Gary Gaetti was fired from his position of hitting coach by the Houston Astros tonight.
I don't for one minute believe that Gary Gaetti was responsible for Jason Lane's .205 batting average, or for Preston Wilson's early season barrage of strikeouts, or for Brad Ausmus' recent 0 for 40. Though if you had ten minutes and bought me a Guiness, you could probably convince me that he had something to do with Willy Taveras' poor numbers.
But, whatever, the point is, that no matter how much "blame" you think Gaetti gets, the fact is that he was the responsible party.
"Hitting Coach" was his job title, and the team didn't hit.
His firing (like Lane's demotion) is thus a sign that complacency is not going to be OK, that people within the organization are going to need to take responsibility for their charges, and as such, I am all over the move, like it even better than I liked the Huff move.
And that's without even knowing whether or not it will "work." Even with the addition of Aubrey Huff, this is a poor offensive team, and Sean Berry may find it as difficult to move the collective OPS upward as Gaetti had.