In Minor League Baseball

We Look at Three Players Five Years Later

 Mar 10, 2023

To see how uHIT works in Minor League Baseball, we look at three players who used it. We look at Evan Mendoza (Player A), Andy Young (Player B) and Irving Lopez (Player C). In this post, we look at three players’ journey with uHIT in Minor League Baseball. Firstly, where they are now? Secondly, where they have yet to go?

How uHIT Works for Player A (Evan Mendoza) in Minor League Baseball

We will review the before and after effects of uHIT first to see how uHIT works in Minor League Baseball. In this paragraph, you will find a summary of what’s included in our original case study on these players here. Additionally, all on-field data for Evan is taken from here. Finally, we look at what Evan has done since then.

• 2017 Season before using uHIT in A-Ball: BA/OBP/SLG: .270/.286/.419; OPS: .705

• 2018 Season while using uHIT at High-A-Ball: BA/OPB/SLG: .349/.394/.456; OPS: .850

Evan saw a Triple-Slash Line increase of +79/+108/+37 points and an OPS increase of +145 points while using an early version of uHIT Custom’s Zone Recognition Training. He saw this gain despite moving up from A-Ball to High-A-Ball, where the pitching is harder to hit.

What Has Evan Done Since 2018?

Evan Chose the uHIT Partnership Program

At the end of a successful 2018 implementation, Evan’s organization decided to pause its use of uHIT (no one ever said baseball was rational, despite what Moneyball may say!). So Evan connected with uHIT through the its Partnership Program for Professional Hitters (contact info@deCervo.com to learn more about this program) and he used uHIT Plus for the start of the 2019 season.

Again, we could compare two seasons of Evan’s on-field stats. But now, we were comparing two years in which he had used uHIT.  Evan did 54 innings of uHIT Plus in 2019 vs. 251 innings of mostly uHIT Custom in 2018. Clearly, he did about -80% fewer innings in 2019, but would that affect his on-field performance? And why did Evan do fewer innings?

On-Field Hitting and uHIT Gameday Prep

We’ll get to those answers in a moment. But what about his on-field output? Are we going to be able to compare 2019 vs. 2018 stats in the way we did for 2018 vs. 2017? Let’s look here:

• 2018 Season while Using uHIT Custom at AA-Ball: .254/.315/.339; OPS: .654
• 2019 Season while Using uHIT Plus at AA-Ball: .248/.293/.311; OPS: .604

At first glance, it’s clear Evan’s stats at the same level of pitching competition (AA-Ball) went down! But let’s take a closer look at his usage of uHIT and consider also his 2019 stats at AAA-Ball, one level higher:

• 2019 Season – After Using uHIT Plus at AAA-Ball: Triple-Slash Line: .313/.421/.375; OPS: .796

Evan only used uHIT Plus to practice on Major League level pitching. He was doing something like the product planned for 2024, called uHIT Gameday (info@decervo.com for more details about this gameday prep of hitter vision). He abandoned his focus on uHIT Custom’s Zone Recognition, which gradually improved his abilities to recognize the zone. He jumped right to the harder pitching because he believed he was ready. Clearly, the AA-Ball comparison shows a -50-point drop in OPS. But when he bumped up to AAA-Ball, where the pitching is way tougher, he landed a +142-point boost in his OPS in 19 plate appearances. As a result, we had a respectable sample size in AAA-Ball to get a sense of his ability to hit at this level.

Where Can Evan Go From Here?

First Steps Away From uHIT

The first glimpse of Evan’s impact at AAA-Ball seemed promising, a +142-point boost in OPS from his AA-Ball numbers the year prior, and a +192-point OPS increase from his AA-Ball output that same year. But what’s Evan done since then and what’s his uHIT usage been like?

We all know that 2020 was a wash because of the Pandemic. 2021 and 2022 both would have been great seasons to see what lessons in Zone and Pitch Recognition stuck for Evan, and which ones needed refreshers. We’ve seen with other pro hitters that these lessons gained in uHIT Custom stick from year-to-year and don’t require continued practice to the same degree as when initially learning (see here for more details).

