Brice Turang's Hot Start Has Gone Ice-Cold Again. Now What?

After a strong spring training in which he swore he wasn't doing anything differently (but plainly was), Brice Turang came into the regular season on a tear. He had hits in each of his first 12 games, and at the end of the Brewers' series in San Francisco to open a road trip during the fourth week of April, he was hitting .346/.386/.452. In 115 plate appearances, he had 21 strikeouts, and though he'd only drawn seven walks and managed five extra-base hits, three of those five cleared fences, and Turang's general talent for generating well-struck singles seemed newly sustainable.

His exit velocities were way up. So, too, was his bat speed. Last year, Turang rarely nosed above the league average in terms of hitting the ball harder, but this year, he did it much more often than most batters, over a relatively long stretch.

As you can see, however, Turang has come back to Earth since then. His bat speed remains better (er, faster; Turang is among the good examples of the fact that not all added bat speed is a positive thing) even during the difficult month of May. He's also lifting the ball, if anything, more than ever—with his average launch angle rising steadily as the season has progressed.

Alas, he's been dramatically less productive as the season has progressed. Since that series in San Francisco, he's batting an atrocious .1183/.290/.247. In 107 trips to the plate, he's punched out 29 times (far more than his profile can bear), and has just four extra-base hits, three of them doubles. He's worked more walks (14 of them), but that hasn't made up for his lack of quality hits. Lately, in an attempt to put his revamped swing to its highest use, he's ratcheted up and is swinging more often, trying to avoid the deep counts where too many strikeouts take place. There was some evidence in Pittsburgh that he's getting closer, but right now, the results all sing an ugly song.

In the past, we would have had a hard time saying exactly what has changed from last year to this for Turang, and (more importantly) why the changes worked briefly, then ceased to do so. We can study video and see that he's doing things a bit differently, but Turang doesn't talk about what he's tweaked with particular clarity (largely, by choice), and most of our looks on TV come from the center-field camera, where some important things are lost. Now, however, we can visualize the whole operation of Turang's swing in a much different, more complete, more valuable way.

Firstly, Turang is far less spread-out in the box than he used to be, in terms of his setup. When he does swing, though, he's therefore striding much farther than he did in 2024. Here's what his stance and stride looked like in 2024.

And here's what he's gone to this year. His stride length, as best I can estimate it using the visualizations here, has gone from roughly 11.2 inches to 21.2.

That more exaggerated forward move means that even by the time his swing properly starts—when his front foot lands and his hands start the whip of the bat—there are some changes to his body position. Look at these side-by-side 3D renderings of his swing at that point, for each season.

These are composites—many swings, averaged out and rendered as one—but we can still glean a lot from them. He's holding his hands closer to his body, meaning he's more ready to attack the hitting zone directly. His weight isn't coming forward as much, yet. You can see that in his back foot, which had turned more last year than it has at the same point this year; and in the angle of his hips. He's more balanced, and better able to create some tilt throughout his frame.

Now, here's where he is at the point when his swing path gets on plane with the incoming pitch and starts to work uphill. The differences are even more obvious, now. Look at how, on the left, his hands are farther forward, and note (on the lefthand side of each screengrab) that his bat was going faster at this point in his swing last year than it is this year. However, by the time he makes contact, his swing is faster this year. That's because, as you can see, he has more left to his swing at the same point this year. His hands were farther forward last season. His weight was already shifting into his front leg. Look at how, in this year's image, he's still directly over his back thigh, which isn't leaning forward into the pitch. 

So, by the time Turang does get to the ball this year, he's both swinging faster and getting uphill more. His average attack angle is higher this year, meaning he's on time more consistently. Yet, his attack direction is much farther toward the opposite field. He's getting on plane deeper in his stance and swing, so he's up to a greater speed even at a deeper contact point. He's changed all of that this season, and none of it has really gone wrong during his fallow period this month.

That's good news. It means that, for the most part, Turang's struggles stem from making some bad swing decisions. Because he can be in a stronger position at contact and have the bat up to speed a bit later, he doesn't have to do that. He can control the strike zone better, and he should get right back to having the great success he enjoyed over the first four weeks of the campaign. If he gets more comfortable with the unavoidable swing-and-miss in his new swing, Turang can bounce right back. His adjustments—in swing, stance and timing—are the right ones. This slump is just a manifestation of the growing pains that come with them.