Day 2 in the Void – thoughts I forgot from Tony Gwynn
"Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical" – Yogi Berra
I almost forgot one of the best things I heard Tony Gwynn say. He said 2 things and they relate to one another and the above quote.
He said "Man, if I had the equipment they have today, I think I could’ve made a really good run at .400." The other was "It’s not guessing if you know".
What he was referring to is that today every team is on video for every game. So if someone was willing to do their homework, you should know what pitch is coming if the pitcher’s in trouble, or what’s coming after 2 strait curveballs. You should know his release point. You should know what his best pitch is. You should know this about every pitcher you will face. Since they’ve gone to the unbalanced schedule, you’ll now have a huge library of knowlede of their pitchers for the 18 – 19 times you’ll face one another.
Now instead of having to cover the entire strike zone and react to whatever the pitcher throws, if you "know" he’s thowing you an 2-0 fastball low, you can just look there and hit it. If for whatever reason he doesn’t throw that, you just don’t swing. "It’s not guessing, if you know".
At the lower levels, just concentrate on picking up the pitcher’s release point and see what he likes to throw the most in practice. I guarantee you, that’s what he’ll go to if he’s in trouble.
If you’re playing in high school/college or above, start studying videos of the pitcher’s you’ll face, or clue in the advance scouts what you’d like to know. They’ll be happy to get the information for you as they’ll be excited that they have a player who finally gets it.
How to Hit Like a Major Leaguer 
That’s certainly a valid point, but it only goes so far. You’ll hear repeatedly in baseball that the best scouting report is physically standing in the box and seeing the pitcher for yourself.
One case in point would be Tim Wakefield. You can look at all the video of him that you want, but you need to actually be able to stand in and see the knuckler for yourself. You can pick up the advantage in scouting of knowing that he tends to throw fastballs when he is behind in the count, but I believe that the Yankees hit him much better this season than in the past because they’ve faced him so often now.