Will he bring Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday with him?
I honestly don’t know much about McRae as a hitting coach, so I’m not sure if there is any real reason to believe he would be a clear upgrade over Jacoby outside of the fact that Jacoby doesn’t seem to do much of anything. I think the real problem is that the organization as a whole doesn’t appreciate the value of getting runners on base. They haven’t since Chris Chambliss left.
.267 .247 .247 I believe those are our team batting averages the 3 years Brooke has been in office for the redlegs. Yeah the players have to perform, but those numbers lead me to believe that coaching has something to with it too, and that’s why people want brooke out of town, you can’t argue with the numbers!
You can’t have great hitting with the hitters we have. During that time, can you name what great hitters we had? Yea we had/have some hitters with some punch, but how many true hitters were on the roster during that time?
Were the BRM players great hitters because of the hitting coach or because they were just great hitters?
Drew Nelson: You can’t have great hitting with the hitters we have. During that time, can you name what great hitters we had? Yea we had/have some hitters with some punch, but how many true hitters were on the roster during that time?Were the BRM players great hitters because of the hitting coach or because they were just great hitters?
By your logic, why do they even have hitting coaches? It seems like a waste of money if they have no baring on the players. If your players can’t hit, get rid of them anf bring in players who can. Right?
It is a classic question, and very very hard to answer: What good do coaches ACTUALLY do in helping lead to Reds wins?
I have no idea if Jacoby is any good or not. I have no idea if someone else could’ve gotten the 2009 Reds to score more runs.
But I will say this: Taveras had the worst year of his (not very good) career. Patterson did the same. Gonzalez did too and then went to Boston and hit much better right away.
Dusty’s the stupid one who kept playing these guys as much as possible, but Jacoby’s the hitting coach, and these guys were terrible and never got one single ounce better.
Oh yeah, Jay Bruce was the player of the year in the minors and then came up and batted .223.
On the good side, Phillips has been very productive (although his OBP’s and aren’t getting any better, and his # of GIDP’s, for a fast guy, are inexplicably awful).
Votto has been an unexpected superstar.
What do we make of it, overall? I don’t know…
But I don’t see much reason to give Jacoby the benefit of the doubt.
McGwire as hitting coach. That’s an unusual move, isn’t it? I can’t recall offhand other sluggers who have later become hitting coaches. I’m thinking sluggers with lots of K’s and relatively low AVG. McGwire was .263 lifetime.
Obviously, I was hoping for Jaramillo but the Cubs swiped him pretty quickly, as I knew a team would.
I was also a little surprised by the McGwire deal. Just because you hit a jillion dingers in your career doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to make a great coach (see Baker, Dusty). Besides, wasn’t Big Mac’s secret weapon PED’s?
But to contribute to this post, at this point, I’d be in favor of just about anyone over Brook Jacoby.
Drew Nelson: How do PED’s make you a great hitter?
Balls hit that would be fly ball outs without PEDs are HRs with PEDs. Add just one a week and you go from being an avg/below avg hitter to a hall of famer.
Drew Nelson: You can’t have great hitting with the hitters we have.During that time, can you name what great hitters we had?Yea we had/have some hitters with some punch, but how many true hitters were on the roster during that time?Were the BRM players great hitters because of the hitting coach or because they were just great hitters?
How many guys have come up and hit as well or better than in the minors while he has been there? How many guys tear the cover off the ball in the minor then struggle in the majors? Not all is on Jacoby but he is responsible to help hitters when the league catches up with them. It is his job to try to fix holes in someone’s swing, and it is his job to help someone get out of a slump. To me, from the outside, he really hasn’t done anything to show me that he has helped guys. Has he had some crappy players to deal with, absolutely, but when a guy is struggling you hear more of Dusty spending time with them than Jacoby. They made a mistake getting rid of Chambliss and making another one by keeping Jacoby too long…
I’m simply not convinced that coaches at the major-league level have any effect whatsoever… except for a tiny number of really exceptional ones (like Dave Duncan, and possibly Leo Mazzone).
Every year in spring training, you hear stories out of every team’s camp about such-and-such a coach working with such-and-such a pitcher or hitter, and they’re working on X, and they’re very optimistic about the upcoming year!
And then, really, I’d say 97-98% of the time, the player just performs about the same as he always has once the season gets rolling.
Maybe I’m too much of a cynic, but I just don’t remember many cases at all of a coach working with a player, and then that player goes out and plays better than ever, and sustains it.
