Chalk Talk: Let’s Talk About Plate Approaches

We’ve been talking to our Top Tier hitters recently — including on Friday with some of the high school guys after practice wrapped — about plate approach.

One of the things Coach Kotake emphasized on Friday, and something we’re preaching as a program, is the ability to be athletic and adjustable in the box.

What does that mean?

In short: Can you be on time for the fastball and stay through a breaking ball?

Those are two different things. A lot of hitters can do one or the other. The ones who can do both — consistently — are the ones who are dangerous at the plate regardless of what a pitcher throws them. That’s what we’re building toward.

Here’s an example of exactly that — being on time for the fastball, recognizing the break, staying through it, and flicking it the opposite way by Antonio Whitney on Tuesday:

Antonio Whitney (2027) (@tonywhitney2299) demonstrates an advanced approach, recognizing a late-breaking pitch and staying through it to the opposite field.

He's not hitting .521 (through 63 PA) this season by mistake. pic.twitter.com/GSPQ4n0nB9

— Top Tier Las Vegas (@TopTierLasVegas) April 8, 2026

Here’s another good one. Brady Kotake — a seventh-grader — on time for the fastball, recognizes the offspeed, stays through it, and takes it to the pull side.

Brady Kotake (2031) (@BradyKotake) with some advanced feel this past weekend — especially for his age — on time for the fastball, staying through the offspeed, and taking it to the pull side. pic.twitter.com/t3kbOZqK9i

— Top Tier Las Vegas (@TopTierLasVegas) April 8, 2026

That’s an advanced approach that a lot of hitters at every level simply don’t have. The reason it stands out is because most guys either sell out for the fastball and are way out front, or they slow themselves down trying to wait and lose any chance of doing damage. Brady did neither. He was ready to hit, stayed through the pitch, and did something with it.

The reason most guys lack those tools is that they’re thinking too much when they get to the plate.

Your time to think — about your approach, your plan, your timing — begins when you’re three or four hitters away from your turn in the order.

That’s when you’re reading the pitcher, picking up his tempo, identifying what he’s throwing and when, and forming a plan. By the time you step in the box, you should already know the situation and what you need to do to execute. Beyond that, thinking is done.

In the box, it’s time to see and react. Pick up the ball out of the pitcher’s hand as early as possible. You don’t have a lot of time to process a pitch — fractions of a second separate a good swing decision from a bad one. Don’t waste precious reaction time stuck in your own head.

If you need to think about mechanics, do it in the on-deck circle. Before that, while you’re in the hole, you should already be working on timing and visualizing. Picture your at-bat. See yourself on time. Get your body ready so that when you step in, the physical side is already taken care of. In between pitches, you’re picking up signs and locking back in on one thing — seeing the ball out of the pitcher’s hand as early as possible.

That’s your preparation sequence for an at-bat. In reality though, it should start long before any of those moments. You should always be doing a post-game assessment of your at-bats — and Pelotero will help facilitate that for our hitters — then reviewing it before your next game.

What did the pitcher throw you? What did you do well? What do you want to do differently? That reflection, done at the right time, sharpens your approach before you ever walk through the gates.

Here’s an important rule though: there are no post-AB reviews during games. There’s no time for that, and more importantly, there’s no benefit to it.

In game, everything is about next. The next play, the next job, the next everything. Replaying at-bats mid-game creates emotions — frustration, overconfidence, doubt — that pull you completely out of that mindset.

When you come back to the dugout, throw it away and move on — good, bad, or indifferent. Celebrated a great AB too long? You already missed something. Stewing over a strikeout? Same result. It’s time for the next job. Be ready for it, or someone else will be.