Aaron Bates
American baseball playerWikipedia
18
MENTIONS
12
EPISODES
8
PODCASTS
Search complete. 18 mentions across 12 episodes found for "Aaron Bates".
Oct 28, 2026
Doug McKainHOST
Better at bats, make more consistent contact, and drive the ball.
Doug McKainHOST
And the difference was that Aaron Bates was talking about it, was if you look at the video of him...
Doug McKainHOST
He was keeping his hands inside the baseball and extending his bat through the hitting zone.
Doug McKainHOST
And that's what you want.
Doug McKainHOST
So if you look at the bat pad that was going towards center field instead of cutting through it, the body position, too, is a little different, too.
Doug McKainHOST
He used the feeling of squatting slightly to keep his weight back and control his stride.
Doug McKainHOST
That's what hitting coach Aaron Bates was mentioning.
Doug McKainHOST
He emphasized this cue of a squat.
Doug McKainHOST
But Jerry, you point out this team has struggled to hit consistently for years now.
Doug McKainHOST
The question is, though, how much of an impact I think Fabian put it as philosophically and also just the coaches, Aaron Bates, Robert Van Scoyack, those guys, how big of an impact can they have? Because obviously anytime an offense struggles, you're going to hear the knee jerk reaction, fire the hitting coaches, all that stuff.
Doug McKainHOST
But it runs much deeper than that.
Jerry Hairston Jr.PANELIST
Well, I know, first of all, all the coaches work extremely hard and it's easy.
Doug McKainHOST
And we'll see if they...
Doug McKainHOST
Because you could...
Doug McKainHOST
What kind of point I'm trying to make is, do you think that with Aaron Bates and Robert VanSkoyak, that those guys are back, but maybe to Jerry's point, they might change their approach and just kind of how they attack pitchers?
Fabian ArdayaPANELIST
Maybe, I don't know if you like changing approach.
Doug McKainHOST
Andrew Friedman did acknowledge the offense needs improvement, but emphasized evaluating the underlying problems rather than reacting emotionally.
Doug McKainHOST
So the big takeaway there as far as the hitting coaches go, Robert VanSkoyak and Aaron Bates, is Friedman is essentially betting on the continuity instead of making major changes.
Doug McKainHOST
And...
Doug McKainHOST
It's really interesting to me just because you know how poorly this team performed.
Doug McKainHOST
But the Dodgers, they don't have a talent problem.
Doug McKainHOST
I just think that at some point, you got to get some fresh minds in there.
Doug McKainHOST
Even if Robert Van Scoriac and Aaron Bates aren't the worst hitting coaches, and they're really great.
Doug McKainHOST
I mean, they know baseball, obviously.
Travis RodgersHOST
That said, I don't think hitting, or firing the hitting coaches is the answer.
Travis RodgersHOST
Now, if you want to talk about doing the hitting coaches slightly different, we're talking about Aaron Bates and Robert Van Syock.
Travis RodgersHOST
Those are the two Dodger hitting coaches at the major league level.
Travis RodgersHOST
I would, as opposed to talking about those two guys specifically, let's talk about this a little more generally.
Clint PasillasHOST
[laughs]
Alanna RizzoHOST
The only thing I wonder is sometimes it's the hitting coaches that are the scapegoat when things go south, right? But then I think about it too with Aaron Bates and Rob Van Scoyoc, they were the same hitting coaches in 2024 and 2025 when-
Clint PasillasHOST
Mm-hmm
Alanna RizzoHOST
...
Fabian ArdayaHOST
... with the swing.
Fabian ArdayaHOST
And, uh, something that was really interesting that Aaron Bates was talking about before the NLCS was, like the bat speed's there, but is it because he's putting in so much effort to try to generate that speed and that's obviously why some of the misses look as bad as they do.
Fabian ArdayaHOST
He has to cheat to certain pitches.
Fabian ArdayaHOST
He has to expand a little bit just because he has to get started so much earlier to generate some of that force.
