Mr. Ed
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http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20160721&content_id=190764970&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb
Mired in a stretch that left him with a .230 batting average for the season, Zander Wiel decided that returning to a leg kick might lift his numbers.
It turned out that the leg kick has skyrocketed his numbers.
Wiel hammered Midwest League pitching in the past week. The right-handed-hitting first baseman for Cedar Rapids was 11-of-24 (.458) and slugged five homers in a six-game stretch. He drove in 12 runs over that span and pushed his batting average to .246 with his power surge.
Wiel hit two homers Saturday to help Cedar Rapids rally from an 8-1 deficit to beat Fort Wayne, 13-10.
"It's nice when you can string together a few games where you show some productivity and power numbers, but it's all about just staying within yourself and not letting that get to you too much and trying to do too much."
Wiel struggled hitting the fastball. He was late on pitches and his timing was off. Frustration mounted. The leg lift, something that helped him have a stellar career at Vanderbilt, turned out to be the answer.
"Lifting my leg a little more has allowed me to have my trigger more ready to go," Wiel said. "I was robotic. Now it's smoother for me. I'm able to see those pitches and hit them out front.
"I knew I wasn't getting [there] on time. I was late to a lot of pitches that I should have been driving."
Wiel said he may have compounded his hitting woes by overthinking the situation.
"Sometimes, one of my biggest problems is I try to be too much of a student of the game. I hit the video room too much. I'm too meticulous trying to do all these little fixes. That can get in your head."
After suffering a broken hand last season, Wiel got away from the leg kick. He wanted to simplify things at the plate following the injury in order to get his timing back.
"I started to feel robotic and not fluid, late to pitches" Wiel said. "That's why I decided to go back to the leg kick, and it's paying off for me."
Cedar Rapids manager Jake Mauer hopes the leg kick keeps Wiel on a positive development path.
"He's gone in spurts this year," the skipper said of Wiel. "Around May he had a good couple of weeks. Now, he's been out of his mind the last week and a half, and he's really been the reason we've won five in a row. He's put himself on the map."
Wiel said his maturity helped him confront adversity.
"I think it's a big part of coming out of a slump, if you're able to manage your emotions and not outwardly show that you're really frustrated," Wiel said. "That just draws attention to yourself and takes away from your teammates, what you're trying to do as a team. I've never really been one to want to show that emotion. I don't think it does any good for me or for anyone else.
"I've always been pretty even-keeled, but I can definitely say, at Vanderbilt, mental toughness and managing your emotions and staying in the middle as far as your emotions are concerned, whether you're doing well or you're doing bad, that was a huge thing that coach [Tim] Corbin taught. I think that's paid off for me."
Wiel comes from an athletic background. His father, Randy, played basketball at North Carolina and was an assistant coach at UNC. Despite exceptional basketball skills, Zander chose baseball.
"I loved basketball growing up. I was a big baseball and basketball guy. I was pretty good at basketball, but I was a 6-foot-3 power forward, and that really doesn't play at the next level, but 6-foot-3 is a pretty good size in baseball. I knew I had a possible college and professional future in baseball, and that's the direction I went."
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