A couple pitchers’ career years on the Braves (Mazzone) and Cardinals (Duncan) do stand out, but I can’t come up w/ any others.
PED’s can not help you hit a ball, I could take all the PED’s ever made and still couldn’t wouldn’t be able to hit a 95 mph fastball. Sure those who took it may have had the balls travel a little farther but didn’t pitchers who took them enable them to throw better?
My question with Mark Mcgwire becoming the hitting coach is how long can he put up with the heat he will get from the press and what kind of distraction is it going to cause. You know the press won’t let the issue go unless he comes completely clean which I don’t see happening. Their spring trainning is going to be a wild circus, which may help the Reds.
Drew Nelson: PED’s can not help you hit a ball, I could take all the PED’s ever made and still couldn’t wouldn’t be able to hit a 95 mph fastball. Sure those who took it may have had the balls travel a little farther but didn’t pitchers who took them enable them to throw better?
I don’t think anybody ever contested Mark McGuire or Barry Bonds raised his batting average because of PED’s… shoot, I’m not getting into this, if you really think PED’s are fine, that’s yours to believe. I’m with River City and most of the world on this. Cheating is bad.
PEDs don’t help YOU hit a 95mph fastball. They help players who already can hit in the majors hit better, harder, faster, and delay declines in performance at older ages.
Look at the numbers:
McGwire .263 1317 BB 1596 K
Jacoby .270 438 BB 764 K
McRae .290 648 BB 779 K
McRae had more PA’s then McGwire. Patience and work ethic are McGwire’s strong points. McRae had 6 .300+ seasons. I won’t and can’t argue with Tony LaRussa logic. He wins rings, pennants and divisions.
McGwire’s only confirmed PED was Andro which was sold over the counter. Pitchers were/are using and hitters were/are using. Get over it.:twisted:
2009 stats: Sarasota 2-1 8 Games 8 Games Started 42.1 IP 4.89 ERA 1.44 WHIP
Carolina 3-2 6 Game 6 Game Started 36 2/3 IP 2.95 ERA 1.09 WHIP
Louisville 2-2 5 Game 5 Game Started 29 IP 2.48 ERA 1.21 WHIP
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Will he bring Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday with him?
I honestly don’t know much about McRae as a hitting coach, so I’m not sure if there is any real reason to believe he would be a clear upgrade over Jacoby outside of the fact that Jacoby doesn’t seem to do much of anything. I think the real problem is that the organization as a whole doesn’t appreciate the value of getting runners on base. They haven’t since Chris Chambliss left.
YES! Anyone would be better than Jacoby, and McRae is a good one…
Sign me up for the McRae/Pujols packag deal.
Would hate to see McRae become the replacement for Dusty Baker.
Why is Jacoby a poor hitting coach? He didn’t sign Willy T? The manager is the one with the pholisophy on hitting we don’t agree with.
From what I’ve read, McRae does not preach patience, which will probably make a lot of us tear our hair out.
.267 .247 .247 I believe those are our team batting averages the 3 years Brooke has been in office for the redlegs. Yeah the players have to perform, but those numbers lead me to believe that coaching has something to with it too, and that’s why people want brooke out of town, you can’t argue with the numbers!
You can’t have great hitting with the hitters we have. During that time, can you name what great hitters we had? Yea we had/have some hitters with some punch, but how many true hitters were on the roster during that time?
Were the BRM players great hitters because of the hitting coach or because they were just great hitters?
We need a replacement for Jacoby, but McRae was a free swinger as a hitter so I can pass on him.
By your logic, why do they even have hitting coaches? It seems like a waste of money if they have no baring on the players. If your players can’t hit, get rid of them anf bring in players who can. Right?
It is a classic question, and very very hard to answer: What good do coaches ACTUALLY do in helping lead to Reds wins?
I have no idea if Jacoby is any good or not. I have no idea if someone else could’ve gotten the 2009 Reds to score more runs.
But I will say this: Taveras had the worst year of his (not very good) career. Patterson did the same. Gonzalez did too and then went to Boston and hit much better right away.
Dusty’s the stupid one who kept playing these guys as much as possible, but Jacoby’s the hitting coach, and these guys were terrible and never got one single ounce better.
Oh yeah, Jay Bruce was the player of the year in the minors and then came up and batted .223.
On the good side, Phillips has been very productive (although his OBP’s and aren’t getting any better, and his # of GIDP’s, for a fast guy, are inexplicably awful).
Votto has been an unexpected superstar.
