Centerfielder Casper Wells made several major adjustments to his batting stance about two weeks ago.
But the way he’s playing, Erie SeaWolves star may never change it again.
The 23 year old is 15-for-34 with four home runs and 15 RBIs in the past eight games, including hitting for the cycle on July 29 and a three-homer perfromance on Tuesday night in an 11-2 win over the Harrisburg Senators.
“It’s all surreal to me,” Wells, who earned all-american honors at Towson, told reporters. “I wasn’t trying at all [to hit the third home run]. The guys were joking around in the dugout, ‘You won’t hit another home run.’ I did it and they were like, ‘I can’t believe you did that.’”
Casper, 23, is a Detroit Tigers prospect who was selected in the 14th-round of the 2005 draft. He began the season at the Double-A level in Comstock Park, Mich., with the Whitecaps, where the right-handed hitter batted .240 in 50 games, but his power numbers of 10 home runs and 26 RBI earned him a promotion in June.
“The best way to hit homers is to get the barrel of the bat on the ball and let the backswing take over,” Whitecaps manager Joe DePastino said. “I didn’t see Casper until the last day of spring training, but people had said he has a lot of pop in hit bat. He swings the bat well.”
In 52 games with Erie, Pa., of the Double-A Eastern League, he has batted .278 with 10 home runs and 36 RBI, and has a .364 on-base percentage, showing he continues to improve as he adjusts to using a wooden bat. Well also has improved at hitting right-handed pitching, something he struggled with at the beginning of the season, even though he was dominant against leftys.
But the recent alterations to his approach at the plate, which has produced record-setting results, appear to be the key to his success.
“I changed the way I was batting, changed my stance, going with a more conventional style of hitting,” Wells said. “I’m just trying to make more consistent contact, getting my legs more involved.”
And the more consistent he gets, the sooner he realizes his dream.
“Move up, hopefully, try to get to ‘The Show,’” Casper said. “Try to do it at ‘The Show.’”
