Travis Bazzana’s Hitting Blueprint: Art, Science And Some Juan Soto Inspiration

Hitting Art Vs. Science

This is the convergence point where the art of hitting meets the science. The discipline of becoming a great hitter takes effort and a keen sense of one’s identity. Traits and styles are based on how one moves and how a player nurtures that identity based on natural, God-given talents. 

“A lot of hitting skill is built at a pretty young age,” Bazzana said. “So we ingrain these habits of movement and hand-eye coordination when we first pick up a bat; that’s what your brain knows. So when you try to move like someone else it’s almost like learning a new skill even if it’s the same game.”

Genetics plays a role, too, Bazzana explained.

“Some guys are bigger and more mobile, others are bigger and less mobile,” he said. “Some are small and twitchy and really tight movers. There’s going to be different movement patterns. Are they loose? Are they fluid? Are they dominant in rotation? Or are they just leg power? There’s all these different things that equate to being a great hitter.” 

The search to develop an identity as a hitter is based on these traits. However, it’s the pursuit of expanding upon one’s identity through such work that ultimately forges great hitters in the major leagues. According to Bazzana, being a great hitter means constantly adjusting, refining his swing and expanding his abilities. In an age when everyone is searching for a magic pill, it comes down to the work one puts forth in trying to “find that next gear.”

“That’s the amazing part about hitting and baseball,” Bazzana said. “People do it in such different ways. Everyone wants to find one magic pill. At the end of the day when it comes down to movement.

“There is no magic pill.”

Learning From The Best

The question that plagues many baseball fans and evaluators is what to look for when defining great hitters. What do the best hitters do well and why? When we look at the art of hitting, who are the masters? What do they do that makes them so successful?

Bazzana sees one particular trait that separates the greats from just-good hitters.

“Often, one of the first things I’ll pick up is how well the body and the barrel match the plane of the pitch,” he said. “The best hitters posturally match the angle of the pitch with the plane of their upper half and the barrel. Connected is the term that people use. The barrel gets deeper into the zone for certain guys and it stays on the plane of the pitch.”

In an age where we have measurements for everything, angles and swing path have become a bigger part of the conversation. In this pursuit to optimize angles, Bazzana explained how he draws inspiration from a notable name. 

“The best example I give is Juan Soto,” he said. “His bat is connected behind his back shoulder and he sets that posture to the angle of the pitch. He matches the plane and he squares the ball up to all parts of the field … It’s why he’s as efficient as he is and why he’s in the zone for so long.”

Seeing Bazzana draw inspiration from a player like Soto shouldn’t come as a shock. While Bazzana hasn’t shown that same kind of power, there’s a common thread connecting their games: strong swing decisions.

That advanced plate approach was developed during Bazzana’s time spent at Oregon State. He described himself as “an average swing decisions guy” as a freshman with the Beavers in 2022, but over his final two college seasons, Bazzana walked 135 times, second behind only Athletics first-round pick Nick Kurtz.

“For me, my pitch recognition and swing decisions stem from reps,” he said. “Years of seeing a ball, hitting it, making a decision.”

Bazzana is accurate in his depiction of his advancement between his freshman and sophomore seasons at Oregon State. In 2022, he chased at a rate of 20.6% with a swing rate of 42.2%. A year later, his chase rate dropped to 15.5% while also cutting his swing rate to 36.1%. Those metrics dropped even further in 2024 to a 14.3% chase and a 32.7% swing rate.

During that summer heading into his sophomore year, Bazzana was at a crossroads. He’d shown strong plate skills, but his swing decisions and impact needed improvement. That is when the artist leaned on science to challenge his identity and expand his his future as a hitter. 

“A lot of hitters with good whiff rates, they often have a great ability to have good swing decisions,” Bazzana explained. “I think they have good hand-eye, they pick things up sooner. But in this game, I think guys with high contact rates get caught up on this identity that they can’t strike out. They can’t swing and miss, and so they want to put the ball in play. That will work for some guys but not for others. This is where swing decisions come from an approach and the coordination of it. Not everyone can have great decisions but it’s being stubborn to your zones, your locations and where you think you can do damage.” 

