Just now, SCCWS said:

RR hopes he will improve the team's approach to bunting..................................... 

Awesome, I love small ball!

1 minute ago, SCCWS said:

RR hopes he will improve the team's approach to bunting..................................... 

Ricky: "Frank, I need you to improve our bunting"

Frank: "OK guys, when you get the bunt sign, just don't"

Sounds like an intelligent hitting coach to me. 

Yea I really like this guy based on that interview.  He’s definitely got some Hawk in him. 

17 minutes ago, Jerksticks said:

Yea I really like this guy based on that interview.  He’s definitely got some Hawk in him. 

That was my first thought as well. “If you’re thinking mechanics while you’re up there, you have no chance. You need a good approach.”

I hope the Sox here John Malle to be the assistant or hire him to run the hitting program in the farm. 

Just listening to a recent Barry Zito interview on PMT and when asked who the funniest teammate he’s ever played with...of all people he singled out Menechino and then went on to talk about what an amazing teammate and locker room presence he was. 

"We have to take our walks, we're last in walks." Sounds familiar, I like to hear that. Sounds like he is a no frills straight to the point coach. 

Mechanics are for practice, not for the game. I read a book about the psychology of hitting and this point was made.

You parctice to teach your body your swing.  When you get in the box you have to trust your athleticism and focus on the pitcher.  If you're thinking where your hands or feet are against a big league pitcher you're fucked.  

In the book I read, during the game your main focus, is where the ball is being released from the pitchers release point.

53 minutes ago, Chisox378 said:

In the book I read, during the game your main focus, is where the ball is being released from the pitchers release point.



Pitch recognition is key.  If you look at how quickly your brain has to process the release, attempt to recognize the pitch and to fire off the swing process its amazing that humans can hit 100 mph fastballs.   You work on mechanics during your practices.  You practice your mechanics with your tee work, your front side flips.  You use hittrax to see the result of that.  You use live batting practice to work your swing with athleticism.   I think with hi speed video and technology we can tune mechanics more in practice so its just doing it in the game.  

 

Some parts of the game haven't changed.  With all of the technology around I am sure that pitch tipping or other human tells are even easier to exploit. Good coaches can help identify this and help with how to exploit it.   There is a quote about the Twins approach to Chris Sale who had a tell and how it helped them exploit this against one of the tougher pitchers to face.  We as an organization should almost have a team dedicated to scouting us internally from an adversarial point of view.   

 

 

Edited October 11, 20196 yr by southsideirish71

That was really neat. I never thought of pitch tipping before the pitch.  A batter can try to see the release and the fingers of the pitcher from the hand and the release point, but to go even further and look before the pitch is really neat. Hopefully Coop is keeping our own pitchers not tipping.

3 hours ago, Chisox378 said:

That was really neat. I never thought of pitch tipping before the pitch.  A batter can try to see the release and the fingers of the pitcher from the hand and the release point, but to go even further and look before the pitch is really neat. Hopefully Coop is keeping our own pitchers not tipping.

Hire Torii Hunter to be a video analyst on pitchers tells or keep him in the dugout. Plouffe said him and Molitor were the best at it.

Isn't that Thome in a Sox uniform in the background and also some Sox painting?  Wonder why the Sox stuff . He was never in our organization as far as I know.

Edited October 11, 20196 yr by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

4 hours ago, Chisox378 said:

Mechanics are for practice, not for the game. I read a book about the psychology of hitting and this point was made.

Similar to golf.  If you're thinking about mechanics instead of something more general (say tempo) on the 1st tee you're fucked.  I like him more based on that interview.  Seems charismatic, which is a large part of the battle when you're coaching MLB level talent.

3 hours ago, Chisox378 said:

That was really neat. I never thought of pitch tipping before the pitch.  A batter can try to see the release and the fingers of the pitcher from the hand and the release point, but to go even further and look before the pitch is really neat. Hopefully Coop is keeping our own pitchers not tipping.

Seeing the release off the fingers is nearly impossible - that is the hardest thing to read. You're better off finding the dot on the ball out of the hand.

Pre-pitch sets are a big part of it. I always felt that when sale got angry he sped up his fastball delivery, with his arm and body, and it seemed noticeable. In general, how you manage your hands inside the glove and the location of your hands are usually the two easier ones to see. 

If you can pick up abnormalities at a younger age you really really benefit because a lot of kids dont even look for that. 

28 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Similar to golf.  If you're thinking about mechanics instead of something more general (say tempo) on the 1st tee you're fucked.  I like him more based on that interview.  Seems charismatic, which is a large part of the battle when you're coaching MLB level talent.

I've heard good things about him. It's hard to be a hitting coach in the big leagues because you're teaching a lot of different approaches as opposed to teaching one approach at a lower level. 

18 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I've heard good things about him. It's hard to be a hitting coach in the big leagues because you're teaching a lot of different approaches as opposed to teaching one approach at a lower level. 

On a related note, I always liked Steverson because back in 2017 at spring training I yelled at him to teach avi how to hit for power power and he looked at me and made a huge shrug with his shoulders like "can't make chicken out of chicken shit".

54 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

On a related note, I always liked Steverson because back in 2017 at spring training I yelled at him to teach avi how to hit for power power and he looked at me and made a huge shrug with his shoulders like "can't make chicken out of chicken shit".

Or more like " I heard your voice and knew it was directed at me but I have no idea what you said and shrugging is my go to response."

11 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Or more like " I heard your voice and knew it was directed at me but I have no idea what you said and shrugging is my go to response."

He was about 15 feet away.  one of the many cool aspects of spring training.  we weren't even really shouting just talking in normal voices.  you ever been?  It's really different.

A mlb hitting coach won't coach that much mechanics anyway. If he sees a glaring flaw it will be assessed but you are not rebuilding complete swings at the ML level.

Regarding the approach waiting for the right pitch is good but everyone says that, even little league coaches tell their kids to wait for a fat one, the tough thing is how to decide this while the ball is halfway home when many pitches are still almost in the same tunnel.

Basically the idea is to be very aggressive at the heart of the plate but giving the outer 2 inch of the plate (all 4 edges, but slightly depending on your strengths) to the pitcher like illustrated here. But still it is easier said than done, many have the plan but can't execute. Some teams use virtual reality to practice pitch recognition were you are basically shown the first half of the pitch flight and then you have to predict were it ends up.

I have used a software that is called uhit. Basically a mobile phone game and you are batter view and a pitcher releases the ball and you have to touch the screen for every strike. If you touch the screen late it is count as a miss and then the software calculates your correct guess percentage and reaction  time. Over time I got better learning to recognize the angle out of the hand. You see a too high pitch comes out level and a too low pitch shoots down too steep and you see a curve popping up.

Still I never really got to the top of their leader board or close to it so there probably is some talent involved too. I know the Dodgers use stuff like that (probably more sophisticated than uhit) not sure if the sox are open for that stuff tough.

 

 

I know nothing of this person. 

3 minutes ago, Sleepy Harold said:

I know nothing of this person. 

His brother Mike is the reason why 1st and 3rd base coaches wear helmets.

Dodgers AAA hitting coach.

I would like to see an “offensive coordinator” hired like the marlins just poached from Yankees.