The response from Jeff McNeil never modifications: Sure, I think I can direct the league in hitting.

The problem for Jeff McNeil changes in a 60-video game baseball time.

How large is up for this line-travel Strike Equipment?

On a Zoom connect with on Thursday, there was also this dilemma for McNeil:

Could he hit .400 more than a 60-sport season? Grow to be the 1st to do it considering that Ted Williams strike .406 79 decades in the past?

“It would be nice,” McNeil stated. “I know I experienced a truly superior initially fifty percent of the calendar year last calendar year, so hopefully can do it again, got 60 games to go out there and get as a lot of hits as achievable. With any luck , by the conclusion of the yr, it is .400, but we’ll see. My purpose ideal now is just to get on base as much as I can for the fellas guiding me.”

Jose Reyes was the 1st and last Fulfilled to guide the league in hitting (.337) in 2011.

McNeil, who never fulfilled a pitch he did not like to swing at, will have Pete Alonso and perhaps even Yoenis Cespedes batting behind him.

You’d be nuts to dismiss Squirrel’s odds to surpass Reyes and lead the NL. McNeil does not obtain that a stroll is as very good as a strike, so the 254 at-bat minimum amount shouldn’t be a difficulty.

Then there is John Olerud, who retains the Mets’ season document (.354) when he finished second in the 1998 batting race to Larry Walker (.363).

What if McNeil, who considers a game-day warm puppy a superior luck appeal, proceeds to attract inspiration from Joey Chestnut?

McNeil was hitting .349 at previous season’s All-Star break in advance of ending at .318.

Olerud hasn’t witnessed enough of McNeil at the plate, but he believes a 60-recreation season offers anyone a opportunity to hit .400.

“I imagine not participating in as lots of game titles does give any individual a probability to do that, for certain,” Olerud told The Put up by cellular phone. “If you are sizzling early in the run and you are equipped to keep that, you only have to keep it for 60 online games as opposed to 162.”

McNeil’s unbridled pleasure can be viewed and read from the push box. He is every single bit the Boy of Summer season that Alonso is at spring teaching 2..

“It’s a lot of enjoyable [to] be back with the boys … adore to be again out there and hitting again,” McNeil reported.

McNeil’s obstacle is to maintain on hitting for regular after muscling up with 16 homers in excess of the final 57 online games final year to finish with 23 HR.

“I truly feel like I can do both of those,” McNeil stated. “Last year in the next fifty percent I didn’t really adjust something, the ball just commenced to go over the fence a minor little bit much more. This 12 months I arrived in a very little bit more robust, a small little bit even larger, but I’m even now not gonna modify my technique up there. I’m gonna go up there, consider to place the ball in play, try to set the desk for significant hitters like Yo and Pete and J.D. [Davis] and [Michael] Conforto. … My job’s to get on foundation, and if the homers are there, it is a bonus.”

With the grind of a 162-match year no for a longer time a element, there is a buzz to the “Can everyone hit .400?” crowd.

Chipper Jones was at .400 soon after 73 games in 2008. Nomar Garciaparra was at .403 on July 20, 2000. Todd Helton was at .3995 as late as Aug. 21, 2000.

The 3 foremost .400 threats considering that the Splendid Splinter were Tony Gwynn (.394 in the strike-shortened 1994 year), George Brett (.390 in 1980) and Rod Carew (.388 in 1977). Brett was over .400 as late as Sept. 19.

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When Olerud gained his AL batting title (.363) in 1993, he was hitting .400 right after his 107th activity.

“I was noticeably higher than .400 for the initial month,” Olerud recalled. “And men and women would appear up and converse to me, ‘Hey, should really we give Ted Williams a contact?’ … in April. So I was like, ‘No, I wouldn’t get worried about it right now.’

“And my assumed was, ‘I’m gonna keep this going as prolonged as I can.’ My fundamentals ended up really fantastic, and my timing was very good, and I bought into a groove in which I felt like the only way someone was gonna get me out is if I hit the ball difficult at somebody … I kinda arrived out of nowhere putting a very good yr together.”

The rising media awareness didn’t trouble Olerud.

“I in no way felt any tension,” he explained. “I hardly ever felt like the expectation was that I was gonna be the dude to strike .400.”

Alas, Olerud turned his own worst enemy.

“You do not sneak up on anybody,” Olerud claimed. “They know they have to have to make great pitches, and try to pitch you good. I assume probably I acquired to August, and received to thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve been doing it for four months, it’s possible I can do it the last pair of months.’ And I believe you start out wondering much too significantly about the result and finding hits as opposed to just possessing great quality at-bats and taking a excellent swing and obtaining a good pitch to hit. You get absent from what’s been building you successful, you know?”

Hitting .400 continues to be a prolonged shot, for any individual and all people.

But Jeff McNeil, 28 several years previous and in his prime and born to rake, can unquestionably get a batting title.

LFGM can also imply Let us (bleeping) Go McNeil.