Gordon Beckham showed some progress Wednesday, collecting an RBI single through the left side in the sixth. But that hit was only his fourth of the season, and it saved him from sustaining a batting average below .100.
I had the chance to sit down with Frank Thomas for Beckham's fourth-inning at-bat -- a weak flyout to right -- to pick the Big Hurt's brain on the second baseman's struggles. Here's what he had to say as the at-bat went on, with images of Beckham's swing below:
There are a lot of moving parts for Beckham as he readies his stance -- his lower half is swaying a bit and he's moving his hands around.
Frank's thoughts: There's too much going on. His approach right now, he wants to hit the ball really bad and he's fighting himself. He has the bat waggling, he's worried about this thing now getting his foot down before the pitch comes. That's causing him to be late on a 90 mile per hour fastball.
So here's where Beckham starts his swing. He kicks his front foot up and forward as Tommy Hunter starts his motion toward home plate.
Here, Hunter's 90 mph fastball is well on its way to home plate and Beckham's front foot isn't down, and it's still moving.
Beckham's foot comes down here, but the ball's almost in the catcher's mitt. Of course he's going to be late.
MLB
Frank's thoughts: Changing your stance, and putting your foot down, and trying to let you hands work and all that stuff, there's a lot going through your mind when you only have less than a second to really react to the baseball.
Beckham is way late on the pitch, producing a foul tip of the swing.
Frank's thoughts:This new thing might be good for him down the road, but right now he's fighting himself. He's late on everything, his swing is long. He's just a little bit off. Right now, mentally he's getting in a funk, and in the big leagues it's tough. It really is.
And here's the finish on the swing. Beckham took a similar swing on the next pitch and hit a weak fly ball to right field for an out.
Frank's thoughts: He might need a couple days off to really work on this new thing before he takes it back in the ballgame. But he's such a talented player. For me, this type of talent, I would go with what got me here. Because he's a very talented young ballplayer.
He's definitely far from being done. Right now, he's trying something different, and it's hard to do something new in the season which you didn't work on all spring. And before it's going to work, it's gotta go backward before it goes forward.
Who knows, three games from now he might take off and go 8-10. That's how the game is, it's full of streaks. But right now, he doesn't look hitterish at all.
Update: Beckham picked up another hit in the eighth, a slow grounder up the middle that JJ Hardy couldn't make a throw on. So he has two hits, both of which came after this analysis was posted. Maybe we'll look at Brent Morel next week.