Baseball players learn from each other all the time. In fact, it's a necessity even for a superstar as he adapts to change and reinvents himself to extend his career. But here's a news flash: It's not usually other stars that these successful players learn from.
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The top 100 players of 2016 will be revealed over the next 10 days, with the top 10 unveiled during a special edition of Baseball Tonight at 10 p.m. ET Thursday, March 24, on ESPN2 and WatchESPN.
DATE PLAYERS
March 15 Nos. 100-91
March 16 Nos. 90-81
March 17 Nos. 80-71
March 18 Nos. 70-61
March 19 Nos. 60-51
March 20 Nos. 50-41
March 21 Nos. 40-31
March 22 Nos. 30-21
March 23 Nos. 20-11
March 24 Nos. 10-1
Sure, sometimes they'll pick things up here or there in another star's work. Bryce Harper attributed at least part of his breakout last year to advice he received from Joey Votto on hitting to the opposite field. And if you talk to Votto himself, he'll refer to learning from "the standards," such as Barry Bonds and Todd Helton, as well as previous stars with longevity -- Edgar Martinez and Pete Rose -- because they "offer a challenge and something to strive for."
But when he details specific tweaks he has made in recent years, the names change. In 2014, Votto, who checks in at No. 25 in the BBTN 100, said he really wanted to be like Twins first baseman Joe Mauer, whom he called "really efficient, swinging at a really low rate inside the strike zone, and very rarely swinging outside the strike zone." He's right. Nobody swung at a lower percentage of pitches than Mauer from 2011-13, and what followed was a two-year stretch of Votto posting two of the lowest swing rates in his distinguished career.
When Votto spoke of Mauer, before the 2014 season began, Mauer was still considered a star (he's not now). So when I talked to Votto this spring and he offered up Martin Prado as a role model, that's when it clicked for me: He's looking anywhere and everywhere for inspiration.
"The guys I pay attention to, you would never think I'd be watching them, because I'm trying to add something from their game to my game," said Votto. "It has been the oddest guys along the way that I've been interested in. For a while there, I really enjoyed Prado. I enjoyed his swing, and for an entire half of a season, he didn't swing at a first pitch in any at-bat."
It's difficult to find the stretch Votto was referring to, but it's easy to find a superlative stat or two about Prado and first pitches. For example, in 2012, Prado saw 689 first pitches. He swung and missed at just one of them.
First-Pitch Swing Rates
SEASON PRADO VOTTO
2008 22% 38%
2009 13% 38%
2010 11% 39%
2011 11% 31%
2012 8% 23%
2013 10% 29%
2014 9% 32%
2015 13% 29%
Even as first-pitch swing rates have dropped from about one-third of all at-bats to about a quarter of them, Prado has remained an outlier by averaging a first-pitch swing every 10 at-bats. He's a perennial league leader in first-pitch takes, and as the corresponding table shows, Votto seems to have adopted a similar approach in recent years.
Votto is not alone in this sort of thing. Baseball's best learn from anyone and everyone they come in contact with. Here are a few examples:
Zack Greinke• While most attribute Zack Greinke's new hard changeup to something he learned from Felix Hernandez, that's not the case, according to the pitcher. Sure, he learned something about how to use the pitch from the King, but he learned that the pitch could be useful from none other than journeyman reliever Ramon Ramirez. Greinke told me he saw Ramirez throw his 88 mph changeup against a 92 mph fastball, and saw the kinds of results he got, so he tried to make his changeups "harder and make them move as much as possible" to emulate Ramirez.
Brandon Belt• San Francisco's Brandon Belt had heard he should change the way he grips the bat, but was a little suspicious of making a big change. So his hitting coach asked him to call another lefty hitter, Domonic Brown, to talk about how quickly the then-Phillies outfielder had made the change himself.
The resulting change in grip for Belt helped him produce much better power numbers in 2013; it was a new grip that made his "whole body relax."
Justin Turner• Justin Turner turned to Marlon Byrd to learn to swing for power. Turner, now the Dodgers' third baseman, played alongside Byrd with the Mets, and it took an offseason of work with the veteran outfielder to perfect his aggressive swing. Byrd may have been a full seven years older, but the things he told Turner were the "opposite of the older style," as Turner put it.
J.D. Martinez• In a similar way, J.D. Martinez had been taught to swing down on the ball, but it wasn't working for him early in his career with the Houston Astros. Then he got hurt in 2013 and spent a lot of time watching video of players as he rehabbed. "I was watching Jason Castro. He changed his swing plane, and that's when I noticed him doing it and I was like, 'Whoa. What's this guy doing differently?'" Martinez said. This helped him put two and two together: Castro had previously told Martinez that he changed his swing plane because a teammate told him he could hit for more power.
So Martin Prado, Ramon Ramirez, Domonic Brown, Marlon Byrd and Jason Castro played at least a small part in the success of Joey Votto, Zack Greinke, Brandon Belt, Justin Turner and J.D. Martinez.
This may be surprising to us, but not to Votto. "You watch Harper and Mike Trout and Giancarlo Stanton, and if any player is honest, they can't do those things," Votto told me this spring. "You can't watch Miguel Cabrera and gain much because he is so physically gifted. They are mechanically sound. Virtually every major leaguer is mechanically sound, but they are so gifted physically, they'll overcome any shortcomings."
So you watch guys on the fringe, guys that figured something out that has allowed them to make the most of their more limited skill set. Whether it's patience on the first pitch or the wonders of a hard changeup, the usefulness of the high, riding fastball, any baseball player that has found sustained success has something to teach us. And the superstars of the game are paying attention.