Checking in on 4 prominent Orioles with hitting coach Dustin Lind

BALTIMORE—Hitting coach Dustin Lind, who’s completing his first season with the Orioles, spoke about four prominent players before Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Rays. Before coming to the Orioles, Lind was assistant hitting coach with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Pete Alonso

“I’ve seen a lot of it when I was in Philadelphia, unfortunately against us, but you come to expect this out of a premier hitter like Pete. He’s going to have stretches where he just really lights the world on fire. It’s nice to be on this side of it this time.”

“It’s great to have an additional sounding board to be a force multiplier for the coaching staff, and obviously Pete’s been around a lot of really good hitters. He is a very good hitter himself, and so insights that he can share with younger players are always welcome and we’re going to get him involved in that process. He’s done a great job leading our young group, very veteran presence for us to have in the cages and in the dugout.

“I think Pete is making too much money to eventually become a hitting coach. I wouldn’t want him to have to go through that on a daily basis, but he really loves it. He’s going to be involved with the game in some capacity for the rest of his left, I’m sure.”

Samuel Basallo

“With Sammy, the things that I have seen and observed with him is just kind of his ability to kind of even out those emotional roller coasters that the major league season inevitably ends up having. You’re going to have really tough times and really good times. He’s obviously still a very young player, and so being able to kind of handle all of that and try and remain as much of an even keel as possible, especially with him  being a catcher is really important. He’s continuing to develop that, and that’s been really encouraging to watch.”

Dylan Beavers

“He’s very consistent with his work and even when things aren’t going well, he still continues to just grind away. He’s got a really high floor just because of his ability to make contact and control the zone, and so the work habits really lend themselves to an overall consistency in the at-bat, and eventually the hits are going to fall, and that’s what we’ve seen lately.”

“His swing is really consistent day-to-day. The biggest thing with him is just being able to consistently get his best swing off and look to do damage. He’s done a great job of that the last week or so.”

Jackson Holliday

“It’s pretty remarkable what he’s been able to do this year, especially against some of the most specialized lefties in the world. We always like to talk about it. He’s 22 years old. He’d be a college senior this year and he’s up here learning how to do this skill against guys who are paid a ton of money to get lefties out specifically. For him to be able to do that shows his aptitude and his willingness to make adjustments.”

Relying on young hitters in key roles

“You look at the minor league performance for these guys, and it would suggest that major league success is something that’s definitely within their grasp. For the group as a whole, I’ve been really pleased with just the overall day-to-day adjustments that they make. They come in and they learn from what happened the night before and they make adjustments moving forward. That’s really the biggest part of being a major league player. You’re going to have to make those adjustments very quickly because teams find out your weaknesses very quickly and they try to target those things, and so our guys have done a very good job of doing that on a day-in, day-out basis.”

Orioles’ success at pinch-hitting

“Pinch-hitting is definitely a skill. It’s a really difficult one. You’re sitting on the bench for 2 ½ hours then you come in and face some of the best arms in the game at that point. Our guys have a really good skill to do it and they prepare really well and we’ve got [batting practice pitchers] Nick Floyd and Ruben Francisco at all hours for them. They go in and get a lot of preparation done during the game and they’re just always keeping an eye towards the matchups that they’re going to have, and they’ve really come through for us in big spots this year.” ‘

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