Atlanta Braves beat writer Dave O’Brien joined Dukes & Bell and talked about why does Ronald Acuna Jr. get hit so much in the batters box? Are pitcher intentionally throwing at the Braves young superstar?
O’brien talked about why he thinks Acuna gets hit so much by opposing pitchers.
“When the Miami pitcher hit him now that is totally different than Coonrad, Coonrad is pitching inside, he’s trying to get him off the plate because Acuna dives, that’s what he does.” O’Brien said “Pitchers have no chance against him as good is he is if they don’t come inside. Probably is pitchers are trying to go up a little higher with the velocity today, pitch up higher and if they don’t have good command it can be disastrous for the hitter because it’s them in the hand or the face. Whereas before when they’re pitching down with velocity, they’d hit them in the butt or hip and that’s fine, it’s not going to maim a guy or end his season with a broken hand or wrist.”
“It’s hard to turn you shoulder in like Freddie McGriff was telling me Freddie Freeman us to, he always got hit in the hands and the face or hands and the wrist because he didn’t turn his shoulders inward and he needed to learn to do that. But that’s hard nowadays days because guys are throwing 98, 99, so many guys that hard coming out of the pen, you could do it when guys are throwing 91 but it’s different today.”
