If you can't see it, you can't hit it. Close your eyes and hop in the batter's box and tell me how that works out for you. I believe we generally always see the ball, how well is the question. Do you train your eyes? If you don't I suggest that you do. There are many ways, you can even use visualization to help train your eyes. Tee work, side toss, front toss, batting practice are all opportunities to help you see. If you don't focus on seeing well in the cage you won't see well games.

Part of how I try to teach the vision part is by having my hitters let their eyes tell them when to swing. Sometimes they are still early or late but they usually end up telling me their adjustments before I tell them. The other thing that happens when you focus on seeing the ball well is build the oneness between the eyes and hands. I view the hands and eyes as one unit. They work well together if you let them. Like I said before, close your eyes and hop in the batter's box and you have no chance.

In the end we can swing at we see or keep guessing and thinking. It's ok to think but reserve the thinking for stepping in and out of the batter's box. Once you step into the box, see first and the rest will take care of itself. When it comes to hitting its better to see or than anticipate. Anticipation can bring success as well but have to be careful how you anticipate. I'll talk about anticipation in a couple weeks.

Short season A ball where most college players are sent for their first season.  High school and Junior College players would usually be assigned to rookie ball at the team's training facilities.  Everett was about 30 minutes away from Seattle and it looked like it was going to rain almost every day. 

Our longest bus trip was thirteen (13) hours to Boise Idaho to play the Angels affiliate.  I found out this year that one of my least favorite pitchers to face was Scot Shields.  He had a nasty 2 seam/slider combo.  He teamed up with Francisco Rodriguez a couple years later and I faced them both in A-ball during California League play. 

I remember being tired from my record setting year at Sacramento State where I set the single season (26) and career (35) record for homeruns.  I finished that season in Everett .271 4 34, and I also had 5 triples and 21 doubles.  Seattle named me as the best hitting prospect of the '97 draft class in Baseball America.  They liked the gap to gap power and my approach and wanted to see more homeruns. 

​I lead my team (Wisconsin Timber-rattlers) the next season with 15 home runs in Appleton Wisconsin when I made the change from the infield to the outfield.  By far one of my favorite seasons playing baseball was in 1998 for the T-Rats