Monday, March 27, 2000

Young predicts big year

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OF has found power stroke

BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ken Griffey Jr. just misses catching a double hit by Devil Rays' batter Bubba Trammell in the first inning Sunday. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

        SARASOTA, Fla. — Dmitri Young has four home runs this spring. That's second on the team only to Ken Griffey Jr., who has six.

        Young says the power surge is because he's finally comfortable enough to use a power swing from the left side.

        “I've only been switch-hitting nine years,” he said. “Before I was trying to connect and hit .300, now I can put a different kind of swing on the ball.”

        Young didn't become a switch-hitter until his senior year in high school.

        “I'm a natural right-handed hitter,” he said. “I always played around on the left side. I'd go over there when I was slumping on the right side.”

        After his senior year, he went to switch-hitting full-time.

        “The only reason I did it was to get more money out of the draft,” Young said.

        It worked. He was taken with the fourth pick overall by the St. Louis Cardinals in June 1991.

        He switch-hit throughout his minor-league career.

        He said the turning point on left-handed power came last year when he was taking extra hitting with Jeffery Hammonds.

        “I found if I extended just a little more I would hit with more power,” he said.

        He uses his bat to make the point.

        “That is the difference between a double and a home run,” he said as moved his bat maybe two inches forward.

        Power from the left side is important because that's where the majority of Young's at-bats come. He had 261 from that side last year, and 112 from the right. Young has only five homers from the right side in his career.

        He won't predict a total.

        “I don't want to jinx myself,” he said. “But I feel this is going to be a big year.”

       

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