Richie Shaffer Joins ‘From Phenom To The Farm’: Episode 88

Image credit: Richie Shaffer (Photo by Mike Janes/Four Seam)

Richie Shaffer spent much of his pro career searching for that one thing to make it all click for
him. He made swing adjustments, mechanical changes, and even a full-swing overhaul towards
the end of his career, always looking to find the key to unlocking the potential he knew he had in
him when taken by the Rays in the first round out of Clemson.

In retirement, Shaffer has looked back on the aspect of the game he didn’t spend as much time
working on—his mental approach.

“I think there’s this misconception for a lot of hitters that if they can just perfect their mechanics
that they’re going to be a great hitter,” said Shaffer. “There’s just so much more to hitting,
because hitting is a reactive pursuit.”

In his new book release, ‘The Slugger Journal: A Guide to Help Hitters Become Mentally Elite’
Shaffer hopes to relay lessons learned from his time in baseball to a new generation of hitters.
“It is the culmination of experience throughout my entire career,” said Shaffer. “Kind of looking
back at what went right, and what went right. The times that I was doing my very best, what
were the things that were key to that success, how do we pull those out and how do we package
them into something that players can use. The things that went really wrong, how do we distill
those down into lessons that players can learn to try to avoid.”

Shaffer’s first professional season in the Rays organization represented the first time he’d
“failed” playing baseball, at least by his view. Part of his goal with ‘The Slugger Journal’ is to
instruct hitters in that same position to learn ways to reframe results and build confidence, no
matter what is happening at the dish.

“You’re not in a slump if you’re 0 for 10. You’ve just decided that the most recent ten at-bats are
the ones you’re focusing on,” said Shaffer.

In both his book and social media presence Shaffer makes clear the level of importance hitters
need to be putting into their mental preparation. Top tier mental skills won’t overcome bad
mechanics, but you can’t ignore their importance in the overall hitting spectrum.

“I try to make it clear in my stuff that mechanics are important, I’m not disregarding the
importance of mechanics,” said Shaffer. “I’m not sitting here saying they’re something you
should disregard, I’m just saying this stuff should be as big of a focus. It needs to be an add-on,
you’re not subtracting something to add-in mental work, you just need to do more. Creating
confidence in your mechanics is part of that foundational preparation.”

On the latest episode of ‘From Phenom to the Farm’ Richie Shaffer returns to talk mentally elite
hitting and his new book, ‘The Slugger Journal.’