Three weeks ago, Dan Uggla and hitting coach Greg Walker started re-working his swing and these past six games he’s seeing the fruits. Uggla homered twice on Wednesday, the second of which made him 9-for-23 (.391) over the past six games, with two home runs, two triples, and four RBIs.
“(It’s) still a work in progress but definitely going in the right direction,” Uggla said. “Just feeling more and more comfortable each time up.”
Walker said they have patterned the changes off video of Uggla’s 2006 season with the Marlins when he hit .282 with 26 doubles, seven triples, 27 home runs and 90 RBIs.
He stands more upright and brings his hands down lower in front of his back shoulder as he starts his swing.
“He’s not cutting himself off with his front side,” Walker said. “He’s seeing the ball better. He’s swinging from a better hand slot. It’s fairly subtle, but there’s a lot of difference. And it’s natural to him.”
Uggla has been taking balls to the opposite field, including both of his triples, another sign of his progress.
“It’s taken him a couple weeks to get the feel for it during game speed, but we’ve seen him trending up for a while now,” Walker said. “The ball coming off his bat in batting practice is better trajectory, especially to center and to right. In the past it was more of a carving rather than a driven trajectory. And now he’s hitting home runs in batting practice to right field pretty regularly. He’s starting to hit breaking balls, something he’d gotten away from.”
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