Astros coaching situation will need attention
by AstrosBill on Sep 6, 2011 5:57 PM CDT
Email
PrintAs I'm sure we all know; the Astros coaching situation isn't exactly settled for 2012...or is it? If Jim Crane isn't approved and Drayton can't find a pawn shop willing to pony up nearly 700 mil; maybe the current coaching staff will return. In my humble opinion; this will stagnate the development of the young players we will see on the field in 2012. Here are just a few things I have observed.
Pitching
Mills has not shown the ability to handle a pitching staff and I doubt Brocail is going to have any desire to return. I grow weary of Mills refusal to let a young starter pitch out of trouble in the late innings. If he thinks that wins and loses still matter at this point he's lost his perspective totally. This is about seeing what these kids can do in game situations. He's not allowing these situations to develop. He has far to quick of a "hook" and over uses his bullpen.
Hitters
Teaching was supposed to be Brad Mills forte'. At least that's what Terry Francona said (although there was a slight chuckle that followed the statement????). I see no improvement in the patience of our young hitters, in their strike zone judgement no do I see development in their situational hitting. I understand that a lot of this is on the player to put in the work but you must have a manager who motivates the players to improve.
Fielding
Defense is a skill that can be taught (see Matt Galante trains Craig Biggio to become second baseman). So; with that said, when do we get to see improvement???
Coaching
How many more "missed signs" do we have to endure at third base? Most recent "case in point". Paredes missed the sign coming around second (yesterday's game against the Pirates). First of all with a wet field, wet baseball and the fielder moving away from the plate, I don't understand why he was holding the runner up at third. But, he did and Parades missed the signed and was hung out to dry. If that was an isolated event..no big deal. But it happens far too often. Clark says Altuve ran through a stop sign on his inside the park home run. Ok, why were you holding him up?? Where is the aggression that you should be showing with a young fast team?? My point.......Dave Clark is indecisive and not cognizant of the situation.
That's just what I see.....do you agree? Or am I being overly critical? THAT will take a lot to convince me of.
8 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
A little quick on the draw...
C’mon…the Astos have a 21-year old, two 23 year olds, a handful of 24 year olds in their starting 8.
Their rotation has a guy who is still, I think, the youngest player in the majors, at least before September. And the bullpen for the most part is 25 and under.
I think it’s pretty unfair to destroy Brad Mills for not miraculously making this bunch into defensive wizards with plate discipline when they all are still in pampers.
Talk to any scout – poor plate discipline and defense is the hallmark of 99% of young players. Guys like Craig Biggio are an extreme of an extreme, not somebody to hold up and say, “guys with half of his talent should be this good.”
I think calling for Mills’ head for being unable to pull off miracles in the space of a month is pretty unfair.
RE: missed signs
Missing signs is a black mark on the player, not the coach. Coaches can tell young players to run with their heads up until they are blue in the face, but if the player doesn’t remember to do it when the adrenaline is pumping, there’s not a damn thing that can be done.
For Altuve, replay after replay after replay show that he would have been out by fifteen feet if the throw had actually been online. It was a god-awful throw from the outfielder, and Altuve absolutely should have stopped at third. Clark gave the right sign, and Altuve got lucky. It happens.
I agree with the comment on Altuve missing the sign—-and from what I heard Altuve say after the game, he agreed. Altuve said he didn’t see the sign because the Panda blocked his vision; he said he should have seen the sign and stopped. Paredes made a blunder on the base paths. I think Mills post-game comment is correct: Paredes let the excitement of the moment, knowing he was the tie run in the 9th, take over his judgement. Inexperience has a lot to do with that.
I think it is completely unrealistic to expect that the coaches can make rookie hitters patient with 2 months of coaching. Teaching patience at the big league level is very hard. Because of the years of habits that hitters developed by the time they reach the majors, some baseball people say that only a small percentage of hitters can be taught to change their patience at the major league level. There are some manager/coaches who will not even try to change a player’s plate discipline because they think it is ingrained by the time they reach the majors (that was the view that Garner and Cooper had about Pence). To his credit, Barnett has been trying to get the rookies to be more patient. In any event, it is unlikely that we can expect wholesale changes in plate discipline for all of the rookies.
Agreed, and...
…with the quality of minor league pitchers (overall, not very good), a player can be hack-tastic in the minor leagues and succeed, but struggle in the major leagues. Pitchers make a lot of mistakes over the plate in the minors, so a player can swing freely and “get lucky” far more often.
The most recent and egregious example of this is Brandon Wood, who currently plays for the Pirates. He hit 284/352/536 in over 3300 minor league plate appearances, but can’t buy a hit in the major leagues. In his case, his swing-at-everything approach coupled with a 71% contact rate has killed his career.
