby Witt Jr. Mike Yastrzemski, Nick Yorke, Kevin Youkilis

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