The Swing of Evan Longoria

A reader asked me to look at the swing of Evan Longoria a while back. You really can’t find much not to like. He has what you look for in an elite player: a blend of bat speed and quickness, terrific hand-eye coordination, pitch recognition…you name it.

Everything stays closed — his hips and his shoulders specifically — until the very last second before unloading on the ball, something you can see in the clip below. He lets the ball travel deep into his hitting zone and he finishes with force, swinging through the ball and not cutting his swing short. I pause the clip at the frame where he first decides to commit to the pitch. Note how deep the ball has traveled before he commits to swinging. When you wait as late as he does, you get a better idea of the pitch type and location.

*Credit to MLB Advanced Media

Below you get a clip that exemplifies the kind of wrist strength Longoria possesses. As as he turns his hips and hands together, watch how the back elbow is connected with the hips throughout the swing — as the hips turn, so do the hands. He doesn’t allow the hands to get out in front. Once the hips are fully rotated, the back arm stops turning, staying connected to the hips and his wrists take over. I slow it down during the sequence where this occurs. The wrists whip the bat through the hitting zone before reaching the point of contact. At the exact point of contact, the arms fully extend. That’s what power hitters do — they fully extend at contact rather than before, which is a trait you see in many contact oriented hitters.

*Credit to MLB Advanced Media

Longoria adeptly adjusts to breaking balls in mid-air and has a unique ability to hit balls out of the park even when he gets fooled, takes an awkward swing, or doesn’t get all of the ball at contact. Below we see Longoria adjusting to a breaking ball in mid-air and still managing to hit the ball out of the park.

*Credit to MLB Advanced Media

Longoria’s loading process is a bit long, but it’s a necessary trade-off for the kind of power he’s able to generate. He’s an aggressive hitter, but there are times his aggressiveness will hurt him as he has a tendency to chase pitches out of the zone, which is something that should get better with experience.

So yeah…Longoria is really, really good. Combined with talented young core surrounding him, the Rays should be able to boast one of the game’s best offenses for years to come.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed for updates on when new content is posted. You can also get updates in your inbox and receive extra prospect reports, article extensions, the reader mailbag, and more by using the form below to sign up for the free Baseball-Intellect Newsletter. Your e-mail will never be shared or sold.

For readers already using an RSS feed for site updates, you can skip the updates and sign up for just the Newsletter content by clicking here.

What to Do Next

Sign Up for Updates

Related Articles