Hitting Coaches Axed

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Donnie promoted?

[G-Fafif]

[G-Fafif]

[G-Fafif]

Zack Scott says it's about process.

[G-Fafif]

Official release:

FLUSHING, N.Y., May 3, 2021 — The New York Mets have announced tonight that the club has relieved hitting coach Chili Davis and assistant hitting coach Tom Slater of their duties, effective immediately. The club has named Hugh Quattlebaum the team's new hitting coach and Kevin Howard the new assistant hitting coach. Both will be in St. Louis on Tuesday. Quattlebaum, 42, joined the Mets organization this offseason as the minor league director of hitting development. He had spent the previous three seasons with Seattle. Quattlebaum was the Mariners' minor league hitting coordinator in 2018–2019 and was the assistant hitting coach with the Major League team during 2020. Prior to working with the Mariners, he was coaching and consulting in Southern California. Quattlebaum was drafted by Detroit in the 25th round of the 2000 First-Year Player Draft from Amherst College (MA). He spent four years in the Tigers (2000–2002) and Orioles (2003) minor league systems. Howard, 39, joined the Mets this year as the organization's director of player development. He spent the previous six seasons in Cleveland's organization, including 2019–2020 as the minor league hitting coordinator. Howard played professionally for 12 seasons, playing in the Reds, Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers, Mariners, Padres, Blue Jays and Cardinals organizations before spending the final two years of his playing career in Independent ball. He was originally drafted in the fifth round of the 2003 First-Year Player Draft by Cincinnati. Howard earned a bachelor's degree in Business Management from the University of Miami, where played collegiately for three seasons, winning a National Championship in 2001. Davis was in his third season as the Mets hitting coach and Slater was in his fourth season as the team's assistant hitting coach.

[G-Fafif]

Zack Scott's between-the-lines explanation sounds like “Chili was old and set in ways we didn't believe in.”

[G-Fafif]

Scott throwing around “support system” a lot. Quite a buzzword.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Not impressed with the journos softball questions. Took all the time until Lennon got on to get an interesting question

[LWFS]

Zack Scott's between-the-lines explanation sounds like “Chili was old and set in ways we didn't believe in.”

Danced around saying it in soundbite-y fashion pretty admirably, what with the "everybody has strengths and weaknesses" thing.

[G-Fafif]

I kind of inferred “Donnie” was the manifestation of some sort of power of positive thinking pep talk from Chili, a la Tug going nuts after Grant told the boys the front office still believed in them. Perhaps it was a larger cry for help.

[G-Fafif]

Lennon https://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/david-lennon/chili-davis-tom-slater-fired-mets-hitting-coach-1.50235832attempts to put pieces together, albeit from the same abundance-of-caution distance at which all media is operating (really cuts down on the ol' One Met Said).

Mets general manager Zack Scott used a lot of global language late Monday night and into Tuesday morning to explain the sudden firings of hitting coach Chili Davis and assistant Tom Slater after only 23 games. Organizational vision. Support infrastructure. Philosophical process. Nonsense. It would have been more honest to mention the true culprit here: Donnie Stevenson. And if you're looking for a real person, maybe even the badly slumping Francisco Lindor, the $341 million shortstop who rightly has the ear of owner Steve Cohen, the new mayor of Panic City. Because once prominent Mets such as Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo started crediting some shadowy, presumably fictitious hitting guru for the club's offensive turnaround over the weekend in Philly, that pretty much signaled the end for Davis and Slater, the previously respected hitting coaches who were actually in charge of the offense. To say otherwise just isn't being entirely truthful. If that had been an inside joke, fine. But to trumpet "Diesel Donnie" — as Alonso referred to him after Sunday's ESPN broadcast — so publicly was at the very least disrespectful to Davis and Slater, greasing the skids for the late-night axing following Tuesday's 6-5 loss to the Cardinals. I asked Scott if something profound had happened over the weekend, maybe a reason why the players abruptly decided Mr. Stevenson now was more integral to a two-game winning streak where the Mets banged out 17 hits Sunday night and batted .325 (25-for-77), along with a remarkable .429 (9-for-21) with runners in scoring position. But the GM didn't see the timing of the decision as significant. "I'm not sure I'm completely understanding your question," Scott said. "I mean, I think you'd have to ask the players about ‘Donnie.' But I guess the one thing I'll comment on is, obviously we had a lot of hits. The last couple of nights scored some runs. I think that should highlight that this isn't about recent results. This is about the process behind the scenes. "And whether we were not hitting with runners in scoring position or knocking 17 hits, it's not about that. It's too early to be overreacting to small samples of results." Tell that to Cohen, who pledged before the season these Mets (11-12) are going to make the playoffs. And to Lindor, who again looked lost at the plate Monday night, going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts that sunk him further into an 0-for-21 hole that has appeared 10 times worse. Lindor whiffed badly in his first two at-bats, swinging wildly at Adam Wainwright curveballs, and stranded six more runners, a rapidly escalating body count that should require his removal from the No. 2 hole until he gets well down below in the order. It may be only 23 games into the season, but Lindor isn't even hitting his weight (.163) and has only two extra-base hits in 86 at-bats. We expect Lindor to pull himself out of this nosedive, of course. But "early" is of little consolation to him, and Cohen surely doesn't want to see Mr. Smile, the face of his franchise, miserable each night. With that in mind, I also asked Scott if Lindor's struggles had a direct effect on the removal of Davis and Slater. The GM didn't say no. "I mean, not specific to Francisco, I guess the way I look at it is we know players are going to struggle," Scott said. "What someone in my position needs to think about is our infrastructure and our support system in place, when they do struggle. Is it the best that it can possibly be? Because when the players struggle, that's when they need the support more than ever. "The assessment was it needed to be better. We need to be providing these guys more support, a higher level of support. It's not that they weren't getting any support. They obviously were. But it's just an effort to improve how we go about things to take it to the next level." As much as Scott tried to downplay the results as a factor, do you think Davis and Slater would have been canned if the Mets were 18-5? Or Lindor was producing like the MVP candidate Cohen thought he paid for? No way. You don't mess with success for the sake of organizational vision. Scott now has his better fits in new hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum and assistant Kevin Howard, two actual names you can find in the media guide. But if the Mets don't straighten themselves out before long, don't be surprised if you hear more about Diesel Donnie again, only next time he'll be driving the bus over manager Luis Rojas.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'll have to check IMDB to see in which movie Groucho Marx played a character named "Hugh Quattlebaum".

