Article: Twins hitting coach looking to fix team's approach at the plate

[Parker Hageman]

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?209-Twins-hitting-coach-looking-to-fix-team-s-approach-at-the-plate

[Fanatic Jack]

I believe Twins great Torii Hunter said it best when Joe Vavra was hired in 2008 “How is this guy going to help me.” Well it is really amazing that players don’t have faith in their coaches but the front office does. We have watched Scott Ulger and now Joe Vavra attempt to help young hitters with basically no success. However, when young players like Casey Blake, David Ortiz, and most recently J.J. Hardy leave the Twins they have tremendous careers. The reason why is because no coaches are in their ears saying “Hit the ball the other way.” Target Field is not to blame for any of the offensive woes it is the inability of the coaches to leave players alone and correct fundamental problems when needed. Just look at our coaching staff and nothing else needs to be said.

[The Dread Pirate]

I believe Twins great Torii Hunter said it best when Joe Vavra was hired in 2008 “How is this guy going to help me.” Well it is really amazing that players don’t have faith in their coaches but the front office does. We have watched Scott Ulger and now Joe Vavra attempt to help young hitters with basically no success. However, when young players like Casey Blake, David Ortiz, and most recently J.J. Hardy leave the Twins they have tremendous careers. The reason why is because no coaches are in their ears saying “Hit the ball the other way.” Target Field is not to blame for any of the offensive woes it is the inability of the coaches to leave players alone and correct fundamental problems when needed. Just look at our coaching staff and nothing else needs to be said.

Good to see the myth of Torii the Great is alive and well long after he left the organization. How quickly we forget that Vavra had the offense clicking quite smoothly in 2010 despite playing in a pitcher's park.

 

Your selective memory also managed to forget the post-Twin careers of other young players to leave the organization like Luis Rivas, Brian Buchanan, and Jacque Jones.

[Seth Stohs]

Well said, Dread... People forget that Torii acknowledged later that he was completely wrong.

[righty8383]

I believe Twins great Torii Hunter said it best when Joe Vavra was hired in 2008 “How is this guy going to help me.” Well it is really amazing that players don’t have faith in their coaches but the front office does. We have watched Scott Ulger and now Joe Vavra attempt to help young hitters with basically no success. However, when young players like Casey Blake, David Ortiz, and most recently J.J. Hardy leave the Twins they have tremendous careers. The reason why is because no coaches are in their ears saying “Hit the ball the other way.” Target Field is not to blame for any of the offensive woes it is the inability of the coaches to leave players alone and correct fundamental problems when needed. Just look at our coaching staff and nothing else needs to be said.

You are just another Twins fan that wrongfully assumes that Vavra tells all his players to hit the ball the other way. Perhaps This little piece from Twinkietown's Barandon Warne's interview with Joe Vavra will shed some light on the subject...

 

<<<BW: So there’s a bit of a preconceived notion that the organization is more of a "go the other way/don’t care much about home runs" philosophy-wise. Care to put that to bed ?

 

JV: No, it’s not that at all. I mean, we have a lot of young hitters, and we teach young hitters balance. You certainly don’t want to take their power away. Or say, take a pull hitter and make him go the other way. You don’t want to take away the strength from the kid; that just shocks him. You want him to be able to use it, but you also want to be able to push the outfield back on the opposite side of the field. Probably 70 percent or more of the pitches are likely to be away, so they do have to learn how to hit the ball the other way, and have some kind of balance to the playing field. If the field is tilted, they better have outstanding power to the pull side. You see a David Ortiz, who we had in this organization, and well, the ballpark changes the way you go about your hitting. I think the perception with Target Field is that you can’t hit home runs here, and they get that in their mind. I’m totally of the opposite mindset; you can drive the ball out of this ballpark. It’s certainly playing smaller than it did last year. This singles, slap-hitting stuff, that’s Denard Span to a degree, and it’s Ben Revere. They’re that type of guys; they’ve gotta get on base and gotta attack the opposite side, but they also gotta be able to pull it. You can’t be just on one side of the plate, so to speak, and that includes those two guys.>>>

 

If this doesn't convince you otherwise then I have nothing further to say.