Kevin Seitzer possibly new BlueJays hitting coach

[Angrioter]

 

http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2013/10/16/4844632/kevin-seitzer-rumoured-to-be-close-to-taking-blue-jays-hitting-coach

[eastcoastjaysfan]

So he got fired from Arizona for having no results and failed to help turn any of the Royals' top hitting prospects into anything special.

 

Sign me up!

[eastcoastjaysfan]

Small addition is this piece from the wonderfully talented Rany Jazayerli, which shows how the Royals' offense had changed (for the worse) after Seitzer's departure, trading doubles for homers. Jazayerli references a Russel Carleton piece which claimed that Seitzer was worth about 58 runs over the average hitting coach, and through some mathematics and words that I have not read, Carleton concluded that Seitzer was worth 4.5 wins above a replacement-level coach. Basically, as Jazayerli said in his article, Seitzer had been one of the best hitting coaches in the last two decades.

 

--

 

4.5 WAR hitting coach ladies and gentlemen!

[SpeedyGose]

There are a couple nice articles out there on him. Royals bloggers seemingly loved this guy. Had an up the middle approach, rather than pull everything for a HR style. Got fired because the Royals weren't hitting for enough power, while they were consistently near the top of the league in average (didn't cite wOBA). With our hitters natural power, I think having up the middle approach would be the best way to go.

[SpeedyGose]

http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/2013/08/the-missing-ingredient.html?m=0

 

Good info here

[z3r0s]

Yup. It's time to stop treating everyone like Bautista and EE. Lawrie, Reyes, Lind, Melky and others are at their best when focusing on spraying the ball over hitting it over the fence. And Bautista and EE will probably be fine under any hitting coach for that matter.

 

EE reinvented his approach in a non-Murphy style. He'll be fine. Jose is a natural pull-centric guy. Its not going to hurt him to not have a hitting coach preach what he is naturally inclined to do anyway. He could benefit from being a little less pull-happy.

[SpeedyGose]

Yup. It's time to stop treating everyone like Bautista and EE. Lawrie, Reyes, Lind, Melky and others are at their best when focusing on spraying the ball over hitting it over the fence. And Bautista and EE will probably be fine under any hitting coach for that matter.

 

Exactly. Guys like Lawrie, Rasmus, Reyes, Lind will still hit HR as they are spraying the balls to all fields too.

 

Not to mention the team has a lot of good baserunners, so "station to station" would work quite well on this team considering how often they take an extra base, get a good read/jump off the bat etc.

[Angrioter]

Yup. It's time to stop treating everyone like Bautista and EE. Lawrie, Reyes, Lind, Melky and others are at their best when focusing on spraying the ball over hitting it over the fence. And Bautista and EE will probably be fine under any hitting coach for that matter.

 

In summary. What is the approach of Mr. Kevin Seitzer?

 

Saberguy (wOBA) , Dingers guy or contact guy?

[G-Snarls]

Yup. It's time to stop treating everyone like Bautista and EE. Lawrie, Reyes, Lind, Melky and others are at their best when focusing on spraying the ball over hitting it over the fence. And Bautista and EE will probably be fine under any hitting coach for that matter.

 

Exactly right. Hitting coach only needs to step in if Bautista and Edwin are having mechanical troubles. Otherwise let 'em go.

[Angrioter]

Kevin Seitzer as a hitter

.295/.375/.404

11% walk

10.2% K

.109 ISO

.351 wOBA

113 wRC+

[eastcoastjaysfan]

Career for balls put in play:

 

Rasmus pull: 1.352 OPS

Rasmus up the middle: .779 OPS

Rasmus oppo: .518 OPS

 

Bautista pull: 1.399 OPS

Bautista up the middle: .768 OPS

Bautista oppo: .637 OPS

 

Edwin pull: 1.304 OPS

Edwin up the middle: .748 OPS

Edwin oppo: .481

 

If it aint broke, don't fix it with these guys.

