Brice Turang Is a Nice Mannequin for How To Enhance Bat Velocity

I like to research what’s occurring with particular person batters as a option to have a broader dialogue about hitting. The story I wrote about Oneil Cruz again in January additionally lined how uncommon it’s for long-limbed hitters to crush excessive pitches. Digging into Brent Rooker’s glorious 2024 marketing campaign in December supplied me a possibility to take a look at how batters could make refined changes to command the highest of the zone. And in the present day’s piece on Brewers second baseman Brice Turang doubles as a primer on one of the best ways to make bat velocity positive aspects.

It’s virtually at all times factor for hitters to extend their bat velocity. That sounds apparent, proper? If you happen to swing quicker, you may hit the ball more durable, get to extra pitches, and have extra time to react. No arguments there.

However when coaching to extend your bat velocity, you don’t simply swing some weighted bats round and magically change into a greater hitter. Your purpose ought to be to swing quicker whereas preserving the strengths of your swing. Typically higher-effort hacks can have unintended penalties, so hitters and their coaches want to concentrate to how particular person swing parts work together with all of the others. For Turang particularly, this meant he had to determine the way to swing more durable whereas sustaining his elite contact expertise, which come from his bat angle variability and quick stroke. With bat velocity, intercept, and swing size knowledge now within the public sphere, we are able to higher perceive how Turang is doing this. However first, let’s check out how a lot better Turang has been this season than he was in 2024:

Sure, in some way, this is similar hitter. Turang’s Barrel% has jumped from the third percentile to the 56th, whereas his Arduous-Hit% surged from the ninth percentile to the eightieth. That’s ridiculous. Turang was basically a bottom-decile man throughout the board when it got here to contact high quality. Now, he’s effectively above common, and he’s improved with out compromising the opposite components of his recreation, which I’ll get into later. He’s additionally elevated his energy ceiling, along with his max exit velocity climbing from the thirty third to the sixty fourth percentile.

All these enhancements are attributable to the truth that Turang is swinging considerably quicker. No certified hitter has elevated his common bat velocity greater than the two.8 mph that Turang has added, from 66.2 mph final yr to 69.0 mph in 2025. That’s vital when you think about that final yr batters posted a .164 xwOBA on swings under 66 mph. how the distribution of Turang’s swing speeds has modified additional demonstrates why it was particularly essential for him to take more durable hacks:

This visualization particularly focuses on swings when Turang made contact. In 2024, a few tenth of his swings had been at or under 60 mph, and people swings yielded a .165 xwOBA. Now, practically all of his swings have a velocity above that threshold. He has raised his flooring a ton by minimizing how usually he swings that slowly. The midpoint of his swing velocity distribution has shifted past 70 mph – most of the time he’s giving himself an opportunity to do actual harm, and that simply wasn’t the case up to now.

Going again to what I discussed earlier, Turang has saved different parts of his swing virtually precisely the identical at the same time as he’s made these positive aspects. His level of contact relative to his physique is similar. Final yr, his intercept level (which additionally consists of swings with out contact) was 31 inches versus his heart of mass. This yr, that’s shifted, however barely, 30.6. That is unbelievable. To know why, I must get slightly nerdy and usher in some extra context. There are methods to cheat bat velocity positive aspects that may really be detrimental to a hitter. Sure, I do know that’s a bit opposite to my earlier level, nevertheless, it may be true! If a hitter does every part the identical and shifts his level of contact additional out in entrance of his physique (even when that creates suboptimal contact) his bat velocity will enhance!

It comes right down to physics. One element of measuring bat velocity is the gap from the bat’s knob (assuming that’s the reference level) to the purpose of influence. If that radius will increase, so will your bat velocity, although clearly there’s a restrict right here. Meaning which you could maintain your angular velocity (how shortly the bat rotates) the identical whereas lengthening your radius to extend your bat velocity. There’s a candy spot for that radius enhance to be useful. If you happen to exceed it, you’ll begin to yank all of your stable contact foul, and if you wish to maintain the ball honest, you’ll have to change your bat angles, which ends up in suboptimal contact. Like with each a part of baseball, steadiness is required.

Based mostly on this calculation of bat velocity, we are able to deduce that Turang is creating extra angular velocity with a view to enhance his general bat velocity with out altering his common intercept level a lot. Excellent! Together with that, Turang’s swing size continues to be elite (ninetieth percentile this yr in comparison with one centesimal final yr), and he’s now standing extra towards the again of the field. The previous means his swing continues to be quick and candy, and the latter adjustment may imply that when he does shift his level of contact farther out in entrance, he has extra wiggle room to maintain the ball honest. All this mixed results in the kind of enhancements we’ve seen to this point.

Lastly, I’ll depart with you some video highlighting how Turang has drastically modified his setup in comparison with final yr, which doubtless is without doubt one of the essential components driving his bat velocity positive aspects:

2024

2025

He stands extra slender along with his arms increased and begins his load with a giant leg kick. This has helped him swing the bat quicker on common by reducing down on his slower, non-A swings whereas additionally sustaining his earlier level of contact. For a lot of hitters, the leg kick is a timing mechanism and never only a option to arrange their rotation. I believe that is the case for Turang. And to verify this modification wouldn’t depart him off steadiness, he has paired it with increased arms to maintain his higher and decrease halves related. Actually good course of selections right here.

Turang has at all times been an amazing baserunner and a very good fielder, however due to the positive aspects he made throughout the offseason, he has elevated each his ceiling and his flooring. And in consequence, he’s now rising as a helpful on a regular basis participant for Milwaukee.