Powerful by nature
He’s the Northwest League’s home run king. And unlike a certain other burly home run titleholder, no one has any doubt that the Indians’ Ian Gac is 100 percent au natural. But the 350-foot moonballs that he regularly sends over Avista Stadium’s left field wall seem to indicate that he has Barry Bonds-like potential.
“I go up there looking for hits that I can really drive. Usually a fastball down the middle so I can get my arms extended,” said Gac, who leads the league with 12 home runs this season. “I don’t really know how I do it. I’ve always been able to hit the ball pretty far.”
And Gac doesn’t hit the skin-of-your-teeth kind of home run that drifts toward the wall and then tips over. The Ian Gac variety of home run usually streaks up and into the sky like a shooting star and clears the wall by a good 50 feet.
“I do a lot of weight training in the off-season to help build power,” said the 245-pound, 6-foot-3 Seattle native. . “But I’ve also been working hard on trying to shorten my swing because I like to hit the ball hard, and sometimes I get too big with my swing.”
And therein lies Gac’s problem: his plucky all-or-nothing batting style makes for a high number of strikeouts along with the plethora of home runs.
Gac leads the team with 53 strikeouts in his 178 at-bats this season.
“One thing I’ve really talked to Ian about is becoming a better hitter, not just a home run guy,” Indians manager Tim Hulett said. “He goes through spells. And in past history, he’s struck out a lot, but his strikeouts are actually down this year from past years.”
Gac says he’s trying to be a little pickier with what he chooses to hit these days.
“Sometimes when I’m seeing the ball real well, I’ll think I can hit pretty much anything, so I’ll just swing at the ball regardless of where it’s at,” Gac said. “But I’ve been a little more selective with the pitches I swing at this season.
“I still struggle with it sometimes and it’s something I’m constantly working on, but I’m laying off some of the bad pitches that they throw me out of the zone and waiting for a good pitch to hit.”
Gac was drafted out of high school by the Texas Rangers in the 26th round of the 2003 draft. He spent two seasons in the Arizona Rookie League, then bypassed Spokane and jumped straight into low-A ball with the Clinton Lumberkings in Iowa. But he struggled mightily last season, and this year he was moved back down to Spokane.
“I just struggled a lot last year,” Gac said. “I got into my own head, had a couple of bad games, was striking out a lot, and it just started to snowball.”
This year, Gac has started all but one game for the Indians and is second on the team with 31 RBIs. His veteran status has also helped to steady the young Indians’ team.
“Ian’s our most experienced player. He’s been playing pro ball for three years, and he’s got a sense of maturity because he’s played in so many games as a professional,” Hulett said, “He deserves the opportunity to play every day. And we also need his potential batting power in the lineup because we don’t have many guys like that.”
Having Gac in the lineup at either first base or designated hitter ensures the Indians of a consistent source of homers. But Hulett believes his home run king has the potential to become a more complete player.
“You wouldn’t call him a slick fielding first baseman, but he’s doing a lot of good things there,” Hulett said. “He’s definitely not one of those big power-hitting first basemen who can’t play defense. He’s got the potential to be an all-around player. We’d like him to do a little more situational hitting: if there’s a man on base, find a way to move him.”