July 12, 200718 yr Seitzer canned as hitting coach Nick Piecoro The Arizona Republic Jul. 11, 2007 05:45 PM With their offense mired in a season-long slump, the Diamondbacks fired first-year hitting coach Kevin Seitzer on Wednesday and named Rick Schu as his replacement. “I think we have not performed as well offensively as we have hoped,” Diamondbacks General Manager Josh Byrnes said. “I don’t know if it is all Kevin Seitzer’s fault by any stretch, but we felt this was a change worth making.” The Diamondbacks are 14th in the National League in hitting (.248), 12th in on-base-plus-slugging (.716) and 12th in runs (371). Schu, who was one of three finalists before Seitzer was named the hitting coach in October, had been the club’s roving minor league hitting coordinator. He has been with the organization for 10 years, also serving as hitting coach during the 2004 season. “I think Kevin’s philosophy is outstanding and I think his passion is infectious,” Byrnes said. “It’s a matter of the difficulty of playing in the big leagues. Some guys have struggled and find the right buttons to push to minimize those struggles. “I think Kevin in a short time built some strong relationships here. The perception here is that he’s to blame. I think that’s a little unfair. We’re just trying to make a change to see if that gets us performing a little bit better.” Sounds like a lot of the arguments on this board in regards to Walker. One difference though...the DBacks have a lot of young hitters on the team. Whose to say if it would make it harder instead of changing a bunch of veterans. I do feel bad for Seitzer though...only made it through half a season.
July 12, 200718 yr By my count that's two hitting coaches gone this season and neither of them were named Walker.
July 12, 200718 yr QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 12, 2007 -> 02:53 AM) By my count that's two hitting coaches gone this season and neither of them were named Walker. Make that three -- the Mets fired their hitting coach, too. The Mets have scored 40 more runs than the Sox, playing in a pitchers' park without a DH. FWIW, the D'Backs have also scored more runs than us and are a team full of rookies. I really don't know how Walker has kept his job... Firing him isn't going to solve the team's problems, but the team hasn't hit for about a whole calender season. If an offense that's been stagnant for a whole doesn't warrant the firing of a hitting coach, I guess I don't know what does.
July 12, 200718 yr QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jul 11, 2007 -> 07:53 PM) By my count that's two hitting coaches gone this season and neither of them were named Walker. Three...Dodgers/Mets/Dbacks.
July 12, 200718 yr Hopefully Seitzer can land on his feet. The guy's from my hometown. He didn't like me too much after I had him sign a card with a pic of him getting nailed by a pitch w/ Milwaukee and got injured...
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