Sources: #Padres to name Phil Plantier hitting coach. Was hitting coach, then mgr with team's Class...

Sources: #Padres to name Phil Plantier hitting coach. Was hitting coach, then mgr with team's Class A Lake Elsinore affiliate in 2011. #MLB

Ken Rosenthal via Twitter

7 months ago jodes0405 7 comments 0 recs |

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If Phil has to push that "work the count" bull, he's doomed.

Only experienced players who know their hitting zone can pull that off.
Young players need to swing the bat at ALL hittable pitches and learn
their zone.

Dick Williams told his young hitters in ’82, ’83 to be aggressive and make
solid contact. By the ’84 season, pitchers noticed that Padres hitters were
the most aggressive at swinging at first pitches, what Wally Joyner was
preaching when Alderson was pushing the work the count philosophy.

If Phil is allowed to preach an aggressive, make solid contact philosophy,
the team’s hitting will improve.

by wegotballsley on Oct 30, 2011 8:50 PM PDT reply actions

I would hope that they hired a hitting coach

who is in line with organizational philosophy. Since Joyner disagreed with organizational philosophy he never should of been offered the job, nor should he of taken it.

by field39 on Oct 30, 2011 9:05 PM PDT up reply actions

You sound like a company man.

The hitting coach’s job is to help the players get hits. If the company philosophy
only works with experienced veterans, the company should supply the coach with
experienced veterans who can execute the philosophy. If all they supply is
inexperienced kids, you have to teach them pitch recognition and knowing their
hitting zone first. That the Padres call up kids who haven’t yet learned those
fundamentals tells you something about minor league hitting instruction, and turns
club philosophy into a joke.

by wegotballsley on Oct 31, 2011 2:17 PM PDT up reply actions

If the organizational philosophy is wrong, then you change it.

Regardless of which direction you go, it is pointless to hire people who do not buy into your methods. Joyner was 180 opposed to what Alderson wanted, yet he was hired anyway. The result was a mixed message and an ugly exit.

It is great to have 1001 discussions about what your organization is going to be, but once direction has been established it is time to either fully support that direction, or go someplace where you can.

by field39 on Oct 31, 2011 2:44 PM PDT up reply actions

+1 to this

coaches are like officers. they implement the gameplan of the manager and front office.

by iheartyourfart on Nov 1, 2011 10:26 AM PDT up reply actions

Actually, Joyner was supportive of the philosophy coming in.

It works when you have experienced people to implement it, but Wally quickly realized it wouldn’t work with the personnel the Padres had, told Alderson the philosophy wouldn’t work and informed him it should be implemented from the bottom of the farm system up, not top down.

Joyner knew Padres hitters wouldn’t succeed unless he taught them pitch recognition and to recognize their own hitting zone, so he taught aggressiveness in going after pitches early in the count, since they weren’t equipped to deal with savvy pitchers later in the count.

The ugly exit was all Alderson’s fault, since he was an Ivy League graduate and much smarter (he thought) than anyone who had actually played the game. Remember all the Alderson interviews recounted in GLB? Dex and jbox often noted Alderson’s frequent weariness with being being questioned by lesser mortals.

That was the main problem with the Alderson era. Look at the team’s hitting stats when Alderson came and and when he left. It’s a downhill slide as veterans were replaced with younger inexperienced players who couldn’t execute Alderson’s philosophy of hitting. When the captain is steering the ship for the rocks, the officers have to speak up, and Joyner did just that.

by wegotballsley on Nov 1, 2011 10:29 AM PDT up reply actions

well yes and no

that philosophy has definitely benefited guys like headley, and denorfia. the coaches have also gotten maybin and hundley to be more aggressive at the plate and they have really improved a lot.

by iheartyourfart on Nov 1, 2011 10:30 AM PDT up reply actions