Just read an article by Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record. Normally I am not a fan of "The Klap" but it's an interesting read on the improvement of Nick Swisher. You can read the article here. It also reinforces the idea that Kevin Long may be the most important piece of this Yankee offense. Hopefully Long will have the same results with Jeter's new swing.
Last year Swish really made a dramatic improvement in his offensive game. This seems to be attributable to Kevin Long, the hitting coach for the Yankees. Following a lackluster World Series, Swisher got in contact with Long about a month later to work on his swing. They worked together one on one to work on Swish's mechanics and the results speak for themselves. Swisher's batting average jumped from a .249 to .288 in 2010, batting .300 against right handed pitchers, and he hit .298 in the first half of the season. His slugging percentage improved as well and he hit 29 home runs for the second consecutive year.
This year he plans to work on improving his on base percentage and is continuing to work with Long. Keep an eye on Swisher this season and looked for improved plate discipline. Chances are we could see him batting in the 2nd spot after Jeter. Girardi likes Jeter batting leadoff and Swisher had a decent amount of starts batting second this year. With Granderson's numbers dropping, Swisher may just steal that 2nd slot from him.
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