Inside a hitter’s mind: What’s behind Ryan O’Hearn’s hot start in the majors

Look at the numbers Ryan O’Hearn put up while playing college ball and you won’t see a ton of home runs. But the Royals thought O’Hearn had more power than he’d shown at Sam Houston State University, and when he got to Idaho Falls — his first stop in the minor leagues — O’Hearn was given a simple goal:

Hit the house.

The house in question sat beyond the right-field wall of the Idaho Falls Chukars’ home stadium, Melaleuca Field. Telling O’Hearn to hit it was the Royals way of getting him to cut loose at the plate.

O’Hearn got the message and in 558 minor-league games hit 95 home runs and put up a slugging percentage of .471. Since arriving in Kansas City, O’Hearn has hit 11 home runs and has a slugging percentage of .655 in 36 major-league games.

Power to all fields

To hit the house in Idaho Falls, the left-handed O’Hearn would have to pull the ball, but O’Hearn says he’s not a dead-pull hitter and the numbers back him up.

Three of his 11 home runs were pulled, but six were hit to center field and two were hit the other way. Power to all fields is rare and at least so far O’Hearn has shown it.

O’Hearn says he’s not trying to hit homers, he’s just trying to hit the ball hard and if he hits it hard enough and the angle is right, the ball goes out.

If he hits the ball hard and the angle is too low, O’Hearn still has a good chance of picking up an extra-base hit; especially in a park the size of Kauffman Stadium.

But that’s just the beginning of a hitter’s thought process.

Pre-pitch mental preparation

When things happen in baseball, they happen too fast to think through. So smart players are constantly running the possibilities through their mind; “If this happens, I’ll do that.” Before each pitch is thrown, a hitter should think about his game plan for that count and situation.

If O’Hearn has a strong feeling about what a pitcher does on the first pitch, he’ll sometimes treat an 0-0 count like it’s 3-0 and look for a certain pitch in a certain location and…it doesn’t always have to be a fastball.

If a pitcher has a history of throwing first pitch “get-me-over” breaking pitches — curves and sliders thrown with less break to get ahead in the count — O’Hearn might look for one, but it needs to be up in the zone.

O’Hearn says it’s not enough to think “slider” because a hitter will get a slider and swing, even if it’s a slider in a tough location.

When a hitter stands at the plate and takes those seemingly mindless half-cuts while waiting on the next pitch, it might not be mindless at all: some hitters are taking those half cuts and telling themselves, “Right here…right here…right here.”

That helps hitters “zone down.” They groove their swings for one location and start their swings to that spot. If the pitch is in that spot, the hitter finishes his swing; if the pitch is located somewhere else, the hitter shuts it down.

Even though it’s a small sample size, O’Hearn is doing something right because he’s hitting .500 and slugging 1.200 when he puts the first pitch in play.

Like most hitters, O’Hearn is also more dangerous when he’s ahead in the count; he’s hitting .350 and slugging .800. When O’Hearn is ahead in the count he can afford to be picky and wait for a certain pitch in a certain location.

But even when a hitter swings at a 2-0 slider in the dirt, it still might be the result of proper thinking.

The hitter was looking for a fastball and the pitcher threw a slider that looked like a fastball until the last moment. Better to sell out and swing at a slider down than to get a hittable fastball and do nothing with it because the hitter was afraid to commit.

Like most hitters, when he’s in a two-strike count O’Hearn scuffles; so far he’s hit .157 and slugged .329. That’s because he’s got to cover any pitch that’s in or near the zone and his swings might become more tentative.

O’Hearn’s hit three home runs in two-strike counts, but he says that’s more a product of a pitcher making a mistake than him taking a home run cut; he’s not thinking homer in two-strike counts.

The numbers change nightly, but through Monday, O’Hearn had hit 11 home runs, eight doubles, two triples and driven in 27 runs in 36 games, so it’s natural to wonder what he could do in a full season.

A game of cat and mouse

You can’t assume O’Hearn or any other player will continue to do what they’ve done in a short time period. As O’Hearn gets more at bats he’ll provide the pitchers more information on what he struggles with and what he hits well. Pitchers will adjust and then O’Hearn will have to adjust back.

It’s a constant game of cat and mouse and it’s way better to be a cat.

When O’Hearn was asked if he ever hit the house in Idaho Falls he says he thinks he did, but just once. In Melaleuca Field the right field wall is 350 feet from home plate and a street ran between the stadium and the house, so even coming close to hitting the house takes some pop.

So next season, if you’re sitting in the bar beyond the right field wall in Kauffman Stadium, keep your head on a swivel because Ryan O’Hearn might have a new goal:

Hit Rivals.