Not long after he entered the game for Brock Holt, who was ejected in the bottom of the third, Michael Chavis drilled a double off Mashiro Tanaka to left. As much as he put a decent charge into the hit (83 miles per hour exit velocity), he did not square Tanaka's fastball up. He did, however, do so when he drove a 94-mile-an-hour offering from Stephen Tarpley to center (108.7 miles per hour exit velocity) in the fifth for his second run-scoring double in Boston's onslaught of the Yankees on Thursday.
When he makes contact, it seems like Chavis barrels pitches up more often than not. But he's not unlike anyone else. Hitters get fooled: a pitch breaks later than usual, the amount movement varies or a pitcher simply outsmarts them. No one is squaring the ball up every time they hit it. Chavis creates that feel, primarily, because of how hard he swings.
But like anything else, the Red Sox rookie has dealt with those who wouldn't mind if made a change. Maybe altered his tempo a bit. Try to be more "free and easy."
Believe it or not, there was a point in time he actually tried to swing harder than does now.
"When I first signed and got in the Gulf Coast League, I was swinging as hard as I could every single swing," Chavis told WEEI.com "That's what I did in high school, it worked."
He adjusted along the way. Not because he was receiving suggestions to do so left and right. Chavis recognized what he needed to do differently.
Which was also made easier by the fact he essentially lives by the code "Ball is life."
"I obsess over hitting," he said. "I hated school, but I love hitting. I'll study about hitting, I'll watch videos in my spare time. People go home and play video games. I like to watch hitting videos, whether it's me or other people."
Even after making modifications, Chavis still swings as hard as anyone in the game. It seems he gets everything out of his body. Though, when he goes through a dry spell or strikes out in a situation where he just needed to put the ball in play, it's easy to wonder, "Why doesn't Chavis adjust his tempo in certain situations?"
It's not that he physically can't or is too stubborn to make the adjustment. He simply knows he's not going to be as effective if he tries to slow things down.
"When I try and swing really easy, I don't purposely get lazy, but my movements kind of get lazy, where I'll drag my hip or my back hip won't get through and stuff like that," Chavis said. "I don't feel like I'm swinging super hard. I look at it and I understand why people think that. But, I mean, I'm trying to break the baseball if we're being real."
And because Chavis' seems to get more out of his body than anyone else, it appears he's out of control, making him prone to flaws in his swing or an overload of swing-and-misses. He doesn't feel that's the case though.
"I have an aggressive swing, in general," he said. "Even when I'm hot as could be, my swing, to other people, still looks too aggressive. My thing that I look for is, more so, controlled aggression. That's kind of the feel. Where I want to feel like I'm swinging hard, without a doubt, but I don't want to feel out of control."
So while he still takes advice from his teammates or his coaches, Chavis probably isn't going to make too many changes to his swing any time soon. Particularly when it comes to his tempo.
