Thorough and to the point - we can't hit or at least we aren't hitting.
As you probably recall, I've campaigned for Bradshaw to be shown the door for as long as you've been asking the same for Eldred. Your response has been what you said above, that you believe the hitting coach isn't quite as important as the pitching coach. That may be true. However, our offense is never any good and there are offenses that are so a hitting coach does have some importance.
Bradshaw road the Hosmer, Moose, Salvy wave to the bigs. And as I've contended all along, outside of Merrifield, really hasn't helped anyone exceed expectations and has helped almost everyone perform under expectations.
Whether it's metrics/analytics, philosophical approach, whatever it is that Bradshaw is doing, it isn't working and it hasn't worked and there is no reason to believe it will work. The saying we have in business is "if you can't change your people, you have to change your people". Terry Bradshaw, "you gots to go!"
I'm probably starting to shift a bit on hitting coaches as new philosophies seem to be working extremely well in San Francisco with using pitching machines that mimic that night's pitcher. But the Royals also use something sort of similar from what I've been told. But even with that said, the one thing that I believe to *always* be on the coaching staff is preparation. And I don't believe Royals hitters (or pitchers, but of course that's another topic) are as prepared as they need to be.
That's what won them the World Series. They were talented, but not the most talented. But they knew what the opponent was going to do before the opponent even knew it. They got extra bases, two-strike hits and so much more from being prepared. And they just don't seem it anywhere but on defense. And, like I said, hiring Keoni DeRenne to the big league staff is great for the team, but I believe they've got Bradshaw's replacement right there if they do move on.
Great point on preparation, in particular, situational preparation from our WS.
One question I did have about your article but didn't get to - you wrote an article about Spring Training batting and the metrics that do translate to the regular season. I'm VERY curious to know if those metrics are translating or not?
Also, I was on the road and didn't get a chance to comment but great piece on the relief pitching. And glad you gave Snyder some love - he continues to deserve it and leads the staff in Wins lol! I realize at some point he's going to give up some runs, have a stumble, but it's nice to think that we potentially found a true diamond in the rough when some of the diamonds we bought are looking Zirconia'ish.
In a flashback moment Snyder made me think of Joe Nelson (yeah I'm old). But Joe was a late bloomer who didn't make the bigs until 26, actually sat out a few years if I recall correctly and led our Royals in saves in 06'. Yeah we only had 62 wins, but 9 saves with only 62 wins is pretty impressive.
Joe Nelson? There's a name! Yeah, Snider has looked really great so far and like I said, I didn't expect it. I'm a bit worried about all the high stress pitches he's throwing early, but he's handling it great.
I haven't dug into those numbers yet. I have a note to do it, but wanted to wait a bit to let some things settle down just a little bit and get them into a rhythm of actually playing just about every day. If they can get through this series, they're guaranteed all three games over the weekend with the dome in Seattle, so that'll start to feel a lot more normal.
Thorough and to the point - we can't hit or at least we aren't hitting.
As you probably recall, I've campaigned for Bradshaw to be shown the door for as long as you've been asking the same for Eldred. Your response has been what you said above, that you believe the hitting coach isn't quite as important as the pitching coach. That may be true. However, our offense is never any good and there are offenses that are so a hitting coach does have some importance.
Bradshaw road the Hosmer, Moose, Salvy wave to the bigs. And as I've contended all along, outside of Merrifield, really hasn't helped anyone exceed expectations and has helped almost everyone perform under expectations.
Whether it's metrics/analytics, philosophical approach, whatever it is that Bradshaw is doing, it isn't working and it hasn't worked and there is no reason to believe it will work. The saying we have in business is "if you can't change your people, you have to change your people". Terry Bradshaw, "you gots to go!"
I'm probably starting to shift a bit on hitting coaches as new philosophies seem to be working extremely well in San Francisco with using pitching machines that mimic that night's pitcher. But the Royals also use something sort of similar from what I've been told. But even with that said, the one thing that I believe to *always* be on the coaching staff is preparation. And I don't believe Royals hitters (or pitchers, but of course that's another topic) are as prepared as they need to be.
That's what won them the World Series. They were talented, but not the most talented. But they knew what the opponent was going to do before the opponent even knew it. They got extra bases, two-strike hits and so much more from being prepared. And they just don't seem it anywhere but on defense. And, like I said, hiring Keoni DeRenne to the big league staff is great for the team, but I believe they've got Bradshaw's replacement right there if they do move on.
Great point on preparation, in particular, situational preparation from our WS.
One question I did have about your article but didn't get to - you wrote an article about Spring Training batting and the metrics that do translate to the regular season. I'm VERY curious to know if those metrics are translating or not?
Also, I was on the road and didn't get a chance to comment but great piece on the relief pitching. And glad you gave Snyder some love - he continues to deserve it and leads the staff in Wins lol! I realize at some point he's going to give up some runs, have a stumble, but it's nice to think that we potentially found a true diamond in the rough when some of the diamonds we bought are looking Zirconia'ish.
In a flashback moment Snyder made me think of Joe Nelson (yeah I'm old). But Joe was a late bloomer who didn't make the bigs until 26, actually sat out a few years if I recall correctly and led our Royals in saves in 06'. Yeah we only had 62 wins, but 9 saves with only 62 wins is pretty impressive.
Joe Nelson? There's a name! Yeah, Snider has looked really great so far and like I said, I didn't expect it. I'm a bit worried about all the high stress pitches he's throwing early, but he's handling it great.
I haven't dug into those numbers yet. I have a note to do it, but wanted to wait a bit to let some things settle down just a little bit and get them into a rhythm of actually playing just about every day. If they can get through this series, they're guaranteed all three games over the weekend with the dome in Seattle, so that'll start to feel a lot more normal.