I really loved this visualization of a good bat path from Eric Kozak, the Hitting Coordinator at Driveline:
A sign of a good Bat Path is the ability to make flush contact across a range of POCs As POC moves further out front: • Attack Angle increases • Both HAA & HBA work from oppo to pull-side This means solid contact goes from low oppo➡️LD to CF➡️in the air pull-side t.co/hUX6aMH0Ld
— Eric Kozak (@kozy_shack) October 9, 2026Flush contact along a wide range of points of contact, while swinging slightly upward. That’s really just another way of saying the thing that goes back to at least Ted Williams: you want your bat in the hard contact zone as long as possible.
Drilling down a bit, I’d never really thought about the fact that a good path will necessarily yield more (1) fly balls to the pull side, (2) line drives to center, and (3) low line drives to the opposite field. That’s just the arc of the swing meeting the plane of the pitch (with understandable variance tied to pitch location and movement, of course).
We notice and discuss that batted ball elevation and directionality stuff anecdotally, and you don’t ALWAYS want to do those precise things (not like an oppo homer is a problem if you’ve got the power for it, for example). But if you have a good bat path, then that trio of outcomes is just kind of incidentally what is going to happen most frequently along the various points of contact on that bat path. Ideal, of course, is still meeting that pitch out in front where you’re getting that pull-side power in the air. This path not only gets you there, but also gives you more margin for error if you’re a little later.
To put that all another way: the ideal bat path doesn’t generate power because you’re swinging with a slight uppercut, as so many haters are quick to point out when beefing about launch angle. Instead, the ideal bat path generates power because it helps you meet the pitch out in front where the best pull-side air power is going to be found in the first place. You aren’t trying to use your swing to hit the ball up; you’re trying to use your swing to hit the ball hard at the right time.
The guy who comes to mind as I watch that visualization and think about this stuff is Alex Bregman.
Alex Bregman is the only player in MLB this season to have 25+ HRs and strikeout less than 17% of the time. 25 HRs – 15% K rate. t.co/LHXxnuwvHy
— Northside Soundtrack (@CHC_DataDrive) September 12, 2026We’ve talked all year about how perfect Bregman’s swing looks, and that is partly because his swing is just a freaking photocopy of the ideal bat path:
So I had to check: this year, when Bregman went to right field (oppo), his line drive rate was 27.2% and his fly ball rate was 59.8%. His hard contact was just 19.6%, and his HR/FB was just 3.6% (.165 ISO, .311 BABIP, 124 wRC+). In other words, when Bregman went the opposite way, his line drive rate was at its highest, and he wasn’t hitting for a ton of power.
When hitting to left field, Bregman’s line drive rate dropped to 18.7% and his fly ball rate dropped to 32.9% (more groundballs to the pull side, obviously, because if you mis-hit at that point in the bat path, you’re on the upswing, and more likely to hit a grounder). HOWEVER, his hard contact rate shot up to 44.0% and his HR/FB shot up to 27.7% (.335 ISO, .236 BABIP, 156 wRC+), which is exactly what you’d expect to see.
Alex Bregman’s best contact, when he makes it, is out in front and in the air, but his incidentally-late contact is still heavy on line drives that could become singles.
I’m reminded, too, of how Pete Crow-Armstrong’s swing this year continued to evolve until it was just about the mirror image of Alex Bregman’s swing. Pretty good model!
Hence then, the article about why the ideal bat path is the ideal bat path was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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