Why the closed stance has nearly disappeared

As I finish this week's segment on stance, I revert back to another article I wrote recently on the closed stance and why it has virtually disappeared from big league baseball. Below I describe why. Check back tomorrow where I post a new video and start a new segment on the stride and set up!

The closed stance is the one stance that I feel puts the hitter at a disadvantage. If the stance remains closed by more than 6-8 inches after the front foot comes down, the hitter’s hands get locked behind him.
When a hitter’s feet are lined up at landing, the hands are free to work against air on their direct path forward to the baseball. Obviously, air has very little resistance. If the hitter is closed off, the front shoulder is obstructing the hands to take a direct line to the baseball. Two bad habits occur because of this:
1) The hitter jerks the front side off the ball to free up the hands, thus causing an early rotation problem.
2) The hitter’s hands “cast” away from the hitter to go around the front shoulder, thus creating a long, slow swing.
Like the open stance hitter, so long as a hitter with a closed stance gets back to lined up after the stride, problems can be avoided. But with young hitters, the closed stance is just one more potential complication in the mechanics of the swing.