Mariners: Jarred Kelenic responds to a hater on Twitter

Oh, the things you come across on Twitter… it never gets old. I came across Jarred Kelenic’s Twitter post this morning and I almost died of laughter. Check out the tweet below from the Mariners prospect.

So, Richard Schenck, who has 12.1K followers on Twitter compared this young ballplayer’s swing to Jarred Kelenic, one of the most highly touted prospects in the MLB… He didn’t just compare them, he said Kelenic’s swing is the mistake in the example. (I feel bad for the young kid who will now be in the spotlight for criticism).

My analysis of the Jarred Kelenic video

I watched the video pretty closely and tried to at least give Schenck a chance to explain himself, but I can’t find a good reason to support Schenck’s analysis. If you go further down the Twitter thread, he shows the result of the swing and calls the video the “gold standard” of the mistake.

https://twitter.com/Teacherman1986/status/1366076896149196800?s=20

He then goes on to compare Aaron Judge’s swing (flipped) to Kelenic’s. Schenck shares a lot of Aaron Judge videos and seems to like him.

https://twitter.com/Teacherman1986/status/1366078512025784333?s=20

Just by watching all of these videos, I can’t find anything. There are literally zero reasons to think Kelenic has a bad swing or can’t properly shift his weight. Schenck also fails to really describe what he sees as well, which never helps the audience.

Am I missing something though? Am I dumb? Yeah, I might not be the best suited to analyze hitting videos but I think my D3 baseball career can help me a little.

Plus, in the first video, the pitch isn’t even in the same location. It’s hard to compare swings when the ball is at a different spot in the zone. Kelenic gets a ball out on the outer half and drives it right up the middle. The kid on the left gets a ball on the inner half and turns on it and drives it to the right side of the field.

As you might expect, people are pretty angry with Schenck’s analysis and are laughing at him, like me. But Schenck seems pretty insistent on being correct, and calls the critiquers “imploders.” I don’t know, if you can’t take criticism and have a discussion about it you can never really get good at your craft.

Jarred Kelenic is one of the best prospects in baseball

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I am almost thinking Schenck just did this as clickbait, because why in the world would you feel the need to critique Kelenic’s swing to a teenager? Or maybe he is just a huge Yankees fan and hates Kelenic since he was a former Mets prospect?

Let’s also reiterate that Kelenic is not only of the best Mariners prospects, he is one of the top prospects in the entire MLB. I don’t hear any coaches and scouts critiquing Kelenic’s weight shift…

I mean come on, he was the sixth overall pick in 2018 out of fricking high school. The Mariners outfielder owns a minor league career .290 batting average with a .882 OPS. He’s also hit 29 dingers.

Not even Aaron Judge played as well as Kelenic during the first two years in the minors. (Keep in mind, Kelenic came straight out of high school, Judge had three seasons at Fresno State before pro-ball).

Jarred Kelenic

• 2018  –  .286/.371/.468   6 HR
• 2019  –  .291/.364/.540  23HR

Aaron Judge

• 2018  –  .308/.419/.486  17 HR
• 2015  –  .255/.330/.448  20 HR

Plus, I hate coaches who try to unify and use the same method for everyone. People are different, which makes players different. That is what is special about sports and particularly baseball. It doesn’t matter what you look like, if it works, it works.

Take for example Ichiro. One of the most unique hitting stances, swings, and philosophies ever. But, it worked. It worked very well.

I would like to hear Schenck’s critique of Ichiro’s swing if he is so insistent on weight shift.

Or what about Hunter Pence? He had one of the most absurd swings in baseball, but he was pretty solid.

Oh, I don’t know, Kevin Youkilis? Gary Sheffield? Dustin Pedroia? I could go on and on.

Reactions

As I said before, there were some reactions to the tweet. Mike Cameron comes to save the day with this.

https://twitter.com/_mcameron44/status/1366392275727654916?s=20

Here’s a funny one I came across:

And another one:

Can you tell that I am angry and laughing at the same time? Obviously, I am super biased towards Kelenic as a Mariners fan, but I gave Richard a chance to explain himself… I only found air.

It’s actually a bit disgraceful to the baseball coaching community that he even tried to use Kelenic as an example of a bad swing.

Also props to Jarred Kelenic for putting him in his place. I am going to save the tweet so I can reshare it in 10 years after Kelenic wins an MVP, and World Series Ring.