Trayvon Robinson and the benefits of switch-hitting
Jul 24, 2012, 7:08 PM | Updated: 7:11 pm
By 710Sports.com staff
Trayvon Robinson robbed a home run in his MLB debut then hit one himself the following night.
The rest of his first season in the big leagues wasn’t as memorable.
Robinson is back with the Mariners after being recalled from Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday. He told “Bob and Groz” shortly after the move was announced that he’s a different player than the one who hit .210 and struck out 61 times in 44 games last season.
Robinson repeatedly said he’s tried to eliminate the mental mistakes that plagued him last season. The adjustments he’s made at the plate are more to his thought process — “where I want to hit this ball and how I want to hit this pitch,” he said — than to his swing. He also said he’s utilizing his speed better, and his 19 stolen bases in 83 games for the Rainiers suggests he has.
Robinson, who was hitting .265 with nine home runs, 41 RBIs and 85 strikeouts for Tacoma, also talked about the benefit of being a switch hitter. That got Bob Stelton and Dave Grosby thinking about Justin Smoak and the notion that he might be better off hitting from just one side of the plate. They share their thoughts on Robinson and Smoak in the video below.
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