As I mentioned in a post or two yesterday, the Bucs officially announced their new Hitting Coach, Don Long, late of the Phillies minor league system. Here is a bit of Long’s hitting philosophy:
“The thing I’m interested in is connecting with each player and not just go with a blanket technique,” Long said. “That’s a little bit cliched, I know, but you really have to get to know the player. You have to get them to trust what you’re telling them.”
OK, know your player’s weaknesses and strengths and then coach accordingly. Sounds good so far.
“The type of hitter we’re going to try to create is an aggressive but under control hitter,” he (Long) said. “When he steps up to home plate, he’s ready to hit every pitch until his eyes tell him no. He has to see the ball and recognize where it’s going before he actually goes after it. . . . A lot of people are promoting walks in the game, and I believe this philosophy leads to that.”
Interesting since this is a very aggressive hitting team made up of a lot of free swingers. They drew the fewest number of walks last year and I don’t know if things can change all that much with just a new hitting coach. It’s always been my theory that the hitting coach doesn’t really make that big of a difference because the players just go according to their natural tendencies.
I would love to be proven wrong with this theory and I hope that Long can do just that.