[Lefty Specialist]

Yeah, the 'Diesel Donnie' business was the end of the road. You're basically humiliating your hitting coach on national television.



Don't know if any hitting coach can fix Lindor right now. And Rojas doesn't have the guts to bat him 7th or 8th.



Maybe they should hire Jacob deGrom as hitting coach. He does pretty much everything else.

[MFS62]

=G-Fafif post_id=62947 time=1620100806 user_id=55]
Zack Scott says it's about process.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If I was writing the back page headlines:



CHILI TO GO

[batmagadanleadoff]

Why don't the Mets hire someone to give the hitters pointers on pointing to the sky better?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Like I noted above I was shocked that nobody until Lennon asked about Donnie -- even he didn't ask "What's so great about Quatllebaum?" I agree the Mets under Rojas seem determined to make the same mistakes over and over, and a change will probably be good. All the lip service to Chili, and the guy worked remotely last year. Obviously Lindor looks awful and desperately needs something.



Ceetar will disagree with this but this is also a situation where the reduced access to these guys and manipulative press approach really hurts us fans.

[Edgy MD]

Thoughts on the Firing:



1. Chili is a respected and well-liked baseball figure, who has gotten some plum jobs working with outstanding young hitters in well-resourced organizations, but he sure seems to leave his assignments on cloudy terms.



2. Best Jamaican coach in Mets history.



3. Best savory coach in Mets history, as opposed to Cookie Rojas, who was the best sweet coach in Mets history.



4. Apparently cutting a guy loose after midnight isn't really such dirty play at all. Just don't do it on the west coast.



5. I conflate Kevin Howard with Kevin Morgan, who left the organization after a million years around the time Kevin Howard was coming in. Howard going from farm director to batting coach seems like a weird lateral move, but he was the hitting director in the Cleveland organization. I know this because I just looked him up, because I conflate him with Kevin Morgan.



6. I agree that the Mets offensive philosophy was bolluxed, but I can't remember the last time I didn't think that.



7. I'm only half buying the thesis that the "Diesel Donnie" phenomenon in some way precipitated or even triggered this. I can see connections, but I'm missing a lot of the dots.



8. Sometimes a solid team-wide "approach" is not so much a product of a coach so much as having a veteran everyday guy in your lineup, over 30 who has been in the league for 10 years and knows the pitchers. Maybe he isn't the best hitter in the lineup, but the others learn how to think ahead, get the edge, and execute situationally by watching him. Maybe the Mets need a Bartolo Colón of hitters. I'm not saying they should replace J.D. Davis with Pablo Sandoval, but yes, maybe that's exactly what I'm saying.



And maybe that's not the worst idea, but I have to say, re-reading it, it sounds like it's pretty close to the worst idea.



9. I fret that turnover trauma will delay the process by which this offense will become the machine it needs to be. I fear change and I fear lack of change.