[Sammy225]

Career for balls put in play:

 

Rasmus pull: 1.352 OPS

Rasmus up the middle: .779 OPS

Rasmus oppo: .518 OPS

 

Bautista pull: 1.399 OPS

Bautista up the middle: .768 OPS

Bautista oppo: .637 OPS

 

Edwin pull: 1.304 OPS

Edwin up the middle: .748 OPS

Edwin oppo: .481

 

If it aint broke, don't fix it with these guys.

 

I am sure he knows that there are hitters like the ones you mentioned that are not going to be spray guys. However Lawrie is at his best when he is going foul pole to foul pole, as is Melky, as is Lind. I don't like the fact that they fired Mottola but this guy looks like he could fill in nicely now that we severed the last piece of Pull cancer out of our system I hope.

[Sammy225]

Hah, Cito's still around.

 

Ya but is he really allowed out of the broom closet unsupervised???

[z3r0s]

Career for balls put in play:

 

Rasmus pull: 1.352 OPS

Rasmus up the middle: .779 OPS

Rasmus oppo: .518 OPS

 

Bautista pull: 1.399 OPS

Bautista up the middle: .768 OPS

Bautista oppo: .637 OPS

 

Edwin pull: 1.304 OPS

Edwin up the middle: .748 OPS

Edwin oppo: .481

 

If it aint broke, don't fix it with these guys.

 

I don't disagree with the sentiment that you don't try to mess with what makes guys successful. But to be fair, if a guy has an approach to pull dat ball, he probably won't have much success with balls that he hits oppo. The results are somewhat a result of the approach.

[Jays]

EE reinvented his approach in a non-Murphy style. He'll be fine. Jose is a natural pull-centric guy. Its not going to hurt him to not have a hitting coach preach what he is naturally inclined to do anyway. He could benefit from being a little less pull-happy.

 

Bautista's best season was when he was going to the opposite field more often. He even hit 300 that year.

[kgm1]

I said Seitzer would get the job in the original post on Mottola getting fired . Gibby and him worked together in KC and got along . I don't think Mottola should have been fired but Seitzer isn't a bad choice IMO

[The Cats Ass]

I bet that whoever gets hired, when Bautista starts the season slow(like he has the past 2 years) there will be idiots calling for the guys head because he "wrecked Bautista".

[KingKat]

I said Seitzer would get the job in the original post on Mottola getting fired . Gibby and him worked together in KC and got along . I don't think Mottola should have been fired but Seitzer isn't a bad choice IMO

 

The chronyism of it is definitely a turn off. Mottola is one of the game's up and coming hitting coaches and he deserved a shot to coach all the players. Seems lame of Gibby to insist on bringing in "his guy" but in the end, the hitting philosophy will probably be fairly similar anyways.

[eastcoastjaysfan]

Bautista's best season was when he was going to the opposite field more often. He even hit 300 that year.

 

He only had 7 XBH to the opposite field in 2011. He's a dead pull hitter no doubt about it.

[Angrioter]

 

The hitting coaches are the scapegoats.

[The_DH]

I said Seitzer would get the job in the original post on Mottola getting fired . Gibby and him worked together in KC and got along . I don't think Mottola should have been fired but Seitzer isn't a bad choice IMO

 

It made sense. I assume it will only be for one year if the team doesn't turn it up a notch.

[GeorgiaPeach]

So he got fired from Arizona for having no results and failed to help turn any of the Royals' top hitting prospects into anything special.

 

Sign me up!

 

Shouldn't the hitters already know what they're doing?

[Angrioter]

Blue Jays reportedly to hire Seitzer as hitting coach

 

The Blue Jays are reportedly on the verge of hiring former Major Leaguer Kevin Seitzer as their next hitting coach.

 

The two sides are nearing an agreement, according to the Kansas City Star. The move still isn't finalized, and the Blue Jays have yet to issue a formal statement on the report.

 

Toronto manager John Gibbons worked with Seitzer as part of the Royals coaching staff from 2009-11. Seitzer spent four years as the hitting coach in Kansas City while Gibbons worked alongside him for three of those seasons as the bench coach for managers Trey Hillman and Ned Yost.

