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Home » Diet » Yasmani Grandal on new diet, ready to contribute hitting right-handed – LA Daily News

GLENDALE, Ariz. >> Yasmani Grandal knew his new diet had really taken hold when his 7-year-old daughter was visiting her grandmother.

As soon as you mention vegetables to a little kid, they say, No, Grandal said. So we just started making food and we never really mentioned that it was all vegetables. We didnt make a big deal.

Two, three weeks ago she was at her grandmas house and her grandma bought her some candy. She goes back and reads the label and it said 57 grams of sugar or something like that. She goes up to her grandma, Hey, grandma this has too much sugar. I can only have one or two. It was pretty funny.

Grandal didnt exactly take the idea of a plant-based, meatless diet seriously right away himself. His wife, Heather, works as a nurse. She wanted to watch a documentary that a cardiologist she works with had mentioned.

She put it on and I wasnt too interested in it, Grandal said. Then as I started to hear things here and there and some athletes were giving their testimony about how their performance had improved and it kind of caught my attention a little. So I went back and watched the whole documentary by myself and kind of got into it.

The Dodgers catcher decided to give it a try for 15 days and 15 days turned into a month, turned into two months and here we are now.

But the real focus of Grandals off-season was putting the meat back in his right-handed swing.

The switch-hitting catcher did not want to platoon against left-handed pitching as he had the past two seasons with veteran backups A.J. Ellis and Carlos Ruiz and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didnt want to have to sit his front-line catcher based on the opposing pitcher.

In a perfect world, I think its more contingent on the schedule and not left-vs-right, Roberts said this spring. I think in the past couple years its been that because his right-handed swing hasnt been where we would have liked, where he would have liked.

The Dodgers made the obvious known to Grandal that a better right-handed swing would mean more playing time in 2017 and persuaded him to work with former big-league hitting coach Jeff Pentland this winter.

Coming up through the minor leagues, my splits were the same. I actually hit for more power from the right side, Grandal said. But it was the fact that I was playing every day. Whether it was a righty or lefty didnt matter, I was in. It was the daily repetitions I was getting so my swing was there.

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It was more than that, though. Grandal injured his right knee in July 2013 and then his left shoulder in August 2015. Both had a greater effect on his right-handed swing. He wasnt able to sit back (on his right leg) and turn on it from the right side as much as he used in 126 right-handed at-bats the first two seasons after the injury he had just one home run.

And the shoulder injury appeared to affect Grandals swing plane. While his exit velocity from the left side (92.8 mph) and right side (91.1) last season were nearly equal, the launch angles were drastically different 14 degrees as a left-handed hitter, 7.7 as a right-hander. The result was a 53.6 percent ground ball rate as a right-handed hitter.

It looks good. Its not as steep. Its not as in-and-out of the zone, Roberts said of the adjustments Grandal has made in his right-handed swing this spring. The balls he did square up (last year), the trajectory just wasnt right. It was more negative, down into the ground.

So weve talked about elevating the ball to the pull side. That with the contact rate, it should be a productive right-handed player. He worked real hard. Hes healthy No. 1. But he also feels good about the right-handed swing.

Indeed, Grandal doesnt lack confidence from either side of the plate.

Ive always been very confident from both sides. I know I can do it, he said. Its just a matter of gaining confidence from the coaching staff for them to say, OK, we dont have to think about whos catching today. We know Yaz is going to be there.

Clayton Kershaw will start the Dodgers first Cactus League game on Saturday against the Chicago White Sox followed by Rich Hill on Sunday and Kenta Maeda on Monday. The starting pitchers will likely only throw one inning the first time around. The rest of the starting lineup will get two plate appearances each in the opener Saturday. ... Last years assistant hitting coach on the major-league staff, Tim Hyers, will serve as a roving instructor in the minor leagues this year. Triple-A hitting coach Shawn Wooten will occasionally work with the big league team this year.

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Yasmani Grandal on new diet, ready to contribute hitting right-handed - LA Daily News

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Home » Diet » Yasmani Grandal on new diet, ready to contribute hitting right-handed – LA Daily News