With the hiring of DeRenne as assistant hitting coach, it doesn't look like the Royals are considering a change. But if they're interested in improving plate discipline, I think they should consider hiring Matt Holliday as hitting coach. He was mentioned as a possible managerial candidate for the Cardinals job, has been coaching at Ok State where their 2021 on base percentage was second in Big XII, apparently gets along well with Matheny (was reported as saying nice things about Matheny, calling Matheny a "leader of men" when the Royals hired him), and from 2008 to 2018 Holliday only had one year where his walk rate was under 10%.
How do you think that Witt/Nick/MJ will tilt these numbers when they come up? Is the minor league wonderful hitting development of these 3 bringing more plate discipline with it? Or, perhaps enough power to somewhat justify it?
I remember watching a 76er's game in Charles Barkley's only year playing for Billy Cunningham (rookie year) on TNT or TBS if I recall correctly.
Near the end of the first quarter Barkley splashes a three. And whoever the courtside reporter started the quick end-of-the-first-quarter interview with Billy Cunningham by saying "I bet you were glad to see Barkley hit that three at the end of the quarter, weren't you?" And Billy responded by saying, "No, he's here to rebound and score in the paint. If he's hitting threes then we aren't playing our game" or something to that effect.
The problem with our Royals lack of plate discipline is essentially the same; you can be 'occasionally' successful with it (Barkley hit just under 17% of his threes that year), but if it's you're go-to gameplan it will not pay dividends often enough to win.
Compounding the issue of our 'occasional' success is that our unquestioned leader had the best year of his career offensively. Often times by swinging at pitches that we want our team to be disciplined and take. So, although I'm hopeful that our players don't have a little league mentality and say "well, he's doing it, why can't I", it is human nature to take notices and act like the person who is the leader of the team.
With the hiring of DeRenne as assistant hitting coach, it doesn't look like the Royals are considering a change. But if they're interested in improving plate discipline, I think they should consider hiring Matt Holliday as hitting coach. He was mentioned as a possible managerial candidate for the Cardinals job, has been coaching at Ok State where their 2021 on base percentage was second in Big XII, apparently gets along well with Matheny (was reported as saying nice things about Matheny, calling Matheny a "leader of men" when the Royals hired him), and from 2008 to 2018 Holliday only had one year where his walk rate was under 10%.
How do you think that Witt/Nick/MJ will tilt these numbers when they come up? Is the minor league wonderful hitting development of these 3 bringing more plate discipline with it? Or, perhaps enough power to somewhat justify it?
I remember watching a 76er's game in Charles Barkley's only year playing for Billy Cunningham (rookie year) on TNT or TBS if I recall correctly.
Near the end of the first quarter Barkley splashes a three. And whoever the courtside reporter started the quick end-of-the-first-quarter interview with Billy Cunningham by saying "I bet you were glad to see Barkley hit that three at the end of the quarter, weren't you?" And Billy responded by saying, "No, he's here to rebound and score in the paint. If he's hitting threes then we aren't playing our game" or something to that effect.
The problem with our Royals lack of plate discipline is essentially the same; you can be 'occasionally' successful with it (Barkley hit just under 17% of his threes that year), but if it's you're go-to gameplan it will not pay dividends often enough to win.
Compounding the issue of our 'occasional' success is that our unquestioned leader had the best year of his career offensively. Often times by swinging at pitches that we want our team to be disciplined and take. So, although I'm hopeful that our players don't have a little league mentality and say "well, he's doing it, why can't I", it is human nature to take notices and act like the person who is the leader of the team.