Let's Talk About Our Next Hitting Coach

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Roessler whacked.

[Edgy MD]

Thus lowers the curtain on Roessle Mania.

It's too bad they waited until Jeremy Reed was off the market.

[metirish]

Roessler was so unassuming and lowkey I have a hard time picturing him ....

[Benjamin Grimm]

He looks something like this:

[Benjamin Grimm]

Mike Puma wrote: Hearing that Mets bullpen coach Ricky Bones will be reassigned within the organization. As @Joelsherman1 said, hitting coach Pat Roessler will not return. Assistant hitting coach Tom Slater will remain in his current role.

[Ceetar]

This is probably residual Callaway stuff rather than Van Wagenen right? He mostly kept the staff in place, but now that he's a little more settled he's going to adjust.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Sounds like Ruin Tomorrow Jr. and Gary DiSarcina could also be out of work

[Mex17]

Ceetar wrote: This is probably residual Callaway stuff rather than Van Wagenen right?

My initial reaction is the opposite, that BVW is coming in and looking at it fresh.

[Mex17]

Mike Puma wrote: Assistant hitting coach Tom Slater will remain in his current role.

Don't get this part. Shouldn't the new hitting coach get to choose his assistant?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Mex17 wrote: Mike Puma wrote: Assistant hitting coach Tom Slater will remain in his current role. Don't get this part. Shouldn't the new hitting coach get to choose his assistant?

When you find someone who's that good at scheduling bunting drills, supervising the arranging of batting helmets, and occasionally throwing a round of batting practice... how the h-e-double-BP-screens are you going to let that walk out the door?

[Edgy MD]

Assistant batting coach usually hangs out in the clubhouse during games, as players file back to take extra robot BP in the cage between innings. "Stay back!" "Don't overcommit!"

I get the feeling that they're not particularly easy to fire, even when their boss gets the heave-ho (Roessler only got the hitting coach job when his superior rolled), because the manager realizes he's scarcely seen or talked to the guy in months so it seems unfair to just fire him when you haven't really directly evaluated him.

My guess is that he's welcome back, but if the new batting instructor wants to go in a different direction, he gets re-assigned.

I wonder if Amaro applied for the GM job and didn't get an interview.

[metirish]

DiComo saying Amaro Jr moving to the Front Office as an advisor

[Edgy MD]

That's what I was thinking. He wouldn't be the first executive that joined an organization initially as a coach, getting a front row look at the talent and processes and philosophies, and then moving up to management.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

They're not saying it but he replaces JP Riccardi, probably

[Ceetar]

I always feel like the Amaro thing (And the Collins thing) are really just "hey, sit in the meetings with us and we'll keep paying you" and a way to keep feelers out. Amaro probably has a network of contacts outside the Mets usuals and it's worth keeping him around just to occasionally ask "Hey Ruben, can you call So and So and ask him what he thinks about 'player in the Phillies system'" or some jazz.

[smg58]

Would David Wright get offered/accept/be good at the hitting coach job?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

no.

I think I heard Chili Davis will get an interview. Chili Davis!

[seawolf17]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: no. I think I heard Chili Davis will get an interview. Chili Davis!

Chili Davis, looking at his numbers, was actually way better than I remembered.

* In sixteen seasons from 1982 to 1997, he played less than 137 games only three times. Then he was hurt, I guess, in 1998 for a bit, but then played another full season in 1999 and hit .269/.366/.445.
* In his eighteen full seasons, only once did he finish below the league average in OPS, and his career OPS+ was 121.
* He has three rings - 1991 with the Twins, and 1998 and 1999 with whoever won those years.

He's nowhere near the Hall or anything, but he was a damn good player for a really long time.

And for what it's worth:
* He coached the 2012-2014 A's, making the playoffs all three seasons and scoring more than 700 runs, which they didn't do again until 2017 And in 2013, Josh Donaldson had 7.7 WAR, and in 2014, he had 7.5 WAR.
* In 2015, he jumped to Boston, and they went from 3.91 R/G in 2014 to 4.62, 5.42, then 4.85 R/G in his three seasons there. And won the division two of those seasons.
* The Cubs last year made the playoffs, at least.

So the dude's coached seven seasons, six of them to the postseason. I think I'm all in on Chili Davis.

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Frayed Knot]

Chili was also a switch-hitter (despite the above cards showing him strictly as a lefty) ... for whatever that's worth as a hitting coach.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I also saw they were considering the leadoff man himself, Dave Magadan

[Centerfield]

Frayed Knot wrote: Chili was also a switch-hitter (despite the above cards showing him strictly as a lefty) ... for whatever that's worth as a hitting coach.

And as the splits will show, he was much better at gazing intently from the left side than he was from the right.

[Centerfield]

I mean, look at him from the right side. Very poor gazing mechanics.

[Centerfield]

This one from straight away. Chili Davis does a lot of gazing.

[Benjamin Grimm]

He's probably thinking about chili.

For the record, his given name isn't "chili". It's "Charles Theodore Davis". I seem to remember that his nickname is short for "Chili Bowl", perhaps because of a haircut that he got? At least I think that that's the story that Tim McCarver told on Channel 9 back in the 1980s.

If not, someone will have to explain the nickname methodology here.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That's the same story I recall.

I sometime conflate him with Jeffrey Leonard

[Frayed Knot]

Chili is also a rarity in baseball in that he hails from the island of Jamaica, a much more likely place to find sprinters or reggae singers than baseballers.

BB-Ref lists only four Jamaican-born ML'ers. Davis I knew, Devon White I didn't, the other two I don't remember. All four attended U.S. high schools:
Davis in LA, pitcher Justin Masterson (who's white) in Ohio, and the other two in NYC; White (who's not white) at Park West HS (CPW & 103rd) and Rolando Roomes (Beach Channel HS in Rockaway)

[smg58]

What is Lamar Johnson doing these days? He served here in an interim fashion in 2014 I think, and a few guys perked up under his watch (Lucas Duda most notably).

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: That's the same story I recall. I sometime conflate him with Jeffrey Leonard

I conflate him with Candy Moldanado.

Longtime West Coast corner outfielders who made for a tasty snack.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: That's the same story I recall. I sometime conflate him with Jeffrey Leonard I conflate him with Candy Moldanado. Longtime West Coast corner outfielders who made for a tasty snack.

wait...you think mold candy is tasty?