On-Field Hitting Without uHIT

Unfortunately, we don’t have any record of Evan using either uHIT Plus or uHIT Custom during this time period. Let’s look at his Triple-Slash Line and OPS to get a sense of what lessons stuck and which ones, if any, may need a refresher:

• 2021 Season – While NOT Using uHIT Custom or uHIT Plus at AAA-Ball: Triple-Slash Line: .242/.305/.290; OPS: .596
• 2022 Season – While NOT Using uHIT Custom or uHIT Plus at AAA-Ball: Triple-Slash Line: .247/.348/.325; OPS: .673

As the on-field stats show, 2021 was a rough return for Evan to the field. He was in the neighborhood of his 2019 AA-Ball numbers. But he was far from where he left off in 2019 at AAA-Ball. Fortunately, in 2022, he turned things around. Specifically, he returned to an OPS that’s more like the middle of where he left off in the 2019 season (between AA-Ball and AAA-Ball stats).

uHIT was certainly NOT a factor in what Evan did between 2021 and 2022. But we can see from his on-field data that in 2021, his K/BB rate was almost 3 (yikes!). And in 2022, he got that way down to about 1. Still though, in 2021 and 2022, he grounded into double-digits numbers of double-plays (11 and 10), which is more than he ever did while playing any level of pro ball. This along with some other hints from his on-field tell us a return to uHIT Custom would make a huge impact. So we hope to return to helping his journey to The Show soon.

How uHIT Works for Player B (Andy Young) in Minor League Baseball

As before, we will review the before / after effects of uHIT first. Firstly, we provide a summary of what’s included in our original case study on these players here. Secondly, we took all on-field data for Andy from here. Finally, we look at what Andy has done since then.

• 2017 Season before using uHIT in High-A-Ball: BA/OBP/SLG: .265/.327/.388; OPS: .715

• 2018 Season while using uHIT in High-A-Ball: BA/OPB/SLG: .276/.372/.444; OPS: .850

Andy saw a Triple-Slash Line increase of +11/+45/+56 points and an OPS increase of +135 points while using an early version of uHIT Custom’s Pitch Recognition Training. These gains propelled him that year to move up from High-A-Ball to-AA-Ball, where the pitching is harder to hit:

• 2018 Season while using uHIT in-AA-Ball: BA/OPB/SLG: .319/.395/.556; OPS: .950

Clearly, 2018 was a banner season for Andy. He excelled so much that year that he played in the Arizona Fall League, and the Cardinals traded him and only two other players for slugger, Paul Goldschmidt.

What Has Andy Done Since 2018?

Things looked promising for Andy after the trade to the Arizona Diamondbacks. His Triple Slash Line and OPS showed that in 2019 he kept the progress going:

• 2019 Season – After Using uHIT Custom at AAA-Ball: Triple-Slash Line: .280/.373/.611′ OPS: .984

And for the COVID-shortened 2020 season, he got promoted to the Big League club for a dozen plate appearances. During this season, as with 2019, Andy was not using uHIT Custom, or as far as we can tell, any part of uHIT.

Then 2021 came. Things plateaued for Andy and he was released at the end of the season.

In 2022, he was picked up by the Washington Nationals organization and started the season at AAA-Ball. Mid-season he was moved down to AA-Ball. After the end of the 2022 season, Andy elected free agency and he is currently not with a Major League organization.

Where Can Andy Go From Here?

As Andy’s journey thus far shows, professional hitting can have a lot of ups and downs. When the Cardinals traded him to the Diamondbacks, he was an infielder discussed in the same breath as multi-year All-Star Paul Goldschmidt.

In fact, 4 years after the trade, Cardinals journalists crowed the organization’s great trade for Goldschmidt: “We’ll quickly notd that Andrew Young, another player involved in the trade, has played in 70 games for the D’backs the last two seasons, batting .205/.319/.462 with seven home runs.  A breakout is always possible, but a player with those stats who turns 28 in May isn’t someone anyone should count on for such an improvement.” That is not a typo: The writer is so unimpressed with how Andy’s career developed that he couldn’t even copy-edit “quickly notd [sic: “note”] that Andrew Young …”! The full article is available here.

