I need to spend some more time on defining a quality at-bat, QAB.

The underlying philosophy is this — as a hitter, you cannot directly control the actual result of your at-bat.  For example, you could do everything right and absolutely smoke a line drive right at the center fielder for an out.  OR, you could do everything wrong, swing at a bad pitch and luckily poke a ball over the infielders head for a hit. Which at-bat is better?  From a scout’s standpoint, it is pretty clear.  It is better to be good, than lucky!

To get to the next level, you need a good approach a the plate.  That means, as a hitter, you need to be in control.  Quality At-Bats are all about things you can control.

You can control the following 4 ways of having a quality at bat:

1. Hit the ball hard, off the sweet spot.  A hard ground ball, line drive, or ball over the outfielders head is hard hit. If you hit the ball hard, it is a quality at bat.  We don’t care if the fielder makes a great play, or the ball is smoked right at him.  We want you to square the ball up.  Any time you do that is a quality at bat.

Note — fly balls are quality at-bats ONLY if they are over the outfielders head.  A fly ball is a waste of time, regardless of the cheers and encouragement you get from the stands.  If you hit fly balls, you will hit .180.  That includes the rare home run.  We want line drives and hard hit ground balls.

2. Execute a sacrifice bunt, hit & run, or move a runner from 2nd to 3rd with no outs or score a runner from 2nd or 2rd with less than 2 outs.

3. Draw a walk or get hit by a pitch.  Taking an 0-2 curve ball off the back is a quality at-bat.  Ducking out of the way is not.

4. Any 6+ pitch at bat, regardless of outcome.  If you make the pitcher use up >6 pitches to get one out, it is a quality at bat.  Even if you strike out, or make an easy out on the 7th pitch.   That is how you get through #1 starters and into the bullpen of teams when you face a good pitcher.  Battle, eat up pitches on every at-bat.

As a team, if our hitters put together 15 QAB, we will score 6-7 runs and win 80% of our games.  Anytime, we don’t achieve this level of execution, the game is left to chance.