10. It'd be a shame if Rojas really has the talent to do this job, but the Carlos Beltran situation just ended up launching his career too soon. But he's got to be on the hot seat now.



Bonus: Just go out and score 16 runs for deGrom tonight and make the Mets look like geniuses.

[Willets Point]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If I was writing the back page headlines: CHILI TO GO

CHILE GONE CARNE



I DON'T WANT MY BABY BACK, BABY BACK

[batmagadanleadoff]

Willets Point wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: If I was writing the back page headlines: CHILI TO GO CHILE GONE CARNE I DON'T WANT MY BABY BACK, BABY BACK

The Daily News went with "Chili Cooked ".

[Valadius]

Midnight Massacre.

[Ceetar]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Like I noted above I was shocked that nobody until Lennon asked about Donnie -- even he didn't ask "What's so great about Quatllebaum?" I agree the Mets under Rojas seem determined to make the same mistakes over and over, and a change will probably be good. All the lip service to Chili, and the guy worked remotely last year. Obviously Lindor looks awful and desperately needs something. Ceetar will disagree with this but this is also a situation where the reduced access to these guys and manipulative press approach really hurts us fans.

I don't disagree with this necessarily, I think the media would've had a better sense on the clubhouse-Chili relationship had they seen any of them together in 20 months. Also they seem as a whole defensive of Chili Davis, as they seem to be with all firings that they didn't themselves write about already. And, this is an aside but an important one, getting themselves vaccinated AND grilling the Mets on when they're going to get 85% goes a long way towards restoring that access. They can bitch and moan all they want (Howie's mentioned not being in the clubhouse for the Donnie thing at least three times that I've heard and I haven't listened all that much) but there's one big clear obstacle and they're NOT picking at it.



Anyway, I dislike this being phrased as disrespectful to Davis to talk about Donnie, I thought it was/is a fun little gimmick and I hate to see that sort of personality, like it or not, shut down due to some sense of decorum. Let's have some fun here. Also Lennon suggests that it was part of the signal that it was time to fire them, but making up a fictional hitting coach to the media, and/or firing a hitting coach BECAUSE of that gimmick, is bad process.



I didn't like Davis, and I get that Cohen/Sandy just got 'here' so it's hard to just shove everyone out the door and replace them, but they probably should've. But maybe they would've had time if they'd hired a GM instead of a creeper or two. or three.



As for Lindor, could he have been involved? Either explicitly or not? Either way, I think a change of hitting coach helps him just from the mental reset it might give him.

[Edgy MD]

Good takes everybody.



Funny that, when an executive goes, it's always the best or the worst news for his or her surrogate. Either you're getting the big job, or you're out with them.



Tough break for Slater.



[FIMG=250]https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/uq0AAOSwJppdUd8J/$_57.JPG?set_id=880000500F[/FIMG] [FIMG=250]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dkZ4XtQvL._AC_.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=250]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41EHQyhwNsL._AC_.jpg[/FIMG]

[smg58]

The core of the lineup had done mostly very well (one month notwithstanding) on Chili's watch. As far as different philosophies go: a big problem with Alderson's GM tenure was that he was preoccupied with maximizing fly balls while his team played home games in one of the parks that rewarded that approach the least. Van Wegenen had said that he wanted to change that approach, and while I had doubts initially about Davis, I think he was one of the few things van Wegenen did right.

[Centerfield]

What was Chili's philosophy anyway? Going oppo and using the whole field is definitely a philosophy I stand behind.

[Edgy MD]

I do too, but even if I didn't, it's suicidal to ignore half the field in an age of extreme shifts leaving the opposite field so utterly undefended.



Its really maddening to hear Gary Cohen, late in a game, say something along the lines of "And now Dominic Smith is coming up — he's 0-for-3 tonight but he's hit the ball hard twice tonight, but gotten robbed by the shift."



That's not the goal. And being successfully defended against with an open and obvious alignment change that you didn't adjust to isn't being robbed. It's poor planning and a just outcome.

[G-Fafif]

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Chili was in a tough spot for being one of the last men standing from the Brody/Mickey era. I get that managers and GMs want their own guys in there. And when the $341 million guy isn't hitting, it becomes easy to make that change.

[Ceetar]

Chili's approach, as I understand it, was to avoid fly balls, and just make 'solid line drive contact'.



That's how you end up with a billion RISP and a bottom of the league power numbers. When it takes lucky HBP, pitchers losing command, and 3 hits to drive home more than one run, you tend to strand a lot of guys.



Hit it hard in the air, good enough for Ted Williams, et al, good enough for the Mets.

[Edgy MD]

Is there any source for believing Chili's approach was to avoid fly balls?