VanMeter hones his craft by watching others

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Before he was sent out on a rehab assignment, Josh VanMeter had more free time than normal. So he immersed himself in one of his favorite hobbies: watching video of batters. Prior to VanMeter beginning a rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis, I chatted with him about the hobby.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Who are guys that you’re watching?
The guys you watch in today’s game are Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, J.D. Martinez. The list goes on and on. They’re so different, too. Comparing Trout to Juan Soto, it’s two completely different-looking swings. That’s the cool thing about hitting. There’s no one cookie-cutter way to be a great hitter.

What are you watching for?
There’s a lot of things you’re looking for. Mechanically, you’re looking for how the body moves and how the body gets to the sequence, where hitters enter the zone, where hitters finish in the zone, how early they get in the zone. Timing is a big part of that. Watching their moves and how they get into their swing is huge. It’s hard to nail it down to one or two things. You’re looking at the whole picture and then going from there.

In a typical video session, how much are you watching?
Maybe an hour. I try not to drown myself in it, but try to be really intentionally for the amount of time that I do watch. It's not like I’m sitting there and staying up until 5, 6, 7 in the morning watching stuff. I still do some things that I like to do in my free time. I would call it a hobby for me.

Does watching video help keep your mind engaged?
Yeah, for sure. I think it’s been big for me. I’ve never been on the injured list in the big leagues. So being able to be around the team and watch stuff and try to help guys in the dugout. Me and [Daniel] Vogelbach talk a lot on the bench about the swing, about hitting and game-planning. All that stuff is so important at this level. It’s been good for me to keep me engaged in the game. It’s definitely helped keep my mind at ease for sure.

What’s the longest you’ve spent in one video session?
I’ve been in some low places in my career. When you’re struggling, you tend to watch more video than when you’re doing well. It probably should be the opposite of that. The longest ... I don’t even know. Probably a few hours' worth of trying to find stuff. That also can be a bad thing, right? You can be so nitpicky that you’re watching and you trick yourself into creating a problem that wasn’t there. You have to be really intentional about what you’re doing and try not to overload it.