In Altuve’s case, I think his plate discipline is hurting him in a different way. He hacks as much as Wood, but his 88% contact rate keeps his average respectable. On the other hands, pitchers in the majors have much more control than in the minors. So they can throw him junk pitches, counting on him to either (A) hit into an out, or (B) bloop a single and they can go after the next guy. In the minors, pitchers made more mistakes over the plate, and Altuve crushed them for doubles or homers. Pitchers in the major leagues aren’t making those mistakes, and so Altuve ends up with an empty batting average.
I know that’s long-winded, but my point is if Altuve learns plate discipline and pitch selection, he will start laying off of “pitcher’s” pitches that he would sometimes hit for a single, and wait for one he can really sock. His lack of plate discipline is keeping him from truly being an impact hitter. The same contact tool that gives him a high average may actually be hindering him from becoming a better hitter because it’s not forcing him to learn discipline.
That was a little off-topic, but changing a player’s habits that he learned over thousands of plate appearances in the minors has got to be one of the most difficult things that a coach can be expected to do, especially in such a short time period. To tie it in with the post above, I don’t see how the current individual performances of the young Astros can be laid at the feet of the coaching staff with any seriousness.
I like Mike Barnett quite a bit.
We can keep him.
The rest? Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out – or do, I don’t care. Mills is infuriating with his handling of young players, and since that’s all we’ll have for quite a while, we need someone in here that can handle young players like Clint Hurdle or Manny Acost – wait.
We need another coach.
by YohannDookeyblue on Sep 7, 2011 6:35 PM CDT reply actions
Hitting Patience
Couldn’t help but notice in the handful of Phillies games I watched after the Pence trade at how much better his plate discipline has been since changing organizations. He takes pitches, works counts, and fouls off pitches until he gets one he can do something with.
You’d have to assume their staff or the veteran players in their locker room have helped him make an adjustment. I think the Astros organization fails at instilling plate discipline in the minor leagues. We consistently force opposing pitchers to throw fewer pitches which allows them to go deeper into the games. I guess I’m getting sick of seeing that most of our players have 4 PA’s and see a total of 11 pitches all game.
It’s a very small sample size in Philly, but Pence’s BB/PA has increased—11% vs. 7% in Houston. It’s possible that the change in roles (i.e., from the main run producer to complementary player) may have affected Pence’s patience. If a hitter feels like the other players other not likely to drive in runs, they sometimes feel like they have to expand their strike zone. I saw this happen to Berkman when the Astros’ overall team would be going through a run scoring slump; his usual patience would deteriorate as he tried to drive in runs. As I said above, Pence’s early managers with the Astros were disinclined to change his plate discipine. I recall Garner and Cooper both saying that he didn’t want to mess with Pence’s aggressiveness. That was a mistake, in my view.
To some extent, I think the tendency for low walk rates is more a product of the Astros’ preference for the types of players they draft and sign than it is coaching. The Astros seem to prefer high contact players to patient players.
He’s seeing 4.16 Pitches/PA in Philly, as opposed to 3.77 in Houston, which is significant, and a lot higher than his career totals (his previous high was 3.90 P/PA in 2009).
I doubt any coach can make him change his approach so drastically in so short a time, so I agree with clack that it probably has more to do with feeling less pressure of being the only run producer. Or maybe, he’s more focused because the games actually mean something.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on The Crawfish Boxes
Related FanShots on The Crawfish Boxes
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
TCB Tweets!
Current Series
4 game series vs Rockies @ Coors Field
|
Houston Astros
Monday, May 28, 2012, 2:10 PM CDT Wandy Rodriguez vs Juan Nicasio Sunny. Winds blowing in from center field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 70. |
||
| Mon 05/28 | 7:10 PM CDT | |
| Wed 05/30 | 7:40 PM CDT | |
| Thu 05/31 | 7:40 PM CDT | |
NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati
|
27 | 20 | .574 | 0 | Won 2 |
|
St. Louis
|
26 | 22 | .541 | 1.5 | Won 1 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
23 | 24 | .489 | 4 | Won 3 |
|
Houston
|
22 | 25 | .468 | 5 | Lost 2 |
|
Milwaukee
|
19 | 28 | .404 | 8 | Lost 2 |
|
Chicago
|
15 | 32 | .319 | 12 | Lost 12 |
(updated 5.28.2012 at 12:18 AM CDT)
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Get a grip: Reds’ Todd Frazier loses bat, still connects for home run (Video)
- Eric Hosmer redefines the Baltimore chop with infield double (Video)
- College player makes impossible over the fence catch to save tournament game (Video)
- Security!: Camden Yards guard collides with Royals’ Mike Moustakas
- The Juice: Nelson Cruz matches career high eight RBIs, Pujols stays hot in Seattle
