TAMPA, FLA. — When Edouard Julien saw a first-pitch slider from New York Yankees lefty Nestor Cortes, he lined the ball through the left side of the infield for a single.
It was just one spring training swing, but it was exactly what Julien spent the winter trying to do.
Julien had an impressive rookie season. He entrenched himself as the leadoff batter in the Twins’ lineup. He made significant defensive improvements. The next step, he hopes, is earning more chances to hit left-handed pitching and becoming more of an everyday player.
He rarely started when the Twins faced a lefty pitcher, and he was often removed if the score was close against lefthanded relievers. The stats backed it up. Julien, a lefthanded hitter, produced a .196 batting average and only one extra-base hit in 48 plate appearances versus lefties last year.
One reason why Julien has trouble hitting lefties is his background as a switch hitter. In high school and in his first year at Auburn, he saw left-handed pitchers from the righty’s batter box.
“This offseason was the first time where I attacked it,” said Julien, who set up a pitching machine to feed him balls from the lefty angle, and he paid a left-handed pitcher in Montreal to throw him batting practice regularly. “I changed a couple of things in my swing to adjust to the slider and be able to hit the fastball against lefties.”
Julien stopped switch hitting because his lefty swing was much better, and he felt he didn’t see enough left-handed pitching to justify it.
When he faced lefthanded pitchers over the last couple years, he said, his front shoulder flew open during his swings. Learning to keep his shoulder straight should help him drive more balls toward left field, as he did against Cortes earlier this week.
