Hitting certainly appears to be one of Michael Chavis’ strengths. In fact, the Boston Red Sox rookie says he’s “obsessed” with it.
“I hated school, but I love hitting,” he told WEEI.com. “I’ll study about hitting, I’ll watch videos in my spare time. People go home and play video games. I like to watch hitting videos, whether it’s me or other people.”
Chavis says swinging hard just comes naturally to him. So when he first joined the Gulf Coast League, he says he swung as hard as he could “every single swing.” After all, that’s what he says “worked” for him in high school.
“I have an aggressive swing, in general,” he said. “Even when I’m hot as could be, my swing, to other people, still looks too aggressive. My thing that I look for is, more so, controlled aggression. That’s kind of the feel. Where I want to feel like I’m swinging hard, without a doubt, but I don’t want to feel out of control.
“When I try and swing really easy, I don’t purposely get lazy, but my movements kind of get lazy, where I’ll drag my hip or my back hip won’t get through and stuff like that. I don’t feel like I’m swinging super hard. I look at it and I understand why people think that. But, I mean, I’m trying to break the baseball if we’re being real.”
Since joining the Sox in April, Chavis has averaged .257 with 78 hits, 16 home runs and 56 RBI. And considering he had big shoes to fill, the 23-year-old certainly hasn’t disappointed.
