His plate discipline stats on fangraphs are really heading in the wrong direction : http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=3787&position=3B

Look at his O-Swing %, which is the % of pitches outside the strike zone that he swings at. It is up almost 10% (from 21.5 to 31.2). Its a relative increase of almost 50%. That’s huge. I think this toe-tap thing has backfired badly on him. He’s committing much earlier and swinging and missing at bad pitches a lot more as a result. Ironically, even though he’s committing earlier he’s being beaten by good high fastballs more than ever. He’s crushing low fastballs but I’m telling you a good high fastball he either fouls back or swings through almost every time.

I can’t get anyone to listen to me that his swing is messed up because there’s no denying that he’s a good hitter. He hit his 20th home run last night.

Still, I insist he’s losing a lot of consistency. I’m reminded of your ‘power without consistency’ post and Ryan Howard. No secondary cushion. These hitters think that having more weight on the front foot is some kind of sin. As a result they can’t adjust to an off-speed pitch. I think Wright ends up with a higher batting average than Howard mostly because he hits more line drives and he hits them very hard so his BABIP is high. Still there is no need for him to swing and miss as much as he does. His K% was never above 20% before last year when it jumped to 26.2% and this year its at 28.4%. This is a guy in his age 27 season. His numbers should be peaking not declining. I can’t look at that link you posted because its blocked by the filter at my work but if its from before last year it may be a different swing than what he’s using now. Anyway thanks for the time.

I love Wright’s Impact position, which is the hardest positions to change. I would love to see him improve his Slot position, thereby giving him a longer AOI (and an even better Impact position), making him instantly more powerful and consistent. I’m not against “wrapping the bat” in the Cushion, as Wright does, but when it makes the hitter rush his hands toward the ball instead of drop into the Slot, then I want to make him do the opposite for a while (point the bat tilting in the direction of the catcher).

Also, my hunch is that he doesn’t have much of a Secondary Cushion (read: a way to stall in his Cushion and wait for the offspeed). Having that good of an Impact position, I can only deduce that once he lands his front foot, he’s got no “backup plan,” he’s made up his mind, he’s all go or taking the pitch, unable to wait and see. If you see him out in front and waving weakly at pitches, than this would be an example of this. I don’t see him play enough to know if he does this often or not.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=10473613