HIT AND RUN

by Holly Horning

Today, we’re going to address some great questions our reader, Jim, sent to me.

He wrote “When do we start wondering if the hitting coaches aren’t very good at their job? We rightfully praise the pitching coaches for their magic, so why not wonder if the hitting coaches are failing? Outside hitting coaches are still a thing for Tigers’ players.”

Isn’t it ironic that we know so much about Chris Fetter and his staff but almost nothing about the hitting coaches?

Part of that is because of the differences between hitting and pitching.  Every pitch a pitcher throws is seen, located and analyzed but we don’t get to see every detail of a batter’s mechanics as he swings and why he didn’t make solid contact.  Only recently has the tv broadcast taken to critiquing batters’ hitting skills in helping us understand the difference between success and failure.

We also see the pitching coaches throughout a game.  The hitting coaches?  Never.  I imagine that 99% of fans couldn’t identify them in a lineup.  Their work is always behind the scenes and away from fans’ eyes.

So as we delve into how to evaluate the hitting coaches, we must first understand what is now considered normal in the industry.  It’s because the Tigers have been notoriously outdated in adopting what other teams consider to be standard.

For over 5 years now, MLB teams started adding multiple hitting coaches.  Today, over half of all teams have 3 hitting coaches.  The others have 2.  Until 2023, the Tigers were the last team in baseball to add more than 1 hitting coach.  They now have 3.

As for independent hitting coaches, they have now become standard in baseball.  In the past, these coaches worked with players separately but teams have learned that they play a useful part in helping their players develop more quickly.  Managers are now coordinating work with them and many teams have hired them as outside consultants.  Hitting academies have been growing and they are being signed to multi-year contracts by franchises to consult and work with players, esp. in the off-season.

Hiring them is no longer the black mark for a team’s coaches it used to be.  It’s now considered to be the norm.  In fact, a team’s best hitters all have their own hitting coaches.  Aaron Judge and Kerry Carpenter share the same one.

Under the old regime, a number of Tigers did indicate that they felt the advice they were getting in the minors was either not enough or questionable.  All saying they were in the process of slipping through the cracks and at risk of losing their baseball dreams.  Which is why players like Carpenter, Jung and Keith hired their own coaches.

As for the Tigers’ hitting coaches – Keith Beauregard, Michael Brdar and Lance Zawadzki – they all have different specialties.  They all have different personalities, different communication styles and different ways of working.  That’s intentional.

None of them duplicate each other.  And the players aren’t getting an overload of information.  How they work with the hitting coaches is also intentional. 

Players are asked to find the one they feel helps them the best and then designate that person as their point man.  At times, another coach may weigh in if asked.

But there is also a tremendous amount of information now that has to be gathered, analyzed and shared with players.  That’s also an advantage to having multiple coaches.  In order to share the workload.

Ultimately, isn’t it better to have 3 coaches who work with app. 4 players each instead of having 1 coach in charge of helping 13?

So now, let’s address how to accurately evaluate the work of the Tigers’ hitting coaches.

First, we need to remember that the Yankees poached one of their coaches, James Rowson.  It’s a sign that Detroit has some talent in their coaching that top teams want.  I mean, when was the last time the Tigers had a coach that another team wanted?

As another sign that they are doing solid work, the Tigers have moved offensively from #30 (3 years in a row) to #25.  You’re never going to have a young roster significantly zoom up the standings in just 1 year.  Fans need to be realistic that improvements like this take time.  It’s not going to be a quick fix.

Realistically, it’s too soon to give these hitting coaches a grade.  And that is because this roster is so young and inexperienced and they have a lot to do. But so far, there are positive signs.

What we can do is to give an explanation about the factors that must be taken into consideration.  Factors that have the potential of slowing down the process of improving offense.

For all teams, they are:

• Pitching has an advantage over hitting because of the incorporation of science and technology.
• Velocity and spin have greatly increased which makes hitting more difficult.  The average BA for MLB last year was .243, the lowest since 1968.  Strikeouts have also doubled over the last 30 years.  The average fastball speed in MLB now is 94 MPH.
• The move from relying primarily upon starting pitchers to using a cocktail of SPs and relievers has also dampened offense.
• Pitchers have a ton more info about hitters and their habits to use against them.

Specifically for the Tigers, the most important factors we must consider that impacts their hitting are:

• The roster is overwhelmingly young with inexperienced hitters and no proven consistent hitters yet.  Positionally, the Tigers have the youngest group in all of MLB.  They are going to struggle no matter what with no big bat to rely upon just yet.
• This group is so young that there is no “team offense identity” yet.  Individual hitting patterns have to be established first before a team hitting identity can be formed.
• Players who primarily grew up in the old player development system like Riley Greene, Jake Rogers, Parker Meadows and Spencer Torkelson are still trying to shed the old ways and make the transition in adjusting to a better way of hitting.

We have to remember that significant changes take time, esp. when over half your roster is new.  The Tigers’ offense won’t magically take off in a year.  Or even two. 

Improved hitting is a creation of establishing new ways of thinking and new habits.  They need to be practiced hundreds of times until the approach hitters use at the plate becomes familiar and habit.

We know that the Tigers worked on changes with Javier Baez.  But earlier this week, he was seen returning to his old approach and mechanics when hitting.  Was it due to frustration, old habits or difficulty trying to make changes? 

There will be players, for one reason or another, who end up simply disregarding sound advice and do their own thing.  The coaches can’t control that.

Ultimately, it’s up to the players to do the work.  And if they do but results aren’t seen, then we need to question the level of talent the coaches were given.

Hitting coaches aren’t miracle workers.  The good ones can take a product and make it better but they can’t imbue the player with more raw talent than they actually have.  Their job is to uncover and maximize talent, not create it out of thin air.

I know we all look at what the team is currently doing and feel that more should be happening.  But it’s important to balance this feeling with what is happening overall within MLB.  Are the Tigers behaving differently than most of the other teams or are they dealing with the same issues as the majority?

We need to follow the team offensive rankings as well. That will be key. 

Upward movement (which we’re seeing) needs to be happening.  As long as that is happening, then we have a clue that things appear to be working.

It’s still too soon to evaluate Beauregard, Brdar and Zawadzki.  They’ve been given very raw products so this is going to take time.

But it will be another story when the 2024 season concludes.  Let’s see if those team offensive stats continue to move up – and by how much.

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