Zach Rosenfield - AccuScore Analyst

AccuScore: Has your views on statistics been enhanced or diminished since taking over at San Diego State University?

Tony Gwynn: I would say it has been enhanced. Stats tell some of the story, but not the whole story. For offensive stats, I use a combination of what I see in the game and batting practice and then compare it to the stats. Like what kind of numbers guys have against lefties or righties. I end up combining all those to try to get an idea if a player can have success or not.

AS: What is the hardest habit for a young hitter to break and what is the easiest philosophy to instill?

TG: I try to keep things simple. At the college level, the hardest thing for a young hitter to deal with is failure. Most kids come from an environment where they had a lot of success and when they have some failure it’s hard for them to remain confident.

Another thing is you need to have the ability to hit the other way because the majority of pitchers at the collegiate level pitch away. So if you are only trying to pull the ball, you are going to end up making a whole lot of outs.

My philosophy is “Keep it simple and attack the balls we know we are going to get. When we get them, let’s do something with them rather than just get aggressive with it.”

When you take that theory and combine it with actual stats, I get a better idea of a player’s progress and if he is going to be successful.

TG: (Pause) Yeah. It’s the kind of balls put in play that tell a story…at this level especially. The majority of balls are going to be out over the plate. If you are a right handed hitter, making outs to the left side it is going to kill you.

TG: (laughing) That’s a hard question to answer from the long ball perspective because I did not hit a lot of them. I knew when I stepped to the plate, I was not considered a threat to go deep. When you are not considered a threat, you get pitched a whole lot differently.

So I combined that with my ability to hit the ball the other way and be consistent. I was not trying to hit home runs, so I was trying to put that bat on the ball and use the whole field. Pitchers knew there was a good chance I was going to make contact so they had to try to strike me out.

TG: Well…Randy Johnson. Denny Neagle. Most of the time it was a left hander who could hide the ball very well. Omar Olivares was a right hander that hid the ball very well.

TG: The Braves guys were always around the plate. I don’t think they believed in wasting a lot of pitches. They were going to try to make a quality pitch and I was going to try to put the bat on the ball and hit something I could handle.

But going back to a guy like Denny Neagle who hid the ball real well, he could also move the ball in on me or run it away from me. Whereas the Braves guys were always nibbling on one half of the plate which made it a lot simpler for me to put the bat on the ball.

TG: Well, you add it to the list, that’s what I did. You pick up those books and look at tendencies. I think more people are getting to the point where they are trying to understand what a pitcher is going to do, as well as umpires and catchers. Everything you can pick up about the game is available whether you want it or not.

Some players don’t want to think too much. When I was playing, the more I could find out about a pitcher…the better I thought I could be. And when you don’t hit home runs, you need to find ways to be productive.

TG: Now you can watch every game on Yahoo! Sports. I have a son who plays with the Brewers and even though I am coaching in college, I can keep up with what he is doing, as well watch the Padres. It’s a pretty awesome package that lets you watch every game from your computer. I do it everyday. If we are playing at 5:00PM, I cheat and come in here and check in on baseball to keep track of all that is going on.

TG: You are welcome and thanks for having me.

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