JUPITER, Fla. – Stephen Piscotty checked his inbox this spring and discovered an email from John Mabry, his hitting coach. The two are around each other about 10 hours each day with the St. Louis Cardinals, so it seemed a bit odd that Mabry would communicate electronically rather than just walk up to the young outfielder and say, “Hi.”
Piscotty clicked on the message. It contained links to a series of articles on the mechanics of hitting, one of which contained stop-action photography of the moment of collision between bat and ball. Piscotty closely studied the spin of the ball as it rebounded from impact.