The Cubs are planning to hire Greg Brown as their next hitting coach, report Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic. Brown has spent the past two seasons as the Rays’ minor league hitting coordinator.
This will be Brown’s first job on a big league coaching staff. The 41-year-old spent a few seasons in minor league and independent ball in the early-mid 2000’s before transitioning into his post-playing career. Brown spent two seasons scouting with the Astros before taking over as head coach at Division II Nova Southeastern University. He held that role for nine years, with his club winning the D-II national championship in 2016, before departing to join the Rays.
Brown replaces Anthony Iapoce, who was let go after four seasons as Cubs’ hitting coach last month. He’ll be tasked with overseeing a Chicago offense that’s in transition, much like the roster in general. Having shipped out much of the core of their 2016 World Series winner over the past year, the Cubs leaned heavily on minor league veterans down the stretch. The front office will presumably bolster the lineup externally somewhat this winter (although catcher Willson Contreras might be a trade candidate), but it seems likely they’ll also take another look at players like Frank Schwindel and Patrick Wisdom to see if they can find a potential late-blooming regular or two.
Just remember folks, this isn’t a rebuild….and I’m a Nobel prize-winning bomb builder.
this is no disrespect to Mr. Brown but why is it that the worst players make the best coaches? i’ve always wondered
Because those who can’t, teach.
If you’re a great hitter, then what you’re doing works, and you spend your time focused on maintaining it. If you’re a struggling hitter, facing the end of your playing career, you dive deep on hitting, studying what is and isn’t working about your approach, and studying the approaches of other hitters who have had great success. So, when it comes to coaching, the great hitters generally only know what worked for them, but the poor hitters know what worked for all types.
Exactly, natural talent can overcome a lot of approach and technique, some people just ‘get it’ and are just naturally better than others.
Wayne Gretzky saw hockey instinctively better than anyone who’s ever played the game ever but his inability to communicate that natural skill and translate it in to strategy made him a failure as a coach.
Same as Ted Williams. He just assumed everybody saw the ball coming off the pitcher’s hand the same as him. In reality 99.99999% of MLB players never saw pitches the way Ted did.
Ogle, that is exactly it. Great answer
How did Barry Bonds work out as a HC?
Same as Michael Jordan as a head coach
The greatest hitter of all time was maybe also the best hitting coach ever. Ted Williams.
But most great hitters just aren’t that interested in coaching. Or at least enough interested to be good at it. Ted just loved to talk hitting. All day long.
People who are ultra-eliite expect others to be ultra-elite as well. We know what we know.
How’s that Patreon working out for you, self-proclaimed expert Tim?
Rod Carew and Pete Rose were two of the greatest hitters ever and they could coach.
Dusty Baker ( even though I dislike him ) has proven successful…
It all depends on the person.
Pete Rose credits Billy DeMars as the greatest hitting coach for him. It’s the reason Rose hired DeMars to be his hitting coach when he managed.
Damn I thought the pirates got rid of their broadcaster
I wish. I’ve never been a fan of his.
gotta hire greg jennings to put the whole team on his back now
Good job Jed! Anytime you can grab someone from the Rays staff, you do it!
I’d really like to see them give Frank Schwindel the 1B job next season. The man flat out raked after the trade deadline. Kept waiting for him to come back to Earth, and he didn’t. Wisdom can hit bombs, but his K rate was like 35 percent or something like that. If he can’t cut down on that, the bombs won’t really matter. Madrigal should be a good OBP guy at the top of the lineup, along with Hoerner if they can stay healthy. Hopefully 2nd half Ian Happ puts together a full year of that kinda production. I’d like to see them lock Willy C up, but who knows how that will play out. I don’t expect them to be super aggressive FA wise. A couple Joc Pederson type contracts, middle to back of rotation arms. Won’t be embarrassing next year, but won’t be good either.
Wisdom’s k rate was 41% this season. That’s concerning.
I knew it was bad. 41 percent is something else. Dude has light tower power, but who cares if you K at that rate? Not a lost cause, but he has some work to do this winter.
If you’re expecting the Cubs to sign any P who gets a QO you’ll be severely disappointed. They aren’t giving up the #7 draft pick for anybody in this group. As good as Hawkins and the Indians were at drafting and developing P’s, I wouldn’t want him to anyway.
@Dr. Chim… I agree with you about Schwindel. Everyone kept waiting for him to stop hitting and it never happened. The Dodgers seem to find these type of miracle turnaround players all the time, maybe the Cubs finally hit on one with Schwindel