The Mystery Of Derek Jeter’s New Old Stance

Over the last few days, we have heard reports that has abandoned the stance that he developed this winter with Kevin Long. In the past, Jeter typically lifted his front (left) leg, did a toe tap, and then took a stride to home plate as he swung. Long wanted to quiet Jeter’s swing and felt the stride was making him late on pitches, so they eliminated the entire process and had him keep his left leg planted for the entire at-bat. However, Jeter started off slowly, admitted that he was focusing too much energy on the changes, and seemed to revert to his old swing. I had a few discussions with some other bloggers on Twitter about whether he had fully reverted or had simply brought back the toe-tap and not the stride, but we all agreed that the entirely motionless stance from Spring Training had disappeared. This is where things get fuzzy.

Ken Davidoff and Andrew Marchand reported earlier today that Kevin Long admitted that Jeter had abandoned the new approach entirely, based upon the following quotes:

“It is more of what has done for his whole career, yeah. Even from my standpoint, it looks a lot more like what he did in the past. Again, he has had a very successful career and it has worked out well for him.”

“He started off doing it and then he said, ‘It is hard for me to think about that on every at-bat,’” Long said. “I said, ‘You know what, I don’t want you to think about it every at-bat so he is kind of tapping and picking up. We’ll still monitor to see if he is going in or gets out of whack with what he is doing. For right now, I just want him to be at-ease with his at-bats and going up there and basically competing against the pitcher and not having to worry about his mechanics.”

Long does not say directly that Jeter has gone back to his old swing (notice the “it is more of” rather than “it is” in the first sentence, and the fact that he mentions the toe-tap returning but not the stride), but he certainly does not deny it either. I can definitely see how Marchand and Davidoff would leave that conversation believing that Jeter’s swing is back where it was in 2010.

However, and did a subsequent interview with Long, and his denial was firm and unequivocal:

“I think he’s feeling better about what he’s doing and he’s not thinking as much about the mechanics of his swing,” Long said. “At this point, it’s about competing, it’s about putting together quality at-bats.

“Everybody’s talking about abandoning stuff. That’s so far from the truth that I think it’s wrong to write. That’s not right. He really has stayed to the plan.”

“Everybody works day in and day out,” Long said. “You’re always working on your swing, you’re always working on your mechanics, you’re always working to get things right. To go after somebody and say he’s not doing things the way we set out to do, that’s not the truth, because he’s really worked hard at it.”

“He’s trying to keep his stride direction and keep his stride short,” Long said. “You work on it as long as you can, and when you go into the game, really all you can do is compete. And that’s what he’s doing… We talked about getting him more in line. That’s it. When we started it we did it with no stride. He’s picked up at times and set it down. And there’ll be times when he goes in, and we’ll discuss it.”

While Long was a bit vague in the initial interview, he is pretty vehement here in stating that Jeter is still utilizing his new approach. It sounds like Jeter and Long have stayed with the plan to change Jeter’s stride, but have gone from trying to eliminate it entirely to reducing and harnessing it due to Derek’s lack of comfort. From a purely amateur scouting perspective, I’ve been contending that Jeter is tapping without striding, so I am inclined to side with the perspective Long gave Jennings and Hoch. That said, I am not a hitting coach or a scout, and it is certainly possible that Jeter has entirely abandoned his new approach and his coach is just covering for him in the media.

Why does any of this matter? Well, Kevin Long is, by all accounts, a very good batting coach, and he has done an excellent job helping players such as , , and tinker with their swing mechanics and maximize their production at the plate. Coming off a weak 2010, many were encouraged to see the notoriously stubborn Jeter agree to work with Long to try and remake a swing that had gotten increasingly slow and grounder-happy over the final 5 months of 2010.

While I doubt anyone expected Long to “cure” Jeter, we certainly hoped that Derek would at least make an effort to make his new swing work. Obviously, Jeter needs to be comfortable at the plate, and he and Long need to find altered mechanics that both serve their goals and allow him to feel right when hitting. But if he has entirely abandoned the new approach and returned to his old swing after 9 games, it would be a disappointing misstep for a player who is losing the goodwill of the fanbase with every grounder to the middle infield.