Huff's Key To Success: Kick Back, Chill Out

As the Orioles head into the offseason with twice as many questions as they have answers, one problem they do not have for 2009 is cleanup hitter Aubrey Huff.

Huff was named winner of the Louis M. Hatter award as the Most Valuable Oriole on the final weekend of the season. It was well deserved as Huff finished the season hitting .304 with 32 home runs, 48 doubles and 108 RBIs. 

Not bad for a guy who was booed on Opening Day for some controversial comments he made about the city of Baltimore during the offseason. “Maybe it motivated him,” said Orioles manager Dave Trembley. “Maybe it was his way of trying to do things a little better. Maybe it was his way of trying to undo some of the things he wishes he could take back. That’s the way I look at it. He certainly didn’t let anything bother him.”

That’s because Huff set goals for himself before the start of the year, and those goals were no different this year from what they have been in the past.

“I go into spring training every year wanting to hit .300 and hit 30 homers and drive in 100, that’s usually a goal I shoot for,” Huff said. “You know, I was fortunate enough to get those numbers this year, and it makes it a little sweeter when you consider what I went through in the offseason with the fans and everything. Hopefully all is forgotten, and we can go into next year and try to do it all over again.”

Part of Huff’s success came in the early part of the season. A notoriously slow starter, he wasn’t hitting for average in April and May, but he was being productive in the middle of the lineup.

“The average wasn’t there early on, but the satisfaction was that late in the game I was getting big hits,” the 31-year-old veteran said. “I was driving in some runs and winning games. I don’t think I was over .240 or .250 before the first two months of the season, but there were good power numbers and RBIs, so that was definitely a confidence builder going into the rest of the year.”

Now Trembley doesn’t have to go into next season wondering who is going to provide power in the middle of the order.

“He has put up incredible offensive numbers,” Trembley said. “Total bases, I mean every category, runs scored. He has been a legitimate No. 4 hitter. That’s what he’s been.”

For the first time in years, Huff said he did very little in terms of heavy workouts in the offseason.

“Whether I started earlier than December, later than December, lifting harder, running harder, nothing ever worked,” he said. “Then this year I did absolutely nothing except for maybe stretching and cardio. I didn’t pick up a ball or a bat until spring training, and I guarantee that’s what I will do again.”

Huff credits his season to the success of guys at the top of the order, leadoff man Brian Roberts and right fielder Nick Markakis.

“If it wasn’t for those two getting on for me all year, I’m not driving in 100 runs,” Huff said. “I mean, these guys are the on-base guys. Nick has a .400 on-base percentage, they both play spectacular defense, [are] great hitters, and they are definitely the key to this team.”

“He was tremendous,” Roberts said. “That’s the kind of player and hitter we saw in Tampa for so long. … I think that the way he swung the bat this year was for a long time just fun to sit and watch. There was probably a handful of us in there watching his video and trying to figure out how we could hit like him.

"It’s fun to watch guys have years like that, and I think he’s capable of repeating it. It’s not like this is the first time he’s had that kind of year. If you look back on his numbers, he’s had years like this before, so we’ll expect nothing short of that next year.”

In fact, Roberts may just try the Aubrey Huff offseason conditioning program.

“Sit and eat donuts," Roberts said. "That’s what he did. I might try the donut plan this winter.”

(pressboxonline.com)