Doug McKainHOST
He pointed out the fact that he's only had one hit off of a fastball of 95 miles per hour or more since August 19th.
Doug McKainHOST
And the average fastball in the postseason's over 96.
Doug McKainHOST
Fabian, when you kinda look at that data and just Shohei's approach right now, and you hear Aaron Bates and Shohei saying they're getting close to something, what do you think that close to something possibly could be?
Fabian ArdayaHOST
Yeah, I, I really don't know.
Doug McKainHOST
But I think that it felt like, at least during certain at bats, that they were more concerned with getting the pitch count up and finding ways to get Misorowski out of the game than just attacking certain pitches in zones.
Doug McKainHOST
Look, man, I've talked to hitting coaches, I've talked to Aaron Bates, I've talked to some of the best baseball minds in the world when it comes to hitting, and what they tell me always is, "You got to find your location and hunt pitches in that zone.
Doug McKainHOST
And when you do that, that's how good things happen offensively." And it felt like the Dodgers were saying to themselves, "Okay, if we can knock the Miz out, even if we don't score a ton of runs on him, well, we are going to find a way to score on that, that, that Brewers bullpen." Uh-oh, guess what? Didn't work.
Doug McKainHOST
I think that there was opportunities to, to just attack pitches in the zone early in counts and be advantageous.
Jack HarrisHOST
Like we d- did that scouting story coming into the series, that was the thing the scout I talked to said.
Jack HarrisHOST
Hitting coach Aaron Bates mentioned the same thing yesterday.
Jack HarrisHOST
And so right now they're just trying to kinda calibrate, "Okay, how do we get you to get back to just taking smoother swings that you could, you can, uh, consistently replicate, um, to cut down on the strikeouts, cut down on the whiffs?" And, like you might get to, again, like you're, you could get to a point where, because it's Ohtani, like if the right thing clicks, um, he can deliver a big moment.
Jack HarrisHOST
And then the other thing I'll say about JDP is, who had came off the bench today, two outs in the ninth, drew a walk, not scared of the moment whatsoever.
Jack HarrisHOST
It's gonna feel like 105 coming at you.
Jack HarrisHOST
Uh, and then they would go back into the box where they would normally stand and continue taking swings because, one, they wanted to get their swings kinda calibrated to, "Okay, how do we time up a pitch that's coming that fast and gives us that little time to react?" But then also, "How do we still take like controlled swings in those settings?" Um, that is an example of a team that is, A, here on the workout day putting in the work, doing the little things.
Jack HarrisHOST
B, having a veteran team that kinda understands like, "Okay, here's how we prepare for a moment." That drill specifically, Aaron Bates said, came from Albert Pujols when he was with the team in 2021.
Jack HarrisHOST
And I just thought like this was a very good example of like how, again, the professionalism with which they approach these things, how they can take the stuff they do behind the scenes and translate it onto the field to where you saw like the work from that pay off in every aspect of their offensive performance tonight, other than like cashing in the runs.
Chris ReuversHOST
Danny Lehman, your bench coach.
Chris ReuversHOST
Aaron Bates is your hitting coach.
Patrick ReusseHOST
Only one bench coach? Only
Chris ReuversHOST
one, Pat.
Chris ReuversHOST
No. Aaron Bates, your hitting coach.
Chris ReuversHOST
Robert Van Syak is your assistant hitting coach.
Chris ReuversHOST
Mark Pryor, your pitching coach.
Tim CatesHOST
Shohei Otani on the field taking BP?
David VasseghCORRESPONDENT
Yeah, took it last night against the high-velocity machine, and today, again, a surprised addition to the hitting group as he came out with Miguel Rojas to be part of the final hitting group with the Dodgers, and I asked Aaron Bates, the Dodgers hitting coach, is it just my amateur observation, but...
David VasseghCORRESPONDENT
It looked more consistent and fluid today than it did last night at the workout.
David VasseghCORRESPONDENT
He said it was different, but certainly very pleased with what he saw last night and what he saw today because last night it was off the high-velocity machine.
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