As tough as things may look for Andy now, the option to his future success may lay in this biting indictment of his hitting problems. We know one important difference between when he moved up and when he stalled: and that was uHIT Custom. So we hope to have the chance to help Andy prove this journalist wrong, and possibly give the Cardinals (and Nationals) a mega sense of FOMO.

How uHIT Works for Player C (Irving Lopez) in Minor League Baseball

Firstly, we will review the before / after effects of uHIT first. Secondly, we provide a summary of what’s included in our original case study on these players here. Thirdly, we took all on-field data for Irving from here. Finally, we then look at what Irving has done since using uHIT Custom.

• 2017 Season – Before using uHIT in Rookie Ball: Triple-Slash Line (BA/OBP/SLG): .287/.378/.433; OPS: .811

• 2018 Season – While using uHIT in High-A-Ball (two levels up from Rookie Ball): Triple-Slash Line (BA/OPB/SLG): .298/.372/404; OPS: .776

Irving saw a Triple-Slash Line and an OPS decrease. Most importantly, Irving faced much tougher pitching in 2018 than in 2017 because he was promoted up two levels while using an early version of uHIT Custom’s Pitch Recognition Training.

What Has Irving Done Since 2018?

Irving stopped using uHIT Custom when his organization paused their use of it after the 2018 season. In contrast to Evan, Irving did not opt into our Partnership Program for Professional Hitters (see above in Evan’s journey for details to participate).

Still, he built off the 2018 gains, being propelled the next year to move up from AA-Ball to-AAA-Ball, where the pitching is harder to hit:

• 2019 Season – After using uHIT in-AAA-Ball: Triple-Slash Line (BA/OPB/SLG): .300/.386/.467; OPS: .852

Irving was moving up well within the organization when COVID hit. But in 2021 and 2022, he was bounced between AA-Ball and AAA-Ball. His latest Triple Slash Line and OPS at AAA-Ball is a far cry from where he left off in 2019:

• 2022 Season – After using uHIT in-AAA-Ball: Triple-Slash Line (BA/OPB/SLG): .263/.359/.363; OPS: .721

Irving is still with the Cardinals organization as of the writing of this article.

Where Can Irving Go From Here?

As Irving’s journey shows, the COVID break was a serious challenge for up-and-coming pro hitters. Many players saw a fall-off in output from before to after the COVID season.

As with Andy, we see an opportunity for Irving to rekindle his progress inn uHIT Custom to help his recognition of the zone. Unfortunately, we don’t know what would have happened had he kept using uHIT Custom. But we can see from his K/BB rate that his recognition of the zone changed dramatically. Specifically, when he ended using uHIT Custom to now, he went from a K/BB of around 1 up to 4 (in the 2021 season).

Since Irving is still with the Cardinals, we don’t anticipate some FOMO for them when he reengages with uHIT. But he can still continue the trajectory he was on in 2019. At the 2018 Winter Meetings, the President of the Cardinals thanked our CEO for working so well with Andy Young to prep him for the Goldschmidt trade. Maybe he will thank us again when we get the chance to help Irving in this way?

Lessons Learned

Besides the individual details of each player’s journey, there are higher level observations we can make from these outcomes 5 years later. Needless to say, uHIT Custom had good effects when hitters used it. The hitters’ output plateaued or went downhill when they did not use uHIT Custom.

Another observation here is something many team coaches are familiar with: When coaches do not require hitters to do uHIT (Custom or Plus), they will not make it part of their regular training schedule. In 2018, the Cardinals made uHIT mandatory. Evan Mendoza voluntarily made uHIT Plus mandatory in 2019 for himself. But after that season he didn’t; after 2018, neither Irving nor Andy made it mandatory for themselves either.

At deCervo, we always work hard to figure out how to make uHIT Custom a regular habit for training hitters. But for now, coaches and trainers who keep their hitters accountable with uHIT Custom see the best results. You can see many examples of this strategy among uHIT’s college teams too (see here and here).