Year 2 of David Wright Stance Changes

David Wright is back to his old tricks from 2009, changing his stance, messing with his timing mechanisms, pulling off the ball, and looping his swing back and around vice keeping it on plane.

People say he's changing his swing, but truthfully it's his stance that changes and the difference in swing is the result.

Out of spring training I thought he had gotten over the habits of making major changes, but it's back.  I don't mind small adjustments, hitters mess with their swings all the time, but they usually don't change their stance so much.  David Wright makes major tweaks and tinkers too often with his, and he goes too far.  Ted Williams he aint.

Long a frustration of mine, here is a blow by blow:

April 5th, 2009 I wrote:

Have you noticed that David Wright has opened his stance up about half a foot?

I'm very curious as to why he would do this right before the season opens. His stance this weekend was more open than I've ever seen it, and it's changed even since the WBC.

Could this lead to a bad start by our superstar third baseman?

Anyway, no alarm bells here, just something I'll be keeping a close eye on this week and as the season progresses.

On April 30th, 2009, I followed up with:

Well we are now one month into the season, and my worst fears have been realized.  That is not a typo...he is on pace for 208 Ks and 62 RBIs.

DW has actually closed his stance back up to last year's position, but his early struggles have obviously gotten into his head and the loop is there. This has thrown his timing off, and the results have been disastrous.

Thankfully DW is extremely hard working, and he is battling to groove his swing back to keep the bat on the correct plane and recognize pitches early.

This leaves the question of when is he going to break out of this slump? For all Mets fans, the hope is that the work he has been doing with HoJo will pay off this weekend.

 Finally, on May 30th:

It's been getting better and better and better, and he broke out of his slump a while ago. The next step was for him to get fully on plane and drive the ball--that's been coming too, and last night, it all clicked. DW had finally closed his stance back to the proper position, and it looked like he was taking batting practice against the Giant's pitchers.

Keith Hernandez noticed it in the booth and commented on what a "strong hitting position" Wright was working from now that "he closed his stance". Gary Cohen paid scant attention to that comment, but we heard it loud and clear.

Line drives are popping off his bat, the outside pitch doesn't look 2 miles away to him, and right field is his friend.

 There were more references throughout the year, but you get the idea.

What happened to David Wright?  Why does he continue to mess with the stance with the resulting changes to his swing and swing plane?

Coming out of spring training I wrote about how stable his base looked, which shortened his swing and kept his head steady.

He is now back to looping the swing and pulling back as he begins his arm "drop", which causes his head to bob and slows his bat while negating any possibility of him hitting the outside pitch..

That, and he has also abandoned the little timing mechanism that seemed to be working for him.

I love David Wright, truly we all do, but for him to regain some consistency he needs to abandon the major stance changes and swing adjustments he makes.

I would tell him to look at Albert Pujols.  The man has the same stance time after time after time, and he adjusts to the pitch with his hands.  Pujols also has a stroke with little wasted motion, a stable base, and no head movement.

Please DW, get your base stable and shorten that swing.  Close the stance back up and focus on driving through the ball and staying closed.