re: Mainieri says hitting coach is overrated

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Anyone ever consider that he fielded a question and was sticking up for his assistant coach?

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so you throw your players under the bus to protect a paid professional?

Maybe he elaborated more after that and it won't come off as douchey, I'd hope so for his sake at least

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The Mick

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Anyone ever consider that he fielded a question and was sticking up for his assistant coach? Sometimes words get twisted.

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So first it's Grewe's fault that we have deficient talent-which is what the company line is heading out of our embarrassing loss to SB-but Paul admitting he took two years off and put the program on autopilot is evidently not his fault.

Our continued deterioration at the plate against quality and even sub-par opponents in the postseason is also not his fault. It's also not his hitting coach's fault either, as kids can either hit or they can't hit. Besides the hitting coach position is overrated.

In other words, as MOT will tell everyone here, the recruiting coordinator position has been done away with. Now, we hear our head coach saying the hitting coach position is overrated.

We don't need a recruiting coordinator. We also don't need a hitting coach. Yet we were told it was up to the coaches to figure out how we can take the next step.

Now it also might be that the quote was taken out of context or "twisted" somehow. Even though its a completely congruent angle in Mainieri's Geometry on this.

If you only need a head coach and a pitching coach, how the bloody hell can you expect anymore out of Alan Dunn?

Mainieiri is only good for shielding Sanchez and blaming players while indicting himself. He's pretzeling and parsing his comments publicly to the point where he is going to feel a ton of pressure over the next few weeks.

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Anyone ever consider that he fielded a question and was sticking up for his assistant coach? Sometimes words get twisted

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I believe this was brought up in the last 6 pages. What was the entire line from his quote. If that was all, then that sounds really bad.

This is such bullshite. THere is a reason EVERY MLB team shells out money for a hitting coach AT EVERY level of the organization.

It's true there are some kids who can just rake regardless. Good coaching is needed to correct a swing or see something in a swing that is causing a hole/slump. Also, good hitting coaches can take a kid with Jacoby Jones' talent and make him a star hitter.

Stoney brook agrees with Paul too.

They don't even have a hitting coach.

The players video themselves and critique their swings themselves.

If you get a kid who can hit exceptionally well out of HS, leave him alone until he hits a slump, then you try to help him fix his swing (if it needs fixing) or just mentally get out of it. Sometimes it is a physical thing in your swing and not just in your head. Bad habits do develop and that's what the coach is for.

Some hitters have great raw power and bat speed, but they have a mechanical flaw that leaves a hole that pitchers expose in their swing. Hitting coaches can turn those guys from a Jordan Mayer type hitter into a Nick Stavinoha type hitter.

Some hitters are just not selective enough at the plate. Approach can be taught (see SB), but some players are still too bullheaded to listen. However, the few that do learn an approach and perfect it help the whole team out even if they're a mediocre talent. (i.e. Sal Intagliata, Goldstein)

It's our overall approach that has me worried. It seems that every series this year (with the exception of Friday night vs Baxendale) the whole offensive gameplay was built around taking pitches and trying to get the starting pitchers pitch count up so we can get into the other teams bullpen. That's great if it works, but our guys don't seem to understand how to hit. For the most part, it seems like its take first, then "see ball, hit ball".

Look at the at bats Jankowski had Friday and saturday. When Cotton came in the game we pounded him inside early and often. He recognized it, and was able to turn on a ball and drove it down the right field line. Fast forward to his AB's against Gausman. Again, Gausman pounded him in, except now, Jankowski quits trying to pull it (because he knows he can't vs Gausman) and start inside-outing every pitch foul until he gets something he can handle. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples, this one just stands out in my mind

This is something he was taught. Yes, good hitters are going to hit, but to be taught pitchers tendencies and to have a deeper gameplan than "hit line drives up the middle because the pitcher is their worst fielder" is something that a hitting coach has to be able to teach for a team to achieve success at the highest level in college baseball. Just my opinion

Oh and if our coaches really thought that we were going to wear their pitchers down, they obviously didn't pay attention to SB's pitch counts in their regional

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Mainieri says hitting coach is overrated

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I agree. Our hitting coach is overrated.

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Players can't hit isn't the reason for hitting coach

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That sentence doesn't make any sense, but if you were trying to say that the hitting coach isn't the reason the players can't hit, then why do we have such talentless players that even a well-paid hitting coach can't teach them to hit?

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Teams know this and throw it right down the middle.

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For the sake of argument, just consider this.

If every hitter takes a first pitch strike, and the opposing pitcher throws a no-no, that makes him throw an extra 27 pitches per 9 innings. In reality, using the take til first pitch strike probably adds an average of 6 pitches per inning to a pitchers total. You get to the 6th (typically min of what you want out of a starter) that's a 36 pitch difference. For a pitcher, there's a big difference between 70 pitches, and 106 pitches.

Its not a bad philosophy to have if your hitters are coached to be patient. A 15 pitch at bat that ends up with the hitter striking out is not necessarily a bad thing, especially against a team that doesn't have quality bullpen depth. This is the part where that whole hitting coach thing becomes a little important.

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Look at the at bats Jankowski had Friday and saturday. When Cotton came in the game we pounded him inside early and often. He recognized it, and was able to turn on a ball and drove it down the right field line. Fast forward to his AB's against Gausman. Again, Gausman pounded him in, except now, Jankowski quits trying to pull it (because he knows he can't vs Gausman) and start inside-outing every pitch foul until he gets something he can handle. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples, this one just stands out in my mind

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If it was only Jankowski doing this in their lineup, I would chalk it up to him just being an awesome hitter. However, their WHOLE lineup took a cerebral approach and let it rip when they needed to. You can't convince me that Intagliata, Krause, Courtney, and goldstein have more talent than Moore, Katz, Jones, and Ross. They just are getting better instruction, and thus better MLB prospectus.