The Top Priority for Every Hitter: Don’t Make an Out

Avoiding Outs is the North Star for Hitters

Many would say that hitting a home run is the ultimate goal for a hitter because it has the best run value of any batted ball outcome. But there are factors that go into hitting a home run that are outside of a hitter's control. Sometimes the best thing a hitter can do is not swing.

Baseball has two primary currencies: runs and outs. While runs can be infinite, outs are finite. Outs are going to be more valuable outside of some very specific game scenarios and need to be protected at all costs. Hitting a home run should be viewed as the best way a hitter can not make an out as opposed to the outcome hitters anchor on.

Anchoring on an outcome like hitting home runs (very) often leads to making more outs than necessary. Instead, focusing on not making an out leaves every advantage presented throughout the game on the table for a hitter.

Co-founder Bobby Tewksbary explains why he is adamant that avoiding outs needs to be the North Star for hitters!

Anecdotally, the best hitters we’ve ever been around are absolutely repelled by making outs. They despise it. They refuse to accept it. When a hitter becomes obsessed with avoiding outs, they transform into a relentless competitor who is a nightmare for pitchers. While swing mechanics and physical traits can put hitters in better positions to not make outs (and to do damage), long-term success hinges on an unyielding commitment to not making outs.

The Need to Understand Why You Make Outs

A core part of our point of view at Pelotero, is that players need how good they are and where they can improve. This extends beyond swing mechanics and into game results.

A significant amount of training time is spent in the batting cage refining swings, but very little time is dedicated to game analysis at the amateur level. Understanding why you’re making outs is key to developing effective tactics at the plate and competing against pitchers.

Players need to start playing the game in their head. 

Most hitters have a vague idea of why they make outs but don’t fully have their arms around it. Things like timing, accuracy, and pitch selection need to not only be understood but quantitatively tracked. By tracking and measuring these elements, players can refine their training, prepare better, and craft a personalized approach to closing the performance potential gap.

Every hitter is different, and needs to prepare in a way that is best for them. 

The Most Dangerous Version of a Hitter

Steve Springer always says that everybody has two types of players within them; the confident version and the non-confident version. It's the job of the player to make sure as often as possible that it's the confident player that’s taking the field. 

Steve Springer describing the two players within everyone

The same paradigm exists between the version of a hitter that understands why they’re making outs versus the one that does not. The version that doesn’t know why they’re making outs is flying blind, is more exposed to emotional swings, and is more likely to fall into swing traps. The hitter that understands why they’re making outs is a whole different beast. 

Benefits to understanding why you’re making outs: 

This hitter has a better foundation to rely on when things get hard. 

This hitter is more objective than emotional and can process failure faster. 

This hitter recognizes necessary adjustments quicker, understands what causes their failure, and has more conviction about what will lead to success. 

Understanding why you’re making outs isn’t just the best way to make adjustments for the next game. It's an ironclad fortress that builds around a hitter’s entire identity. It makes them tougher. It makes them less corruptible. 

This understanding is necessary for a hitter to become the best version of themselves and close their performance potential gap. 

Conclusion

Hitting is about more than just mechanics—it’s about mindset, strategy, and an unrelenting competitive fire. The best hitters are obsessed with not making outs. They hate it with every fiber of their being. If you’ve read this article, you no longer have an excuse. This is the mindset shift that changes careers. If you want to be great, you have to compete like crazy. 

But obsession alone isn’t enough—you need to track and analyze exactly why you’re making outs. Timing, accuracy, pitch selection—these factors determine success or failure. If you’re not measuring them, you’re leaving success to chance. The hitters who dominate are the ones who track everything, make adjustments, and refuse to accept outs as an inevitability.

Player intelligence is about leveraging all available data on a player to put them on a path to maximize their potential. Our platform is growing, as is the data we support. ‘Why hitters are making outs’ is an absolutely critical piece to the performance potential gap and is massively untapped across the industry. 

Stay tuned for some updates on this soon because we are just getting started!