Yesterday, Joseph Coblitz gave his argument for the firing of Indians hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo. In interest of fairness, today Mike Melaragno brings you his take on why he shouldn’t be let go.
The recent offensive struggles from the Indians have the media, fans, national pundits and writers on this website wondering whether change is on the horizon– one that would involve replacing one, if not both, of the Indians Major League batting instructors– hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo and assistant hitting coach Matt Quatraro.
Disappointment, frustration, and even anger at how poorly the Indians have played in June is understandable– the club had high expectations going into the season and yet find themselves 10 games out of first place in the American League Central after being swept by the Baltimore Orioles before taking the first two against Tampa.
However, blame is usually placed on those whose work is done outside of the white lines as opposed to inside. The perception is that the output inside the line should directly reflect the input performed outside. While there is some merit to this theory in certain situations, it is not in this case.
Batting coaches (and managers) are hired to use the available personnel as best he can. Since this website primarily uses numbers to prove an author’s case, this article will show that it’s not the batting coach, rather the personnel, that is keeping the Indians from contending in the Central. In fact, my co-owner Joseph Coblitz specifically told me to “come up with a legitimate reason” why Van Burkleo should not be fired and to “put together two non sarcastic sentences.” Thus, I will do my best to justify, with objective analysis, why Van Burkleo is not to be blamed.
After a 25-29 start to the 2005 season, the Indians felt they needed a change– on June 4th, after a tough 6-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox, they fired their hitting coach, Hall of Famer Eddie Murray. Murray joined Eric Wedge‘s coaching staff in 2002 when Wedge was hired as team manager.
From the outside looking in, it looks as if the club made the right move. In April that season, the Indians offense was morbid. They owned the 29th worst wOBA at .291 and hit only .228/.293/.376. However, the month of May saw the offense improve as they owned the 14th best wOBA at .326 and hit .260/.326/.423. Despite the Murray firing, the bats continued to improve in June as they had the 5th best wOBA at .353 and hit .283/.345/.477 and kept up the pace through the 2nd half, hitting .283/.347/.477 and a .355 wOBA.
But did they?
Under Murray, the Indians offense had steadily improved since going through a massive rebuild after the 2001 season.
Here is how the offense ranked split between the 1st and 2nd 81 games.
2003: 1st Half- .253/.321/.398 with a .315 wOBA; 2nd Half- .254/.309/.405 with a .405 wOBA
2004: 1st Half- .278/.356/.428 with a .341 wOBA; 2nd Half- .274/.346/.462 with a .349 wOBA
There was steady improvement from every hitter since the retool took place. However, that improvement abruptly ended in April, as noted. The real reason is why? What was the cause?
Did Murray suddenly forget how to coach in April? Did he pick it back up in May?
From a subjective point of view, my whole argument can be reduced to the fact that coaching hitting is not like teaching American history. You don’t need to know how to be a monster home-run hitter in order to guide someone, because hitting a baseball is a motor skill that can only be cultivated by direct experience. You can teach your girlfriend all about the principles of a manual transmission, but she’s never going to be able to do it until she actually practices for a few hours. And hitting a baseball is much, much harder than driving a stick.
By the time a player reaches the Majors, he’s been through thousands and thousands of repetitions, from hitting baseballs in the cold, snowy springs in Northeast Ohio in their backyard to staring down a replacement-level fastball in AAA. The process takes years, and a young hitter is already a precision-engineering high-speed circuit of nerves, tendons, and muscles before Van Burkleo ever sees his scouting report. The process of building a hitter isn’t 10% complete when he reaches the Show, it’s 99.9% complete, and that final 0.1% is finished up pretty quickly. So by the time Van Burkleo gets a hold of a Michael Bourn, say, with nearly 4,000 major-league plate appearances?
The point is, I have never seen good coaches succeed with bad players at the Major League level. Where coaching is most important is at the little league, high school, college and minor league level.
If the Indians want to make a change, they should consider changing the personnel on the field or those who choose that personnel.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
