@MarkKnudson41
There’s saying among football coaches: It’s not the X’s and O’s, it’s the Jimmies and the Joes.
To them, it’s about talent acquisition. He who gathers together the best players, wins.
But is that always the case? If it’s all about raw talent, then how does a school like Air Force…or Boise State for that matter…continue to beat teams that on paper at least, have much better players?
In truth, football is full of exceptions to that rule.
In Major League Baseball, the theory is put to the test by team like the Tampa Bay Rays, who continually field rosters and trot out line-ups of lesser known and lightly regarded players, yet keep on beating teams with bigger names and far bigger payrolls. Even the all powerful Los Angeles Dodgers contribute to doubts. LA certainly has a roster to be envied, but many of the guys who have been standouts over this decade of dominance have been players who were cast aside by other teams who deemed them not talented enough: There’s Chris Taylor. Max Muncy. Justin Turner. The list goes on.
So maybe it’s not just the Jimmies and the Joes. Maybe coaching and player development are really important, too.
The Colorado Rockies are certainly counting on that.
A self-described “draft and develop” organization, Colorado hasn’t done much in the development part in recent years. But they obviously know they haven’t gotten all they should be getting out of the talent on hand. So much so that they finally saw the light – or better yet, the lack of offensive production – and cast aside hitting coach Dave Magadan. The Rockies offensive production has steadily decreased under his tutelage. Showing him the door was clearly a move that was long overdue.
The question is, can the Rockies offense – presumably with the same cast of characters returning in 2023 – get appreciably better with a new hitting coach and perhaps a new approach at the plate?
Robert Van Scoyoc would certainly argue that they can.
Van Scoyoc is the Dodgers hitting coach. He was hired before the 2019 season and at age 32 became the youngest hitting coach in the big leagues…younger than Turner, who’s career took another leap forward after embracing what Van Scoyoc was teaching. Van Scoyoc never had the ability to play above the junior college level, but possessed the ability to comprehend, uncomplicate and convey what he had learned about the art of hitting a baseball to those who had greater ability to do it.
Like they say, those you can do, those who can’t, teach.
And Dodgers like Muncy and Taylor have blossomed because of it.
The point is, a guy like Van Scoyoc would look at a guy like Ryan McMahon, for example, and see what he could become. How much more productive…how much more “damage” he’s capable of doing in the batters box.
The Rockies have a whole group of guys who can and should be able to do more damage at the plate. Especially at Coors Field.
Clearly, Magadan’s methods and philosophy didn’t work. The Rockies – who should automatically lead the NL in team batting average every season playing in the vast expanse of Coors Field – hit a so-so .254 as a team, which was third in the league. They were 10th in runs scored and 13th in home runs.
That’s falls way short of “damage.”
Now the task is to find someone who can do for the Rockies what Van Scoyoc has done for the Dodgers. Make average players good, and make good players great…and make former All-Stars into MVP candidates.
Is that asking too much?
A new hitting coach alone isn’t going to turn this roster into a playoff team. But neither is simply signing more Kris Bryant’s. The need to add to the roster, yes. But they also need to get more out of what they already have.
Several things have to happen for the Rockies to re-emerge as a postseason contender. But at least one of those things is being addressed.