Bazzana again took cues from Juan Soto and his ability to not only draw walks at a high rate, but hit for power, as well.

“You dive in and you realize he’s tunneling certain zones or certain pitch types almost all the time,” Bazzana said of Soto. “He’s very stubborn, he’s okay taking the edge strike often. He’s okay with a looking strikeout that clips the edge. He knows 90% of the time that’s ball four. Over time, you realize the power of swing, no swing.” 

The application of science and tracking also comes into play for Bazzana, who said he uses technologically-advanced batting cage set-ups like HitTrax, iPitch and Trajekt for nearly all his training. Whether in the midst of his in-season cage work, offseason training or in-game performance, more information is better. 

“That’s where the ability of understanding the zone better often comes from,” he said. “Also paying attention to the Trackman report postgame. I go in after a game, and I know I swung at an edge pitch. Where was that pitch actually? Then you start to grasp, okay, that was an inch off. Over time you start to have a feel for the zone.”

Three Stats For Hitting Success

When asked which metrics he follows most closely and which he feels align with his performance, Bazzana pointed to a trio of data points: in-zone fastball swing rate, air pull percentage and 90th percentile exit velocity.

“Understanding that the fastball is your best chance to do damage,” Bazzana said of his approach. “I want to be swinging at fastballs in the zone, especially hard fastballs.”

Pulling those types of pitches in the air is an especially important skill for players who aren’t Aaron Judge-sized.

“For someone who’s not 6-foot-7 or 250 pounds, there’s power in hitting the ball to the short porch and doing it often,” said Bazzana, who measures at 6-feet, 200 pounds. “Some of the best hitters in the big leagues the last five to ten years aren’t the big humans like Judge, (Giancarlo) Stanton, (Yordan) Alvarez. It’s Mookie (Betts), it’s Jose Ramirez, it’s (Alex) Bregman. These guys are all incredible at pulling the ball in the air. When they square it up, they can fly it true to the pull side whether it’s at 99 mph or 102 mph.”

And that’s where Bazzana’s final key metric comes into play.

“I think 90th percentile exit velocity is huge,” he said. “You look at the highest in terms of that metric versus the lowest. Players who hit the ball hard and get to power more often produce the most.”

Training For Speed

Hitting the ball hard was not something that naturally came to Bazzana, who has trained to add bat speed dating back to his time in Australia. Before he had access to top facilities and specially-tailored overspeed equipment like Driveline’s Overload and Underload bats, he used his own intuition and a do-it-yourself attitude to train.

“It was like ‘Why don’t we make do,'” Bazzana said, explaining how, as a teenager, he and his father constructed their own equipment. “I got an old bat, and we put coins all in different spots and it became 37 to 40 ounces. We swung that and then found the lightest drop-five or drop-eight bat in the clubhouse at our field and that was my underload.”

Nowadays, Bazzana works extensively with the real-deal Driveline bats, which have been staples of his training since coming over to the United States.

In the summer heading into his sophomore year at Oregon State, Bazzana went to Driveline headquarters for the first time, spending ten weeks there to build the batspeed that grew over his final two collegiate seasons. The added impact was the final piece to the puzzle that saw Bazzana ascend to the top pick in the 2024 draft.

Looking at one of his self-proclaimed important metrics, Bazzana’s 90th percentile exit velocity jumped from 101.4 mph in 2022 to 105.9 mph in 2023 to 108.9 mph in his draft season. The results translated from a .348 expected wOBA on contact in 2022 to a mark that ballooned to .521 in 2024. 

With a lifetime of training and now his first few weeks of professional baseball experience behind him, Bazzana continues to be prepared for the challenge and work it takes to be a great professional hitter.