During his time with the Los Angeles Angels, Shohei Ohtani’s batting approach was rarely micromanaged by his manager.

However, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, manager Dave Roberts has at times praised Ohtani—and at other times pointed out areas for improvement, such as chasing pitches outside the strike zone or failing to maintain consistent control at the plate.

The Dodgers value individual performance, but above all, they prioritize winning as a team.

For that reason, even a player like Ohtani is not exempt from honest feedback when something needs to be addressed.

Ohtani fully understands this, and when asked about what he strives for as a hitter, he said:

“As a batter, in any count and in any situation,

I want to lay off balls, swing at strikes,

and when I swing, hit a home run.

That’s what I always aim for in my training.”

If a hitter consistently avoids chasing balls and makes solid contact with strikes,

both batting average and on-base percentage will improve.

And when those strikes include even slightly hittable pitches,

it naturally leads to more extra-base hits—including home runs.

On the other hand, if a hitter lets strikes go by and swings at balls,

their performance will decline.

The principle is simple:

hit strikes,

and don’t swing at balls.

Yet the difficulty—and the beauty—of hitting lies in how hard it is to execute something so simple.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Number 1048, p.12