The front office that insisted that hitting coach Wally Joyner was a problem last summer and replaced him with Jim Lefebvre has discovered maybe Joyner wasn't a problem. Some hitters -- not all -- have tuned out Lefebvre. Some never tuned in, because they associated him with Alderson and Fuson.
4 months ago
wrveres
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Ummm....
that’s really just a mess of words trying to explain in a variety of ways one simple truth: the team is not very good.
There’s really only 3 explanations for that:
1) Most of the players (Kouz, Luis Rodriguez, catchers, etc.) are not very good. They never have been, never will be
2) The talented youngsters (Blanks, Headley, Cabrera) are struggling because they are young and that’s what 90% of young players do when they get promoted to the bigs. There is a learning curve. Padres hitting prospects in particular will be dogged by this more than others because they have to play half their games in PETCO park, which is the hardest park to hit in the entire world.
3) Peavy and CY have been injured most of the year.
The farm system Alderson “built” is still to be determined.. The promising guys his regime has landed: Headley, Latos, Decker, Forsythe, McBryde, Galvez, Darnell, Tekkotte, Kulbacki
by NeifiChicken on Jul 23, 2009 10:05 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
"Most of the players are not very good"
if they weren’t good, they never would have made it to this level.
and what does tuning out the hitting coach have to do with Peavy and Young, or any prospect in the minors … you lost me there.
552
by wrveres on Jul 23, 2009 10:28 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
obviously I'm speaking relatively
compared to you or me, Edgar Gonzalez is a ridiculously good baseball player, but compared with the rest of professional baseball, he is a poor one.
As for the Joyner problem, he quit. He didn’t agree with the organizational philosophy of selective hitting, so he left. he felt he was being left out of the loop.
Either way, let’s not pretend hitting coaches at the ML level are that important anyway. They have some sway with young hitters, yes, but most young hitters already have their approach ingrained in them by the time they turn pro, or are at least developed through their various coaches in the minors.
TEX hitting coach is the most vaunted in the league, but really, Texas has always had good hitters and happen to play in a top 5 offensive park in the bigs. Andruw Jones “turned around” because he simply was not as bad as 2008 season would indicate. He has an entire career backing that up. That same coach worked with Francoeur last year and he’s just as bad as he’s ever been.
by NeifiChicken on Jul 23, 2009 11:18 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
interesting that Francouer
has a history of tuning out hitting coaches.
and a hitting coaches job is not to teach you how to hit. Its to keep you consistent, point out minor mistakes you are making .. if they were so useless, every team in every league, at any level, wouldn’t have one.
552
by wrveres on Jul 23, 2009 11:36 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
well, Francoeur went out of his way to speak to TEX hitting coach, even though he does not play for the team.
I don’t know why would you go to all that trouble if your plan was just to tune them out.
Hitting coaches do have a role, I was embellishing when I said they were worthless, but it’s just not that important in the grand scheme of things. You do need someone to work with hitters and keep them on their game, but it’s ultimately on the hitter himself. The best hitting coach in the world can’t turn a poor hitter into a good one, their job is simply to keep the good one’s good.
I don’t think our record would be any different with Joyner as hitting coach, but I do think Joyner was probably giving some of the younger hitters inconsistent advice (compared to what they ahd been told their entire time in the minors)
by NeifiChicken on Jul 23, 2009 11:46 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
as for the other stuff
I was addressing the article as a whole, not just the part you highlighted. Krasovic is doing what all sprots writers do, come up with incorrect rationalizations to explain baseball.
Dave Cameron wrote a great bit abotu this today on USSMariner, http://ussmariner.com/2009/07/21/explaining-away-regression-to-the-mean/
by NeifiChicken on Jul 23, 2009 11:20 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
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