What's in a Slump

Almost a month into the 2008 season, there are some players who aren't exactly living up to expectations. Here in Kansas City the talk is about the futility of Jose Guillen, who signed a contract for 3 years, $36 million. He was supposed to bring a proven productive veteran presence to the Roayls' lineup, but so far, his bat has been absent. It's still early in the season, so there is still plenty of time for an offensive turnaround.

He's not the only slugger who has started the season with less than stellar results. ESPN.com has a good article here that lists a slumping player at every position from around the league. I was surprised at some of the names in that group. Coincidentally, over half of the players listed had new big-money deals during the off-season.

It's hard to say how a slump begins, but whatever the cause, they can easily and quickly snowball. The harder you try to hit, the harder it becomes. The same goes for pitching or fielding. Baseball can sometimes be counter-intuitive that way. This phenomenon is usually referred to as "pressing."

It easy to tell when a hitter is pressing. He looks a little too anxious, a little stiff, and swings at a lot of pitches outside of the strike zone. It might start with a game when a player goes 0-4. In his four at-bats he hits the ball hard, but right at the defense. The next day, maybe he has to face a really good pitcher, and goes 0-3. The next day, maybe he loses concentration in his first at-bat and strikes out, and suddenly he has trouble remembering the last hit he had. It's at that point that it switches from a physical problem to a mental problem. Joe DiMaggio says in his book Baseball for Everyone, "The emotional progress of a slump is approximately as follows: simple wonder, prolonged bewilderment, dawning realization, horror, grim determination, helpless rage, self-pity, relaxation, cure."

Hall of Fame member Tony Gwynn says this about slumps in his book, The Art of Hitting: "When you start thinking, you usually start guessing. And if you're guessing, and you're wrong, you're making a lot of outs... You enter a slump because even though you might know what you're doing wrong, you just can't seem to correct it." That goes hand in hand with a comment Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers made in an article by the Sporting News. "Mentally, I try to be not there at all," he says. "Whenever I'm going good, it's when I'm not thinking about anything, kind of like in a daze. Still focused on what I'm trying to do but not worrying about the outcome, what the count is, what the score is." Not thinking about hitting is tough to do when friends, fans, and especially media won't let you forget that you're not hitting.

Being the good-hearted person that I am, I've done a little research and found some resources that may help Mr. Guillen and the other slumping sluggers to break out of their ruts. There is this article, which apparently provides A Scientific Hitting Slump Cure...That Works. Or, if you're into a more psychological approach, you could fork out a little money for some Hypnosis, Visualization and Mental Toughness Training. According to this site, Pete Rose offered his proven remedies during a radio program. Or, you could try what Richie Ashburn would do -- "To cure a batting slump, I took my bat to bed with me. I wanted to know my bat a little better."

Despite some of the... mmm... promising solutions I've found, I tend to agree with DiMaggio's comment, "There is no handy cure for slumps, any more than there is a reasonable explanation for them. If anyone ever finds a slump cure, he can sit back and get rich on consultation fees, for he'll find lots of clients wherever baseball is played."

Judging from the websites I saw today, no one is getting rich yet.