What do we make of it, overall? I don’t know…
But I don’t see much reason to give Jacoby the benefit of the doubt.
McGwire as hitting coach. That’s an unusual move, isn’t it? I can’t recall offhand other sluggers who have later become hitting coaches. I’m thinking sluggers with lots of K’s and relatively low AVG. McGwire was .263 lifetime.
@GregD: True, I agree, Greg. It’s a strange one.
Does a guy like McGwire know how to help a guy like, say, Skip Schumaker (a switch-hitting singles hitter) when he’s struggling?
I’m surprised by it. I really thought McGwire was gone from the public eye for good.
Obviously, I was hoping for Jaramillo but the Cubs swiped him pretty quickly, as I knew a team would.
I was also a little surprised by the McGwire deal. Just because you hit a jillion dingers in your career doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to make a great coach (see Baker, Dusty). Besides, wasn’t Big Mac’s secret weapon PED’s?
But to contribute to this post, at this point, I’d be in favor of just about anyone over Brook Jacoby.
How do PED’s make you a great hitter?
McGwire has worked with Holliday and Shumaker in the offseason with some results, but to fire McRae and hire him is odd to say the least.
Balls hit that would be fly ball outs without PEDs are HRs with PEDs. Add just one a week and you go from being an avg/below avg hitter to a hall of famer.
How many guys have come up and hit as well or better than in the minors while he has been there? How many guys tear the cover off the ball in the minor then struggle in the majors? Not all is on Jacoby but he is responsible to help hitters when the league catches up with them. It is his job to try to fix holes in someone’s swing, and it is his job to help someone get out of a slump. To me, from the outside, he really hasn’t done anything to show me that he has helped guys. Has he had some crappy players to deal with, absolutely, but when a guy is struggling you hear more of Dusty spending time with them than Jacoby. They made a mistake getting rid of Chambliss and making another one by keeping Jacoby too long…
Article I read this morning said that Pujols was in favor of the move…which says a lot about his power in the organization, I would think.
I’m simply not convinced that coaches at the major-league level have any effect whatsoever… except for a tiny number of really exceptional ones (like Dave Duncan, and possibly Leo Mazzone).
Every year in spring training, you hear stories out of every team’s camp about such-and-such a coach working with such-and-such a pitcher or hitter, and they’re working on X, and they’re very optimistic about the upcoming year!
And then, really, I’d say 97-98% of the time, the player just performs about the same as he always has once the season gets rolling.
Maybe I’m too much of a cynic, but I just don’t remember many cases at all of a coach working with a player, and then that player goes out and plays better than ever, and sustains it.
A couple pitchers’ career years on the Braves (Mazzone) and Cardinals (Duncan) do stand out, but I can’t come up w/ any others.
PED’s can not help you hit a ball, I could take all the PED’s ever made and still couldn’t wouldn’t be able to hit a 95 mph fastball. Sure those who took it may have had the balls travel a little farther but didn’t pitchers who took them enable them to throw better?
My question with Mark Mcgwire becoming the hitting coach is how long can he put up with the heat he will get from the press and what kind of distraction is it going to cause. You know the press won’t let the issue go unless he comes completely clean which I don’t see happening. Their spring trainning is going to be a wild circus, which may help the Reds.
I don’t think anybody ever contested Mark McGuire or Barry Bonds raised his batting average because of PED’s… shoot, I’m not getting into this, if you really think PED’s are fine, that’s yours to believe. I’m with River City and most of the world on this. Cheating is bad.
@Drew Nelson:
No, but PED’s can help turn fly outs into Home runs or gap doubles. Even at Mac’s height wasn’t his average like .240 or something?
PEDs don’t help YOU hit a 95mph fastball. They help players who already can hit in the majors hit better, harder, faster, and delay declines in performance at older ages.
Look at the numbers:
McGwire .263 1317 BB 1596 K
Jacoby .270 438 BB 764 K
McRae .290 648 BB 779 K
McRae had more PA’s then McGwire. Patience and work ethic are McGwire’s strong points. McRae had 6 .300+ seasons. I won’t and can’t argue with Tony LaRussa logic. He wins rings, pennants and divisions.
McGwire’s only confirmed PED was Andro which was sold over the counter. Pitchers were/are using and hitters were/are using. Get over it.:twisted:
“McRae had 6 .300+ seasons.”
I’m willing to take the risk.
No thanks…
First time I read this I thought you were asking about Hal McCoy.
-j