TODAY: Iapoce indeed won’t be returning, as Hoyer told reporters today. In another coaching change, Hoyer announced that associate pitching/catching/strategy coach Mike Borzello won’t be returning in 2022.
OCTOBER 5: The Cubs are expected to move on from hitting coach Anthony Iapoce, tweets Robert Murray of FanSided. Iapoce has been the Northsiders major league hitting coach since October, 2018, when Joe Maddon was still manager and Theo Epstein was President of Baseball Operations. Given that neither is still with the team, it probably isn’t a big surprise that the Cubbies are moving on from Iapoce, too.
Iapoce started with the Cubs in 2013, initially in their player development department, where he oversaw their minor league hitting program. He also served as a special assistant to then-GM (now President of Baseball Operations) Jed Hoyer and Epstein.
In light of their 71-91 record, no one will be surprised that the Cubs finished with a below average 92 wRC+ overall. Of course, in the big scheme of things a club’s hitting coach is far down the pecking order when it comes to results on the field. And it certainly didn’t help the team’s offensive performance that Hoyer and company chose to trade Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Kris Bryant prior to the July 30 deadline. But the Cubs are clearly a team in transition, and changes were coming and will no doubt continue to be made before Opening Day, 2022.
Prior to joining the Cubs, Iapoce served as the Rangers’ hitting coach from 2016 to 2018, his first big league coaching assignment. He broke into pro ball in 1994, after being taken by the Brewers in the 33rd round of that year’s draft. In 11 minor league seasons he reached the AAA level during parts of four campaigns, but only managed an anemic .210/.289/.266 output at that level. He then had stints as a minor league coach with the Marlins (2006 – 09) and Blue Jays (2010 – 12).
Interesting move…. i’m guessing Schwindel liked him
Somebody get on the phone with Kevin Long of the Nationals. Responsible for turning Daniel Murphy (and now Kyle Schwarber) around.
Kyle Schwarber and Daniel Murphy turned themselves around – not Kevin Long.
Look, let’s be honest – we don’t know for sure what his impact was, if any. However, when hitters perform poorly, the hitting coach is an easy target. So, when guys do well, shouldn’t the coach get some credit?
The Italian American Civil Rights League is looking into these two firings. LOL
Exactly! And then they will release Martini, Biagini and Giambrone!
What took so long?!
Ross out next.
No way that happens
Chi Sox Fan doesn’t care that Hoyer just said he hopes to extend Ross…he only trolls this board because even though Sox are in playoffs, he knows it’s one round and out. Ever heard of a fan who lives on opponents boards rather than his own fav team? Neither have I.
Great guy! Will find another opportunity real quick.
Not sure why….I think a lot of their young hitters played well after the firesale playel. Wisdom, Ortega, Happ and Schwindel all played well. Hitting coaches by and large aren’t going to effect how the Vets play.
Wisdom, Ortega, and Schwindel aren’t really young, but the fact that these 4A players found MLB success should reflect well on Iapoce. Not sure how much he had to do with this.
there is always the possibility that he doesn’t want to stay in a rebuild
Good point. I now kind of wonder of there’s more fire to the possibility of Epstein joining the Mets.
There may be some truth; however, it has nothing to do with this post.
Yankees hitting coach Marcus Thames should also be unemployed
After tonight.
Lol he should have been fired when Larry Rothschild was
I always wonder how a guy who never made it to the majors and only batted .211 as a minor league player becomes a hitting coach? His hitting knowledge certainly didn’t help him all that much ;-). But I guess the old saying applies: the best players make the worst coaches.
I thought exactly the same thing. What’s the end of that saying? “Those who can’t, teach”
And those who can’t teach, teach hitting.
Ok…I don’t comment much, probably for good reason. HA! I thought I saw some stats showing the Cubs offensive metrics improved after the trade deadline….Can you all let me know how crazy I am?
Oddly enough It seemed the offense actually got better once they traded Rizzo, Bryant, Baez.