 

Gibbons did not respond to a message regarding the news, while Seitzer could not be reached for a comment. The report would seem to make a lot of sense, considering the Blue Jays recently dismissed hitting coach Chad Mottola. At the time, it was believed Gibbons wanted to hire someone he had a previous working relationship with.

 

Seitzer spent 12 years in the Major Leagues and posted a career .295 average with 74 homers and 613 RBIs in 1,439 games. He was dismissed from the Royals job following the 2012 campaign and most recently was working at the Mac-N-Seitz Baseball and Softball Academy in Kansas City.

 

The native of Illinois was credited for his work with Royals hitter Alex Gordon, while current Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera enjoyed a breakout season under Seitzer's tutelage in 2011.

 

Seizer appears to be a proponent of getting his hitters to use the entire field during their at-bats. He tends not to change their mentality early in counts, but once the hitters fall behind, Seitzer likes to see his hitters attempt to go up the middle or to the opposite field.

 

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos recently talked about a desire to have his players follow a similar philosophy. There's a fine balance between using a hitter's strength and trying to get the most out of their at-bats, but too often this past year the club went with an all-or-nothing approach at the plate.

 

Mottola's dismissal remains somewhat controversial and came as a major surprise, considering most people thought he had a lot of job security heading into next year. He enjoyed a very close working relationship with the likes of Colby Rasmus, Adam Lind and Anthony Gose, among others.

 

The Blue Jays instead went in a different direction, and it would appear as though Seitzer is the favourite to fill that role.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/tor/blue-jays-reportedly-to-hire-seitzer-as-hitting-coach?ymd=20131016&content_id=63030680&vkey=news_tor

[GD]

I actually kinda like this.

[kgm1]

MEH , Mottola got the s***** end of the stick .Saddled with Murphy then dumped .

[ElNik2013]

The chronyism of it is definitely a turn off. Mottola is one of the game's up and coming hitting coaches and he deserved a shot to coach all the players. Seems lame of Gibby to insist on bringing in "his guy" but in the end, the hitting philosophy will probably be fairly similar anyways.

 

 

At least AA is showing some consistency here because cronyism was behind the Gibbons hiring although I don't dislike him.

[ElNik2013]

MEH , Mottola got the s***** end of the stick .Saddled with Murphy then dumped .

 

Exactly. This whole story of them being a tandem was BS. The only reason they were a tandem was because AA didn't have the guts (or authority) to fire straight up fire Murphy and hand the job to Mottola full time.

[ElNik2013]

Yup. It's time to stop treating everyone like Bautista and EE. Lawrie, Reyes, Lind, Melky and others are at their best when focusing on spraying the ball over hitting it over the fence. And Bautista and EE will probably be fine under any hitting coach for that matter.

 

I thought Lawrie showed improvement. I think Reyes' approach is already up the middle maybe Seitzer can help him to play better D somehow. Lind had a good season and Melky was injured/ill and may just not be that good without them 'roids. Not saying I necessarily disagree with you approach-wise, but let's face it, the C, 2B and LF positions need upgrades period with the possible exception of a healthy Cabrera.

[TheHurl]

It's either going to be a good solid change with a new philosophy (Seitzer states in many interviews after he was fired that he doesn't preach up the middle hitting, he preaches up the middle hitting when behind in the count) or it's going to be a complete disaster as players are being pushed in two different directions. The Royals had a dismal start with their new approach but were among the best hitting team in the second half...I can see something like that happening for the Jays. Royals had a better than average K% during his time there...if he can teach a few of the Jays are better two strike approach he'll help us.

[TheHurl]

I see Lawrie as one day being a .305/.380/.420 hitter, rather than .265/.355/.510.

is that for one month? Honestly I just never see Lawrie as hitting any of those numbers except maybe the .265. And of course I can see Lawrie hitting the 420...and I'm not talking about his slugging percentage.