Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Salem Avalanche first baseman Mark Ori leads the Carolina League in RBIs and is fourth overall in batting average.

Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Although Salem Avalanche first baseman Mark Ori has just six home runs, he does rank fourth in the Carolina League in doubles with 24.

Mark Ori is a changed man.

For the Salem Avalanche first baseman, that means that he has stopped changing.

"Hitting is consistency," said Avalanche hitting coach Keith Bodie. "I think he's the best hitter in the league.

"He hits left-handers. He hits right-handers. He hits off-speed pitches. He hits fastballs from the best fastball pitchers in the league. He hits breaking balls."

Bodie didn't know Ori last year when the left-handed hitter kept a pitch-by-pitch log of his every at bat. He tinkered with his stance and his swing. He had been an all-fields type of hitter in college, but had turned so "pull happy" in the pros that opposing teams shaded their defenses to the right against the left-handed bat. He spent his offseason working on hitting to the opposite field.

Ori admitted he could sometimes make himself "crazy" with changes.

But not anymore.

"Sometimes it's beneficial for me not to know what they were like before," Bodie said.

Bodie said he looks first at what a hitter does best, then looks at his "challenges."

Ori said Bodie changed his batting stance, closing it up a bit, and helped him work on his rhythm and timing at the plate.

"The biggest thing is trying to get a little more movement," Ori said.

When he steps into the batters box, Ori uses his bat to draw two lines in the dirt measuring off the spot where his feet should be for maximum plate coverage.

It is now part of Ori's routine.

"It begins in the [batting] cage, then he has a routine in batting practice, and then it carries into the game," Bodie said.

Routine, Bodie said, breeds consistency. Consistency, Bodie said, that Ori can carry with him as far as he goes.

"It worked at first," Ori said. "Then I went through a period where I struggled.

"But I stuck with it."

Having gone so far toward "pull happy" the last two seasons, Ori wanted very much to hit to the opposite field, opening the door for opposing pitchers to beat him with inside pitches.

He, Bodie and Houston Astros roving instructor Orv Franchuk worked on handling inside pitches.

That, in turn, has helped him take advantage of the hole in the infield created when there was a runner at first base, something he wasn't doing at the start of the season.

"He's doing that well now, he's able to handle the strike zone with two strikes, he's able to foul off borderline strikes with two strikes," Bodie said. "He's understanding his role."

Ori's role, and that of any first baseman, is offensive production.

Ori ranks fourth in the Carolina League with a .313 batting average and has driven in a league-best 62 runs.

"That's a first for me," Ori said. "That's about guys getting on base because I don't have a lot of home runs."

The RBIs are not just about other guys getting on base. Only teammate Jimmy Van Ostrand hits better with runners on base or in scoring position.

But it's true that Ori doesn't hit a lot of home runs. His six so far this season are 11 shy of the league's lead.

"It's never been my swing," Ori said. "I've always been a doubles hitter, gap to gap."

Ori said that he has never felt pressure from inside the Houston Astros organization to hit more home runs.

"That's what fans always ask, that's what they love," Ori said.

Bodie said that he doesn't measure power by home runs so much as by balls hit hard.

In baseball lore, power is said to be the last thing a player develops. But Ori is 6-foot-4 and a muscular 225 pounds.

He is 24 years old and better than halfway through his second season with the Avalanche.

"One thing I've learned in baseball is that players develop at their own time," Bodie said.

Ori, though, is ready to move on as far as Bodie is concerned.

"He knows himself well. He can make adjustments very well," Bodie said. "He has mastered this level. He needs to be challenged."