Comments on: In This Town, the Hitting Coach Wears a Red Shirt

By: LynchMob

LynchMob — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:27:25 +0000

Good post by DePo yesterday …

http://itmightbedangerous.blog.....tency.html

… DePo comments on Joyner’s resignation.

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By: Tom Waits

Tom Waits — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:08:32 +0000

#14@Dex: The “not changing your approach” part sounds more like the Padre front office strategy, though, and less like the Wally Joyner (or even Tony Gwynn) approach. I could be dead wrong, but the Padre offensive philosophy seems to be “take a healthy rip at a pitch you’re looking for.” Joyner strikes me as much more of a “hit to the situation” type. Advance the runner if the pitch can be pushed to the right side. Take a rip if the count is favorable. Put the ball in play and hope for the best if you’re down in the count. But that’s mostly from reading perhaps too deeply into his career line; his season high in strikeouts was only 71.

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By: Dex

Dex — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:25:14 +0000

#12@Tom Waits: You’re totally right, Tom. I think the situation I was thinking of specifically was not changing your approach when behind in the count. In other words, if the approach is good at the start of an AB then it shouldn’t drastically change just because two strikes have been tallied.

But yeah. Don’t swing at 3-0.

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By: Lance Richardson

Lance Richardson — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:41:14 +0000

#6@Schlom: While it will certainly increase, the Yankees' revenue will not come close to doubling. Adiitionally, their expenses have increases dramatically. Or do you suppose there's no debt-service on a shiny new ballpark?

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By: Tom Waits

Tom Waits — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:21:18 +0000

#11@Dex: I’d be absolutely shocked if any hitter, no matter how great, expresses a belief in always approaching each pitch the same way. If you’re down by three late in the game, anyone who swings 3-0 is a moron.

The Padres publicly expressed hitting philosophy, which may be different than what they preach in private, is not “take pitches.” It’s “wait for your pitch.” You may not need to wait for pitch 2 if pitch 1 is there, but the team (publicly) wants you to be locked in on a pitch you can damage.

I’d wager that Joyner is more of a situational hitting guy who would be happy to see Chase Headley roll a ground ball to second that moves a runner to third, whereas most in the front office would see that as about the sixth most desired outcome. At the major league level, a hitting coach might best serve the team by focusing on mechanical issues and leaving the philosophy to the development staff.

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By: Dex

Dex — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:18:44 +0000

#7@JMAR: From what I've been told by various people in baseball (nobody in the Padres), some organizations will penalize players for breaking organizational philosophy. This could include things like swinging at a 3-0 count. Not taking a pitch to start an inning. Even striking out looking might hit you for a hundred bucks. So, yeah. If the organization's rule is that you DO NOT swing at 3-0, and the batting coach is saying that you have to approach each pitch the same way regardless of count (something a lot of great hitters preach), then there might be problems.

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By: Geoff Young

Geoff Young — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:18:59 +0000

#9@Jim T: Shortstop and catcher have been brutal this year, but center field is our best offensive position relative to league. Hard to believe, I know.

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By: Jim T

Jim T — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:46:30 +0000

You know, the hitting wasn’t that bad this year. Or rather, once the Padres figured out their lineup, they hit fairly well. Not great, but they were in the 260-280 range. The glaring parts are up the middle - centerfield, shortstop and catcher.

In other words, I don’t really blame Joyner for this season. Everything just fell apart at the beginning of the season and the Padres were never able to come back from that. Joyner had nothing to do with Edmonds being washed up, or with the bullpen, or with Khalil.

Does anyone know the what the actual differences are between Joyner and the Padres organization?

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By: malcolm

malcolm — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:32:28 +0000

I find the “other #’s” comparing Joyner to Magadan rather interesting: Mag pre 7/31/7 PA 4028 R 444 R% 11.02 H 870 BA 243 bb/pa 8.64% Slg 389. Joynr post 7/31/7 PA 2298 R 297 R% 12.92 H 538 BA 265 bb/pa 9.09 Slg 449. Basically, other than getting walks Mag’s team #’s were not close to Wallys last year. In fact if they would have kept Mag at that rate SD would have produced 44 less runs in the final 57 games. Yeah, I know Bradley etc. but I think this is still the most factual comparison I’ve seen. Of course I’ll bet p/pa went down post July 31.

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By: JMAR

JMAR — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:10:07 +0000

“My experience in playing baseball at the major league level is that you cannot afford to not be ready for any pitch that you see. It might be the best pitch you see that night. I know how valuable that preparation was for me in my career. I wanted our hitters to be ready from pitch No. 1, and I think that was the difference.”

What the heck does Wally mean by this? Is the front office telling the players to take certain pitches even if it’s a fastball right down the heart of the plate? I don’t see that happening at all. Can someone translate for me?

Earlier this season, I saw nothing but a bunch of hackers, with the exception of Giles. I think they had 5 or 6 regulars on pace for 100+ K’s. However, Gerut was very impressive the second half of the season and Venable has been impressive the last few weeks. AGON is a legit middle of the order bat. Between those four, that’s a pretty good core of hitters going into 2009. It sure as hell beats what they started this season with.

But it’s the protection right behind AGON that still concerns me. I think Headley could be that guy but let’s just hope he’s just getting all of these strikeouts out of his system his rookie season. At this rate, he’ll strikeout 150+ times easy as a full-time player in ‘09.

As much as I’m hoping they can somehow bring Milton Bradley back, I’m not as discouraged as I usually am with the offense going into the offseason. That might be because the pitching has so many holes and that will be my focus but I really do like the possibility of a top of the lineup with Venable-Giles-Gerut-AGON in ‘09.

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