The Cincinnati Reds drafted Ryan LaMarre in the 2nd round of the 2010 draft out of the University of Michigan. Depending on where you looked, you could see a variety of things written about his bat. Some places questioned his power, while some place expected his power to eventually show up. Other places questioned whether he could stick in center. At this point, any questions about his defense have been squashed.
Since being drafted, LaMarre has gone through several swing changes in just 3 years. In February I took a look at just the changes he made during the 2012 season. The center fielder worked during the offseason, once he was fully recovered from surgery to fix plantar faciitis, to re-work his swing once again. Today, I wanted to look at the changes over the years and what it could possibly mean for his future.
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First Change
When LaMarre came out of Michigan, before he would load up, his hands were level with the right side of his chest just above the letters with his back elbow pointed toward the catchers facemask at about a 235° angle while his front elbow was tucked into his body and pointed in a direct line with his back leg. As he would load he would take one step forward and then bring his hands up and backwards with them reaching their high point around his cheek before he would begin to bring his bat down and through the zone.
Second Change
The next step that LaMarre took was to raise his hands in his pre-load set up as well as bring his back elbow up to a level position. His hands were now at shoulder level before he ever began to swing. As he would load to swing, his hands only moved back a few inches before he would begin to bring them down and come through the zone at the ball. He kept his front foot step the same as it was before. This change eliminated a lot of wasted action of bringing his hands both up and backwards with the swing he had in college.
Third Change
The next step wasn’t nearly as drastic as the previous change. This one was a little more simple. He once again raised his hands, this time with his top hand being about even with his ear. That was a rather simple change and about all that he changed with his upper body. With his lower half though he changed the step forward as he loaded. While he still employed a one step approach, but he began to lift his front foot about twice as high as he had previously. His front foot would now come off of the ground about as high as the midway point of his back lower leg, where as before it would barely raise off of the ground and just stride forward.
Fourth Change
The next change was pretty drastic, perhaps due to the previously mentioned plantar faciitis injury. His hands stayed at the same ear-level height, but they were pulled back further and his back elbow was now pointing upward at somewhere around a 300° angle. He scrapped the larger leg lift and went back to a lower leveled stride. He used this swing through the end of the 2012 season.
Fifth Change
In 2013 it appears that LaMarre has gone back to the upper body positioning from the third change with his hands level with his ear and his back elbow at a level position. However his lower half is not the same as it was in the third change as he has stuck with the lower leg lift and a short stride.
The Future
That has been a whole lot of changing of swing mechanics in just three years. With all of the changes, there really hasn’t been a change in his stats over the years either. His strikeout rate has been between 19.1% and 21.3% over his four seasons. His isolated power (SLG-AVG) has been low every year, but has dropped off each year in his career. This season it is at the lowest once again, but it is still rather early in the year. LaMarre has the size and the bat speed to hit 10-15 home runs, but his season totals for home runs are six, six and five while spending two of those seasons in very friendly hitting environments.Last year the foot injury certainly could have played into it, but I think that the 2013 season is a very big year for Ryan LaMarre.
His bat is never going to be strong enough to play a corner outfield spot. With Billy Hamilton ahead of him and struggling, this may be the last chance he has to make a real step forward count and turn some heads to look at him as something more than just a future fourth outfielder. Power has been the limiting factor in his game offensively. He is an above-average speed guy, but he hasn’t been able to use that speed to generate extra-base hits as his career best with extra-base hits is just 30. If he can step forward with his new swing and start to show some power, it could be that next step forward that he needs in order to push himself into the conversation as a potential option to look at if Billy Hamilton continues to struggle. Without the increase in power LaMarre is going to remain on that utility outfielder track.
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