Frank Schwindel was pretty great. Rafael Ortega was solid. Patrick Wisdom cooled off but still hit a lot of home runs. Ian Happ finished hot. Duffy too.
Not sure how this does/does not carry over into 2022, but I would assume a lot of regression.
They should let the whole player development department go from Hoyer on down. Who’s the last average to above average starting pitcher they developed.? If any.
Mark Prior?
Dylan Cease
Lmao!
So…who are candidates to replace him?
Chili Davis
Lloyd – you’re close but I’m going with Jody Davis.
maybe chris davis
or how about you do multiple coaches, chili davis, jody davis, chris davis and khris davis.
With chief hitting coach Elvin Tappe.
Bette Davis
Sammy Davis
Sammy Davis
Myles.
Should hire Frank Thomas!
But the “Big Hurt” has better things to do!
I don’t blame him.
Bring back John Mallee please.
John Mallee sucked as hitting coach for the Phillies a few years ago he was horrible.
Gary Matthews would make a good hitting coach and another Ex Phillie Milt Thompson was a great hitting coach.
So…only ex-Phillies?
Cubs won the World Series with Mallee at the helm. Their offense took a nosedive as soon as they let him go.
But I believe that may have been more about the players themselves. Once they won, they probably felt their way was the best way, and how dare some hitting coach tell me to make a change when we are WS champs?!
Orioles hitting coach in 22
Probably some truth to this, with former Cub Elias running the show and a former Cubs minor league manager in their dugout…
A better move would be to fire the Rickett’s family!
That makes no sense
Gotta hand it to the Cubs. Trade away all their best hitters, then fire the hitting coach.
The minor leaguers that replaced our “best hitters” did a better job.
It’s because of the goggles.
Any decent sculptor needs some decent clay to work with. When you have an organization of guys who basically swing as hard as they possibly can no matter what the count or situation, That must be the Hitting Coach’s fault right? Yeah sure.
You ever notice how someone could be a great hitter, sign with the Cubs and just suck? I swear it’s in their contract that it’s not about being a team player, it’s just about you.
Ricketts wants a low payroll, so they can pay themselves back for going 100% over budget. I expect Wilson to be traded. I said at All Star Break that they would offer an extension to Ross to buy time because the fans loved him. I expect them to name another person without any managing skills in Ben Zobrist as the hitting coach. Ricketts has pushed out the average everyday fans with their ticket prices where it’s now a party and the place to be “seen”. You look at the crowd and 90% are on their phones not even paying attention. I now live in Nebraska and I see how the Ricketts family is. The Governor Pete and daddy are 100% against gambling here in Nebraska and don’t even want betting on Nebraska football games, yet they sign a $100 million contract to build a sportsbook in Wrigley. Talk about hypocrisy.
“Certainly didn’t help that Hoyer and company traded Baez, Rizzo, and Bryant at the deadline July 30…”
Actually it certainly did help!
Team RPG before: 4.20, after 4.57
Team BA before: .227, after .251
Team OBP before.308, after .317
Team SLG before .398, after .424
Everyone still crying about the “core” but fact is it was addition by subtraction.
Sample size assumption. Look, these guys who performed well for the Cubs after the “core” left are AAAA players. They aren’t prospects, and you can’t place too much hope for the future based on 200 ABs for a 29-year-old. Yet Hoyer probably will, and when guys like Wisdom and Frank the Tank end up hitting a buck-eighty by June, they’ll be wishing they hadn’t placed those kinds of irrational expectations on them. Hey, guys like Frank are great stories, and I wish nothing but the best for him. But if I’m trying to contend, or even attempting to build the NEXT GREAT CUBS TEAM, I’m not counting on guys like Ortega, except for the bench perhaps.
Agreed. What I’m saying is that team hitting improved after trades, didn’t make things worse as this article assumes. 50-60 game sample size shouldn’t be dismissed…third of a season!
