TUCSON, Ariz. - A .281 batting average with 80 RBIs would be a good season for most major leaguers. Not Chad Tracy.
His 129 strikeouts last season - 51 more than in 2004 - has led him to alter his batting approach. He says he will let up on the big home run swing and go back to spraying the ball all over the outfield.
"I went the home run route for a couple of years," Tracy said after the Diamondbacks' workout on Sunday. "If that's all I try to do, I can do it, but I'm not as good a player when I do that. I'm a better player when I use the whole field, slap the ball around and not strike out so much, especially with runners in scoring position."
Tracy is just 26 years old, but he's entering his fourth season in Arizona. Now firmly back at third base after a sojourn to first, he is counted on to be an important part of an offense that plans to score through aggressive base running and timely hitting.
His love affair with the home run began two seasons ago, when he hit 27 after just eight in as a rookie in 2004.
"I was hitting that year in the two hole and it was either you face me or Troy Glaus, Luis Gonzalez and Shawn Green behind me," Tracy said. "They didn't want to walk me, so I was getting the majority of the fastballs. They left some pitches out there for me to hit."
Gradually, he found himself trying to pull to find the seats.
"The farther incrementally you get away from the game that got you there, then you come in to some problems," manager Bob Melvin said.
Pitchers were ready for him last season.
When the count reached three-and-one or three-and-two, "I saw change-up, slider, breaking ball. I saw the kitchen sink," Tracy said. "It's a little tougher when they start knowing where you are and not letting you beat them."
As the season wore on, things got worse as he tried to adjust to his old style. He hit .235 the last month of the season.
"I think I got so far away from what I used to do that I didn't know how to get back to it," Tracy said.
The six weeks of spring training, including a month of games, are a perfect opportunity for him to get his old stroke back.
"Now it's starting out spraying the ball around and using the whole field, and I think the home runs will come in that without trying to hit them," Tracy said. "I'm going to have hopefully 75 to 100 at bats to work on everything I'm working on.
The Diamondbacks didn't have to persuade Tracy to change his swing.
"It's not like this is a fight for us to get him to go back to do something," Melvin said. "He's been in agreement from day one, and that's three-quarters of the battle."
Changing styles, Melvin said, involves "tracking the ball a little bit longer, getting a better look at it, then the strikeouts will cut down."
The manager has long maintained that Tracy has the skills to challenge for a league batting title.
Tracy hit .344 at Double-A El Paso in 2002 and .324 with a league-leading 169 hits at Triple-A Tucson in 2004.
Brought up in 2005, he hit .285 as a rookie and .308 in 2005. The most homers he hit in the minors was 10 in Tucson.
"The more I keep doing it," Tracy said, "it will come back to me."
