My guess is that every 6'3"+ player in the world hits outer half pitches better than inner half pitches. Their long arms create that type of geometry.
I think that’s the entire point. You want maximum overlap of the barrel of the bat and the strike zone. Therefore, taller players with longer arms don’t need to stand as close to the plate as they do sometimes.
I’d bet this is something Hines has been doing his whole life. And its a lot harder to unwind those kinds of habits in a college baseball setting than many people realize. There’s a recalibration period where you have to essentially re-learn what a ball and a strike is from what you’ve known for 10+ years. SEC programs aren’t going to have the time or the patience to allow those growing pains to happen for them, because the outcomes of the games actually matter. That’s even more true in this NIL / portal area where you’d potentially just be developing a guy to go and rake at some other program a year later. In the minors, he’ll have the needed time to make those adjustments. We’ll see if he does.
