This robot is the best hitter in history

Now let's see it beat out a soft grounder

February 12th, 2020

If you go to a youth baseball game, you'll hear coaches shout the same few pieces of advice over and over. Keep your eye on the ball. Step into the pitch. Get that back elbow up. Follow those simple, easily digestible tips, they say, and you'll be lining balls into the gaps all day.

Throw all that well-meaning advice out the window because there's a new show in town. The key to being a consistently fearsome presence at the plate can now be distilled into three simple words: Be a robot.

Obviously, there are parts of the robot's game you can take issue with. He's shown no ability to adjust to the offspeed pitch. He doesn't use all fields and might be rendered ineffective with a simple shift. His spray chart is less a spray and more of a single line. It's unclear how he plans to navigate the basepaths given that he appears to be plugged into an outlet somewhere off screen.

We may be safe for now. But does anyone really think the robot won't be able to make these adjustments in due time? Surely, a software update can correct these issues. And when it does, we may well be looking at the greatest hitter in history.