re: Javi gets a bad wrap. Why do people hate him so much?

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Javi gets a bad wrap. Why do people hate him so much?#1. The most obvious thing that stands out to even the dumbest fans, sort of like J-Lee's pick 6's in 2008, is the atrocious baserunning over the last 3 years. Javi's first year was 2009, and the baserunning wasn't particularly good then either (remember J-Mitch's 4 or so unforced outs on the basepaths in the regional), but the team finally got serious and conservative for the CWS. Since 2010, however, LSU has been the absolute worst baserunning team I have ever seen at any competitive level. To have it happen one year could just be attributed to a one-in-a-million lightning strike from the heavens. To have it happen 3 years in a row means that something has obviously gone terribly awry with the baserunning. #2. Yeah, like somebody said, the hitting has underperformed too. Last year LSU won an SEC title despite being in the bottom half of the conference in run production, and in particular, there were a lot of hitters who were worse than they were in 2010 (Hanover, Fields, Nola, Jones, et al.). Plus, all the rookie hitters last season were lackluster. A program like LSU depends on fresh blood having spectacular seasons from time to time in order to bring home championships. #3. The hitters also look silly often. A lot of people hitting a lot of long fly outs instead of line drives because they're chasing HRs or something. A lot of grounding into double plays rather than trying to poke or slap something to move the runner over. A lot of taking good pitches early in the count and chasing bad pitches late in the count. That sort of thing. I mean, maybe the guy will turn out to be a decent coach at this level one day, but so far, (A) there is nothing on his resume to indicate that he has achieved anything worthy of his current position, (B) a lot of hitters under his watch have gotten worse during his time here, & (C) he has clearly visible responsibility for a glaring and catastrophically bad baserunning phenomenon during his tenure--a phenomenon so pervasively bad that I can't think of any historical example from all of baseball with which to compare it.

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this is one damn good and accurate post.

Bump

Blake Dean has saved this team!

I think the guys who questioned Javi were justified. Glazing over the thread, a lot of people used the Stony Brook series as an example. They were right. The approach was awful.

Now it's night and day as to how much better the approach is. Taking advantage of hitter's counts, hitting behind runners, sitting on fastball early in counts, etc. Javi deserves some credit now just like he deserved blame then. Fair is fair

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MOT

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Outside of Jones the approach last year was pretty solid also. We just had a bunch of guys that would still hit routine fly balls and grounders after getting themselves into a hitters count.

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2012: 2209 AB's, 379 K's = 17%
2013: 1106 AB's, 146 K's = 13.2%

Striking out almost 25% less than last year.

2012: 2209 AB's, 242 BB's = 10.9%
2013: 1106 AB's, 154 BB's = 13.9%

Drawing walks 27.5% more than last year.

This can be attributed to an influx of talent like Laird, Bregman, and Ibarra. Not so much coaching in other words. We just got better.

This is an argument that MOT has made to me and its very logical. But re: the original subject of this thread...

Why has Blake Dean been so instrumental with Jacoby Jones in such a short amount of time? Sanchez has had him for three years and had zero impact on him. Unless you want to-legitimately-argue he's been a constant presence as a hitting coach while that aspect of Jones' game regressed. In other words, he couldn't help him get better and couldn't keep him from getting worse.

Yet Dean walks in and this guy is working with far more plate discipline than at any time in his career here. Something Ronnie Rantz said is attributable completely to Dean, who Jones was "given to" as a project.

The most talented player on your team-and he's more physically talented than anyone on the roster-gets an oy vey from the guy in charge of hitting? If Sanchez can't make Jones better, my personal opinion is we better keep recruiting our asses off.

We need to out-recruit our serious inability to impact our talent from a hitting standpoint, instructionally speaking.

Cliffs: Javy Sanchez can't help our most talented player get better as a hitter via coaching. He needs to recruit like Frank Wilson on steroids.

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So, what happened from last season to this one?

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Ibarra > Hanover; Bregman >>> Nola (offensively); Katz '13 > Katz '12; Laird > platoon centerfielders

The only person you can give Javi much credit for is Katz. That's not to say Javi hasn't done a better job this year, but the improvement is based on new guys who seemingly just have better natural talent than the players they replaced. If anything, credit Javi and PM for their recruiting improvement.

I don't know what this means:

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3.) Dean has been working on hitting closely w/Dean

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I guess...true??

ETA:

As for the rest....I'll play along, say true, and ask a T/F question myself.

When Rantz and Rollins mentioned Jones being "handed over" to Dean they also said Jones is an "excitable player" and said Dean was instructed to "befriend" him.

Given that fact, could it be a reasonable assumption that Dean's biggest impact was/is to settle him down emotionally and may not have been exclusively from a technical perspective?

Did they also begin the discussion by saying when Jones returned in the Fall Sanchez laid out everything he would have to do in order to improve?

His Q is weak! Stud's is better.

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I just can't believe that it's a coincidence that Dean shows up and all of a sudden LSU is hitting like they did when he was playing. There has got to be some positive factor that he is bringing to these young men

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Put me in the talent camp. Wasn't Dean coached by Sanchez as well?