Ichiro sets up in the middle of the plate and by the time he makes contact his front foot touches the box and contact point is way out in front.
ok.... if you hit a ball at the back point of the plate you have 90 degrees of fair territory. If you hit and outside pitch at that point you have less than 90 degrees of fair territory.
if you hit a ball 2' in front of the plate a grounder has 94.1 degrees of fair territory, a fly ball on a 200' fence has 91.2 degrees the further up you make contact, the bigger the playing field is.
12 years ago we didn't slap, and there was a thing called the compact swing (that looked pretty goofy but was all the rage) progress happend and things changed.
we don't work with athletes the caliber of Buestos or Bonds - we work with Ali's and Erin's and Heidi's and Jendy's and Kayla's (all got D1 scholarship offers from my team last year) We need to put our players in a position to be their best. If they can hit from deep in the box then by all means swing away - if they can't, We move them up and we have had team batting AVE's of 380-400 over the last two years. Not sure how you measure success but an NSA world series championship, TWO Compuware Championships, 4-2 at ASA Nationals (33rd) and 38 loses to 100+ wins over the last two years should be a reasonable measure.
I'm not saying I'm smarter than any of the experts. But just like a good hitter - you need to do what is comfortable for you. What we have been teaching has worked very well for the athletes that we have been coaching. (and we have been progressing in what we teach every year).