Braves New Hitting Coach Brings Three Core Principles to the Plate

Tim Hyers already has his philosphy drawn up and ready to go for the Braves hitters

Tim Hyers is a simple guy bringing a simple approach to the Atlanta Braves lineup / Allan Henry-Imagn Images

Incoming Atlanta Braves hitting coach Tim Hyers presented what he is bringing to the table for the 2025 season. 

Hyers has three core principles that he is going to emphasize every single day. As a simple guy, he’s keeping the principles simple: Game-planning, swing decisions and movement in the batter’s box. 

Game-Planning 

For the first principle he listed, the game plan is all about making the most of the data at their disposal. 

“We have so much information these days. I love information,” Hyers said. “But I think the art of coaching this day and age is funneling that information, so we have that one idea.” 

Here they’ll take the key information and go to work. This helps keep it simple because as Hyer put it, you can only think about one thing at a time and hit a pitch coming in at 97 miles per hour. 

Hyers didn’t go into too much detail on this part of the game plan. But based of what he said, we can dive a little deeper. They’re going to do their research on the type of pitches being thrown by the starters and bullpen and where they tend to place those pitches. Going even further, that decision depends if that hitter is lefty or righty and where in the zone they tend to cover better. 

Swing Decision

The goal here is to reduce chase rates and help hitters get better at sitting on pitchers they can tee off best.  

“You’re only as good as the strikes you swing at,” he said.

In 2024, Braves hitters struck out 1,461 times over 6,075 plate appearances for a strikeout rate of 24.04%. They had the seventh most strikeouts in MLB and struck out the most of any team that made the postseason. 

Meanwhile, the two teams in the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, are 19th and 20th in the league in strikeouts respectively. The league runner-ups were also exceptionally disciplined. The San Diego Padres had the fewest strikeouts in the league this year and the Cleveland Guardians had the fourth fewest. 

There is a trend here that teams that are more disciplined and put the ball in play have had deeper playoff runs. It sounds obvious, but in an era where the long ball matters more than ever, it couldn’t hurt to put that reminder out there. 

Movement in the Batter’s Box 

This is all about mechanics. Hyers addressed the Braves' injury situation from the mechanics' lense. 

With key hitters out for large chunks of the year, hitters were trying to overcompensate and that can lead them to compromise their mechanics. Hyers wants to get everyone back in sync with their mechanics and help simply the approach at the plate. 

“We can clean up some of those patterns and them back into their groove,” he said. “And not trying to do too much - those thoughts of ‘I need to get a hit’ or I need to hit a homer here.’ I think that messes up the physical.” 

By adhering to these principles, Hyers believes the Braves will be more prepared, disciplined and fluid. Being fluid is especially important, according to Hyers, because a good team needs to score runs in multiple ways. 

“There’s days we can slug, and obviously this can slug the ball really hard,” he said. “But there’s also days you gotta score runs in different ways.” 

Hyers clearly has a game plan ready to go and spring training isn’t even for another four or so months. In time, he will have the chance to start working with everyone and get these principles instilled in those hitters and put into action. 

Hyers was annouced as the Braves' next hitting coach on Thursday. He is coming from the Texas Rangers, where he was the coach for the World Series-winning team in 2023.