Roberts' old-school approach resonates with Naturals

NWA Democrat-Gazette/ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Naturals hitting coach Leon Roberts (left) speaks Tuesday, June 6, 2017, with manager Vance Wilson during batting practice before the start of the Naturals' game with Springfield at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Naturals hitting coach Leon Roberts (left) speaks Tuesday, June 6, 2017, with manager Vance Wilson during batting practice before the start of the Naturals' game with Springfield at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.

SPRINGDALE -- Leon Roberts leaned against the back of the batting cage, watching intently as each of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals took their swings in batting practice at a sun-drenched Arvest Ballpark.

The 66-year-old with more than 40 years of experience in professional baseball still throws batting practice, but on this day the Naturals' hitting coach opted to watch from behind the cage. He exchanged words with several players after their turn in the cage, but took Naturals left-handed hitting first baseman Samir Duenez aside.

Profile

Leon Roberts

POSITION Hitting coach

TEAM Northwest Arkansas Naturals

NOTABLE First season as hitting coach for the Naturals, after serving as the Houston Astros’ minor league roving outfield instructor in 2016. …. Spent 11 seasons in the Major Leagues from 1974-84 as an outfielder with six different teams. … Recruited to play college football and baseball at Michigan, he opted to play basketball and baseball since the Wolverines were run-oriented and he played split end. … 66 year old has spent more than 40 years in professional baseball as a player, coach, manager or coordinator.

"When he gets off he gets lazy with his top hand," said Roberts, who is in his first year with the Naturals. "He turns that thing into a front-arm wave, instead of a two-handed, pop-the-ball-with-timing swing. I had him look at video today and we talked about it. Just add that top hand in just a little bit to make the ball jump.

"You want to work the barrel with two hands and then release late. His natural swing is a top-hand release swing, but he releases early sometimes."

Duenez, who turned 21 years old earlier this week, is already among the top prospects in the Kansas City Royals' minor league system. He ranks sixth in the Texas League in home runs (eight) and is tied for eighth in RBIs (38) and is working hard to improve, Roberts said.

Roberts brought up another famous name that had that same problem and never solved it -- Michael Jordan.

"I'm watching that thing on ESPN and I'm thinking 'why won't they tell him use two hands at point of contact,'" Roberts said. "It's a front-arm wave. And you might as well take a chainsaw and chop the right arm off because he wasn't using it. You've gotta have both hands doing a certain amount of work based on your natural swing."

Roberts has a reputation as a storyteller, but players say he always has a lesson, too. He also has a knack of relating old-school examples to today's game.

Northwest Arkansas infielders Jack Lopez and Humberto Arteaga are two players who have showed marked improvement offensively this season under Roberts' guidance.

Lopez currently ranks ninth in the league in batting average (.307), while Arteaga is three spots below him at .300. Lopez hit .187 in 83 games for the Naturals last season, while Arteaga hit .208 in 58 games after a mid-season promotion.

"He makes you open your eyes and notice things you really haven't noticed before," Lopez said. "The way he communicates , it's something you've never seen or heard before and keeps your mind open. What's different for me is confidence and Leon has embedded that in me."

Arteaga said Roberts helped him put together a routine in batting practice that clicked for him.

"It's working for me," Arteaga said. "He doesn't talk much about mechanics or things like that. He just finds the right words at the right moment for you to feel good. Even at the beginning when I wasn't hitting great, but I felt good at the plate. My mentality was there all the time, no matter the result."

'Jim Thorpe'

Roberts grew up a four-sport high school standout in Michigan, which got him the nickname Jim Thorpe after the Olympic decathlon champion.

He was recruited by 100 colleges to play football and baseball and chose the University of Michigan, but he later decided to switch to basketball instead of football.

"When I got to Michigan, lo and behold the coach who just came in there was a running attack guy," Roberts said. "What good is a split end in a running attack? I get one pass a game in my area and then I have to move to tight end and block defensive ends. So I played basketball for three year instead of football, which is really one of my only athletic regrets, not playing football in Michigan, which is a pretty special sport."

Roberts excelled in athletics, despite having a bad right eye that was injured when he was 5 years old. He was forced to wear a patch on the eye for a year and a half and kept his bad eyesight a secret from Major League Baseball teams for most of his career.

"I didn't want to get released," Roberts said. "I'm trying to make it. You know you hear stories about Air Force pilots. You can't see, you can't be an Air Force pilot. Well if you can't see, you can't be a Major League hitter. Especially when you've got a third of a second at 96 (mph). So I kept it hidden all those years. I thought I saw the ball OK. Eye doctors after a while said 'How do you even hit the ball?' I guess it's not that hard, I dunno."

Old-school hitting coach

Naturals manager Vance Wilson said Roberts was having an impact on several players only a couple of weeks into this season. As the first half of the season comes to close, that impact is becoming apparent with players such as Lopez and Arteaga. First baseman Frank Schwindel has already made the jump to Triple-A. He went from hitting .270 a year ago with 86 strikeouts to .350 with 17 strikeouts at the time of his promotion.

Wilson refers to Roberts as an old-school hitting coach, which means he doesn't leave it on the players.

"You make sure they are getting the work," Wilson said. "You come up the drills. You stay on the players. New school, non-impact coaches will say 'it's on the player, he can't do it.' Old school is no stone goes unturned. He's that type that covers everything. Anything you could complain about as a manager about an offense not doing, he covers.

"He's relentless on the guys in a good way and that's what's most impressive. I think sometimes we just let them hit. I say we I mean the whole industry. You've got to cover a lot of things to be good at what you do. High pitch, pitch in, low pitch, curve balls, curve balls for balls, hanging curve balls, how do you ambush a pitch. So things in the industry we've gotten away from teaching because of the impatience of players, he covers.

"He has an incredible relationship with the guys and they trust him."

Passion for hitting

Roberts finished with a career batting average of .267 over 11 Major League seasons with six teams. His best year came in 1978 when he hit .301 with 22 home runs and 92 RBIs for the Seattle Mariners. But somehow hitting became Roberts' passion even after his playing career ended. Roberts said it's because hitting was more glamorous than other aspects of the game.

He was able to pick the brains of some of the best hitters of all-time during and after his playing days, including Ted Williams.

"The way I learned a lot was sitting around and veteran type players gave you what I call Indian tips," Roberts said. "They gave you tips and ideas and philosophies. It's amazing the wealth of knowledge those guys have.

"When I was with Detroit as Triple-A manager, we'd go over the Winter Haven (Fla.) and Ted Williams was a special instructor. I started talking to him and we'd hook up and talk here and there. I'd show up with a mental list of about 50 things. I'd throw my questions out and he'd give me tremendous answers. This guy had everything figured out.

"There was no pitcher, no situation, no area, no pitch he didn't have a plan for and Greg Maddux as a pitcher was the same way. He had an idea and plan for every hitter."

Sports on 06/15/2017

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