The key with Schmidt is HE tweaked his swing. I don't have any problem with Crawford working on his own mechanics, I DO have a problem with know-it-all coaches trying to change every hitter into a clone of whatever their ideal is, which happens too frequently in modern baseball. Having worked for 40 years as a coach at the high school level (in basketball) and attended more than 100 workshops or conferences, I can tell you for sure that when two experts spoke back-to-back on shooting technique, for example, there usually wasn't more than 20% agreement in their ideas. The best guys would give you a few basics and tell you to let the shooters work out what details (foot placement, thumb position, off hand mechanics, load position, finger "feel" on release, etc.) worked for them. The bad guys would insist that only their ideas worked. I think a lot of the driveline guys and the analytics guys are the bad type. And, historically, the Phils have broken more prospects than they have helped.