Appears as though this is going to be a trend…. Blame the hitting coaches for teams’ seasonal failures.
Can’t fire all the players, and the manager is a “star”, according to Hoyer.
To be fair all of this emphasis on launch angle and exit velocity and players swing out of their shoes to clobber balls at their eyebrows should fall on someone.
Remember when players tried to actually get hits and move runners over and draw walks and not try to hit grand slams with the bases empty?
Where you really need great hitting coaches are in the minors! By the time a player reaches MLB, they feel like they know what they’re doing & coaches are not that important in development.
They had Andy Haines, who is now the Brewers hitting coach, and he is becoming fairly well regarded. They also had a solid manager-in-waiting with Davey Martinez, but let him slip through their fingers. And the GM with the Giants is getting some credit for helping to turn them around, 107 wins…meanwhile, the Cubs are like a little lost sheep in the forest.
They did lose out on Davey Martinez. He was able to learn how to be a good manager watching a buffoon at the helm and learning from the mistakes being made.
Why can’t some teams find a hitting coach that actually hit. I never heard of this guy. Must’ve had a great OPS in rookie ball.
I’ll be the first to tell you I have zero hits in the minors and zero hits in the big leagues. But let’s get somebody in some of these organizations that knows hitting
Being a great hitter doesn’t necessarily make you a great hitting coach. Many poor or average hitters knew how to hit, they just didn’t have the talent to become elite, but they can still teach it. How many current major league managers were great players. Very few. Some of it, is on certain players who have an unwillingness to change a stance or approach at the plate.
I would take Manny in a heartbeat. He knows how to hit and can pass it along.
The poor hitter makes a great coach is a lie. A poor hitter may know more because he sucked and had to dig more to just survive vs the good hitters that had talent.
But if you get a guy that knows how to and didn’t suck and can teach. Best of both worlds.
Persona is #1. Can he relate. Many know the work. Can they relate to the pupal?
To me if I see a guy like Manny or A Rod whom had HOF careers and were part of dynasties then yes I would take that over a guy that never played a major league game
Cubs need to hire a hitting mechanic. Theo hired stat and video guys. Let the hitters figure their swings out.
That is fine when it comes to vets. Not to younger hitters.
I see it as Bryant finally adjusted to the high fastball. The rest did not. The coach becomes the fall guy. Schwarber gets better after leaving. Blame the hitting coach Happ and Heyward nose dive. Hitting coach.
David is weak when it comes to hitting. Joe was a hitting coach. They need a top end hitting coach more that they did. Joe was able to work with the hitters more and it let Iapoc focus more on the video room stuff with the hitters vs doing mechanic work.
You might be right about emphasis on hitting. However Joe would do a better job of managing a pitching staff during the game wearing a blindfold. He’s clueless on anything to do with players that throw off of a mound. Have to believe when Ohtani throws the front office calls down to the dugout to remove him from the game. He’s two season into his contract with the Angels. Whatever the term of the contract I would not expect him to last thru the entire deal.
The part about a hitting mechanic is spot on! I was wondering why they did not spend the money to send some of the players to a hitting lab.
Schwarber and Heyward were prime candidates and obviously the Nationals were able to fix Schwarbers approach/swing.
I expected the hitting coach to go. I was more surprised about Borzello leaving. I won’t be surprised if he ends up as a pitching coach somewhere.
Rumor here in OrioleLand is that Hyde might be looking to bring in Iapoce to replace Don Long who was “not retained” as O’s hitting coach. I don’t know anything about him other than they worked together in Chicago. If he can help instill some better plate discipline, I’m all for it. Honestly I think a major league hitting coach is more like a the guy at Jiffy Lube while the mechanics all work in the minors doing the heavy rebuilding.
BREAKING!! New GM is a blue haired tranny! A real victory for progressives everywhere! Word on the street is that Lori “The Messiah” Lightfoot PERSONNALY recommended the hire.
#winning