Rays fire hitting coach, stat crowd will love why!

[DuWayne Steurer]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4534620

 

The excerpts from the article that just make me chuckle......

 

The Tampa Bay Rayshave fired hitting coach Steve Henderson following a season in which the Rays set team records for runs, home runs, on-base percentage and walks.........

 

followed shortly thereafter by......

 

Although the Rays improved statistically in a number of offensive categories, situational hitting woes have been a concern for both Friedman and manager Joe Maddon.

 

Yes, fire your hitting coach for 'situational hitting woes'. That makes a lot of sense. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[trwi7]

They were tied for 3rd in the AL in OBP with RISP and tied for 6th in SLG%.

[hawing]

I look forward to someday reading a SITUTATIONL HITTING WOAH SOLVDD thread on Raysfan.net (or its equivalent).

[DuWayne Steurer]

They were tied for 3rd in the AL in OBP with RISP and tied for 6th in SLG%.

Yeah, pretty pathetic, really. I don't expect every manager and GM to swear by the bible of sabre, but I do expect that they should at least be aware of statistics before they say stupid stuff that can be proven to be patently false within 45 seconds of internet browsing.

[brains and braun]

I heard they made him mascot...what was their mascot's name again...oh yeah, scapegoat.

[mothershipconnection]

This smells strongly of a "personality conflict" they don't want to air out so they tried to at least explain it away to the dumbest of their fanbase.

[DuWayne Steurer]

This smells strongly of a "personality conflict" they don't want to air out so they tried to at least explain it away to the dumbest of their fanbase.

He's been with the organization for 12 years. You'd think a personality conflict would have flared up before now. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your point, I'm just sayin'.........

[clancyphile]

Hire him!

[ILuvDaBush]

Didn't you hear? He's terrible at teaching situational hitting.

[Baldkin]

Yes, clearly the Rays problem this year was a lack of groundballs to 2b with a guy on 2nd and no one out.

 

Just like the Brewers!

[topper09er]

It is up to manager if the team will try to move runners and play baseball correctly or just try to hit dingers every at bat. It is the hitting coach's job to teach the players to hit dingers every at bat and just give them reps at moving runners, everyone in the majors should be good enough to ground out to 2B if they want to. I do think situational hitting is more important than the previous posters who seem to be laughing at the idea you should ever try to do anything in baseball other than hit a HR or walk, but the hitting coach cannot be blamed for lack of moving runners. Every time the team strikes out with a runner on 2nd 0 outs the manager has to be happy with that because that is his mentality, not the hitting coach. Teams have a sign for hitting behind the runner, it just hasnt been used since 1987.

 

He is obviously the scapegoat for going from WS to no playoffs.

[mletto157]

topper, I think you're giving a little too much credit to MLB hitters and not enough to MLB pitchers. Maybe, on a fastball, right down the middle, that they are completely ready for a MLB hitter should be able to hit it at least close to where they want to - but how often can a hitter be certain the pitcher is going to throw a fastball right down the middle? I'd say never. MLB pitchers are mostly good enough to throw the ball where they want and throw many different pitches at different speeds and different breaks. No way can I believe that on any occasion a MLB hitter should be able to ground out to 2B in every at bat if they wanted to.

[topper09er]

Jason Kendall can do it whenever he wants to, so I would say that anyone else can. If you cant then just bunt.

[mletto157]

So Jason Kendall just happens to want to ground out to 2B on almost every at-bat then. I get it. Though I'd rather he wanted to get a hit on every at-bat instead...

[DuWayne Steurer]

Jason Kendall can do it whenever he wants to, so I would say that anyone else can. If you cant then just bunt.

Using a guy who was one of the worst offensive performers in the leauge isn't exactly a glowing endorsement for the ability to make productive outs.

[TooLiveBrew]

Productive outs really just mean your teammates were productive in getting on base. I don't think any weight should be placed on any kind of 'ability' to make outs with men on base.