@MarkKnudson41
The many of us who had been clamoring for a new hitting coach for the Colorado Rockies have finally gotten our wish, with the club recently announcing the hiring of Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens to replace Dave Magadan.
Magadan’s tenure with Colorado was…unsuccessful. He was a very successful big league player, lasting 16 seasons and ending up with a career batting average of .288. But that did not translate to coaching/teaching. He had a good stint with the Boston Red Sox, where he was part of a World Series winning team in 2007 (over the Colorado Rockies.) But at his other four stops over his 20 years in the dugout, team stats regressed. Certainly the Rockies production went down steadily during his four season in purple.
But how much of that is on the coach, and how much is it about the line-up and the roster as a whole? Remember, the Rockies as a whole regressed during that same time period.
Former Rockies outfielder turned broadcaster Ryan Spilborghs wants us to temper our expectations.
“The hitting coach job is the worst job for any coach in Major League Baseball,” Spilly notes. “It’s a thankless job. A lot of it has to do with personnel. Dave Magadan wasn’t hitting. He wasn’t taking any at bats.
“Hitting is innate. That’s the problem a lot of us have (with hitting coaches,)” he continued. “I could not teach you how to hit other than what your skill set allows you to do.”
So it’s going to be on the Rockies hitters “skill set.”
Good luck, Bam Bam.
Meulens – given the nickname as a youngster after the character in The Flintstones TV series – brings a very different resume to town. He played seven years in the big leagues, sandwiched in between a three year stint in Japan…with a season in Korea tacked on at the end. Originally from the country of Curaçao, he’s also played a lot of international baseball in the Summer Olympics and the World Baseball Classic. Call him, “well-traveled.”
Most importantly, he’s been a big league hitting coach since 2010, and has three World Series rings from his time with the San Francisco Giants. Last season he was the Assistant Hitting Coach for the New York Yankees.
At least he knows what power hitters are supposed to look like.
So given the limitations of the Rockies roster (there is no Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton on the roster) what can fans expect from the new coach? Can he somehow get his team to chase fewer bad pitches and have better plate discipline? Can he find a way – no doubt with the help of the limited analytics department – to get the Rockies to hit fewer ground balls (their “ground ball rate” was among the worst in the majors last season.) Can he help keep guys like Kris Bryant healthy?
At least the shift will be gone, which should help Charlie Blackmon and Ryan McMahon, to name a few. We may be able to give him credit for that.
Whether he deserves it or not, the Rockies new hitting coach will be measured against his predecessor strictly by the numbers. As in team batting average, home runs, etc. Oh…and by wins and losses, too.
A thankless job to be sure.