Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 4:25 pm
Colson Montgomery's nutty last few weeks have made for a lot of postgame interviews, to the point where it feels like he has a scheduled conversation with the White Sox beat more often than not. That's just what happens when you slug .624 after the All-Star break.
"I enjoy talking to all you guys," Montgomery said. "I like talking to a lot of people. I’m curious on what you guys think...sometimes."
But after the black box that was his early-season retreat to Arizona, repeated success has provided a better window into what the 23-year-old is thinking at the plate. In Pittsburgh, Montgomery revealed that experimenting through a host of different stances and setups with hitting director Ryan Fuller eventually laid bare a straightforward takeaway: that he sees and identifies spin best the more he stays tall in the batter's box.
Maybe striking out on a low-and-away knuckle curve in his first at-bat, and then receiving four in a row from Jack Flaherty in his third helped cue Montgomery to stay with the breaker for a go-ahead two-run single Tuesday night. Or maybe he just got a bender that stayed up in the zone after the other three were pure chase pitches.
But Montgomery's progression up to this point has already driven home that not only is player development not linear, but the night might be darkest before the dawn.
As Montgomery switched to a torpedo bat after the All-Star break, Fuller theorized that pushing the meat of the barrel closer to his hands would initiate a more compact swing path subconsciously, and hopefully drive out any urge to cast his hands out and get out and around the baseball. Fresh off ripping another bullet drive into the right field seats, Montgomery indicated that finding cues to keep him compact was the first item on the checklist when he started working with Fuller in Arizona.
"It was Day 1, first thing we kind of went to," Montgomery said. "We wanted to practice trying to keep the ball kind of low to the ground, line drives and things like that. Some of my cues in the cage, I’m trying to hit a low line drive to the shortstop, keeps me tighter to the ball. Not really a normal home run swing. I feel like a lot of the hitters can tell you if they tried doing home run swings, it’s probably not going to work."
That project further serves as a possible explanation for why Montgomery has taken to the new bat so quickly. After the initial early-season furor about torpedo bats, many players who tried it but chose to stand pat cited the difference in weight distribution feeling foreign and uncomfortable. For Montgomery, it provided what he was already looking for.
“Once I got it, I felt it was pretty natural," Montgomery said. "When I had to use a normal bat, I felt like there was too much weight at the end. It kind of made me out and around and pull-happy, I guess. When I have a Torpedo in my hand, I guess, I feel tight to the ball and can let the ball track a little bit more and I can whip it to the zone faster.
"It’s a trick on your brain. If you say that you are comfortable with some bat, you are going to be comfortable with it.”
https://soxmachine.com/2025/08/colson-m ... ded-swings
"I enjoy talking to all you guys," Montgomery said. "I like talking to a lot of people. I’m curious on what you guys think...sometimes."
But after the black box that was his early-season retreat to Arizona, repeated success has provided a better window into what the 23-year-old is thinking at the plate. In Pittsburgh, Montgomery revealed that experimenting through a host of different stances and setups with hitting director Ryan Fuller eventually laid bare a straightforward takeaway: that he sees and identifies spin best the more he stays tall in the batter's box.
Maybe striking out on a low-and-away knuckle curve in his first at-bat, and then receiving four in a row from Jack Flaherty in his third helped cue Montgomery to stay with the breaker for a go-ahead two-run single Tuesday night. Or maybe he just got a bender that stayed up in the zone after the other three were pure chase pitches.
But Montgomery's progression up to this point has already driven home that not only is player development not linear, but the night might be darkest before the dawn.
As Montgomery switched to a torpedo bat after the All-Star break, Fuller theorized that pushing the meat of the barrel closer to his hands would initiate a more compact swing path subconsciously, and hopefully drive out any urge to cast his hands out and get out and around the baseball. Fresh off ripping another bullet drive into the right field seats, Montgomery indicated that finding cues to keep him compact was the first item on the checklist when he started working with Fuller in Arizona.
"It was Day 1, first thing we kind of went to," Montgomery said. "We wanted to practice trying to keep the ball kind of low to the ground, line drives and things like that. Some of my cues in the cage, I’m trying to hit a low line drive to the shortstop, keeps me tighter to the ball. Not really a normal home run swing. I feel like a lot of the hitters can tell you if they tried doing home run swings, it’s probably not going to work."
That project further serves as a possible explanation for why Montgomery has taken to the new bat so quickly. After the initial early-season furor about torpedo bats, many players who tried it but chose to stand pat cited the difference in weight distribution feeling foreign and uncomfortable. For Montgomery, it provided what he was already looking for.
“Once I got it, I felt it was pretty natural," Montgomery said. "When I had to use a normal bat, I felt like there was too much weight at the end. It kind of made me out and around and pull-happy, I guess. When I have a Torpedo in my hand, I guess, I feel tight to the ball and can let the ball track a little bit more and I can whip it to the zone faster.
"It’s a trick on your brain. If you say that you are comfortable with some bat, you are going to be comfortable with it.”
https://soxmachine.com/2025/08/colson-m ... ded-swings
, barrel rate (13.9 percent, up from 6.3), hard-hit rate (44.4 percent, up from 38.5) and even average launch angle (20.4 degrees, up from 10) all speak to someone driving the ball in the air with authority more frequently.