MLB Draft: Hendrick's swing takes center stage

Bryan Cornell first met Austin Hendrick before coaching a playoff game in 2016. West Allegheny consistently had been one of the top baseball teams in the WPIAL for years, and Hendrick and his father, Dan, wanted to introduce themselves to the coach. The Hendrick family was considering moving to West Allegheny, and if they did, Hendrick was going to play for him.

It was a pretty short, uneventful conversation. It wasn't until the bus ride after that Cornell's team started to buzz.

“When we got on the bus, the kids were like, ‘Do you know who that was, coach?'" Cornell was telling me. "I said no, and they said, 'That's Austin Hendrick. He's a really good ball player.'"

A really good ball player who will be selected in the first round of Major League Baseball's amateur draft Wednesday.

Hendrick has been one of the top draft prospects in his class since before he and Cornell ever spoke because of his time at Perfect Game USA, which showcases the best prep school players in the country. Perfect Game has him ranked as the best high school player in Pennsylvania and the fourth best in the country.

Hendrick would move to West Allegheny, and Cornell quickly recognized how talented he was after a few fall practices ahead of his freshman season.

“[The ball] just had a different sound coming off his bat,” Cornell said.

Chris Sidick knows that sound, too. He owns C-Side Sports, the 30,000-square-foot baseball and softball facility Hendrick has trained at since he was 11 years old, and the sound of Hendrick's batting practice can ring throughout the building.

“People just stop talking and look over to his cage when he’s hitting," Sidick was telling me. "You see them start to chatter because you know somebody’s just crushing a baseball.”

Ok, how does it sound different?

“It’s just a cleaner crack," Sidick said. "You feel it resonate up your spine.”



It's that crack off the bat -- and the swing that accompanies it -- that has made him one of the best hitting prospects in this year's draft.

"The 6-foot-1, 205-pound outfielder has the quickest pure bat speed in the class and complements it with light tower raw power, giving him arguably the best power/hit combo of any high school hitter," Baseball America's scouting report on Hendrick reads.

The publication has Hendrick ranked as the ninth-best prospect in this year's draft, and the second-best high schooler. He is committed to Mississippi State University, but he is expected to sign with whichever team drafts him this year.

In their most recent mock drafts, FanGraphs and CBS Sports had him going to the Reds at 12th overall. MLB.com and Baseball America had him going 16th to the Cubs.

Hendrick has been highly praised for his electric bat speed. The first time he got in front of a HitTrax at C-Side, his peripherals blew people away. Not only was he getting through the zone quickly, but he was also clobbering the ball.

“His ball exit speed at his age was just off the hook," Sidick said. "It was noticeable because we were playing in remote games with other facilities across the country and Canada, in a HitTrax simulated game. Just like watching him in a baseball game, watching him hit off a machine, the ball was going 30-, 40-percent farther than the other kids on both teams.

"It got to the point where other facilities we were playing were asking if he was an 18-year-old college hitter.”

Hendrick was 14 at the time.

It wouldn't be the first time Hendrick was compared to college players that year. In the winter before his freshman season, Cornell went to West Virginia University to meet with their baseball coaches. Hendrick had just done an event at that stadium with his AAU team, so the WVU coaches got a look at him.

Cornell asked the coaches there what they thought of him. They made a motion to their group of outfielders.

“Throw Austin Hendrick out there, now,” Cornell said they told him. And that was before Hendrick had played in a high school game.

The hype was real, and Hendrick would go on to stay near the top of this year's draft prospects list his first three years at West Allegheny. But there was still room for improvement.

Hendrick played against older competition for most of his early life. As a result, he developed a unique swing to maximize his frame. As Sidick put it, he would "dive into the ball."

That generated power as he was growing into his body, but it also was a source of doubt for some scouts who worried that he would not be able to time up higher velocity and pitches that break more. Among the concerns was a three toe tap he had during his load. It was partially a timing mechanism, but it might have been too slow against upper-90s heat.

Hendrick saw the benefits of experimenting and decided to try out some changes. He widened his stance a bit to stabilize his lower half and tweaked his load, ditching the three toe tap for a small leg kick.

He made these changes right before the Perfect Game summer showcases and tournaments last year. That can be the most important time for high school players ahead of the draft, especially since western-Pennsylvania regular-season competition is not as stiff as other states, such as Florida and California where they can play year-round.

If the experiment didn't work, it could negatively affect his standing, but by that point, most people there already knew who he was and what he could do.

“He made his name in the Perfect Game showcases as an eighth-grader, ninth-grader, so he already distinguished himself as one of the best prospects,” Cornell said.

Unsurprisingly, the tweaks worked out fine. He still has that elite bat speed and raw power, but now with more control.

“He can now almost have that Albert Pujols base stance and just rotate and still hit the ball 115 mph,” Sidick said.

Here's that swing in action, with the simpler load. Once it starts playing, close your eyes for a bit. Hear that different crack off the bat: