Mervis has one of the quietest swings I've seen.
https://twitter.com/IowaCubs/status/1574549613884866573
I like that observation, Chris. This is not the big-leg-kick of the Javy prospect era. The hands don't have a lot of movement or load complexity either. Two-handed swing, not dependent on the longer one-handed follow-through.
Always hard for me to tell; highlights usually only show HR's, where swings always look balanced and efficient. How does a guy look on the other ones? Easy to keep both hands on the bat when you've timed the pitch; if his weight is out in front on a change or off-speed, does he still keep both hands on the bat?
A pitch like that isn't 98, but it seems a number of his HR's are on upper-half pitches. In the world where so many pitchers throw high strikes, his stroke seems better aligned for high-strike power than was true with the 2016 Cub stars, who I think were all drafted and developed in the swing-to-lift-low-strikes era.
It also seems to me that he's got extended pull power. In this HR, the pitch looks a bit on the outside half of the plate. But he's still willing and able to reach out and pull it. I've kinda noticed that in some other of his HR's, he's willing to start his bat early enough and get to middle-outside pitches in front of the plate with pull power.
It he's a pull-power and swing-to-pull lefty, the anti-shift rules might help him? Maybe a lot?
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