The Cubs are making a change at hitting coach, as Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic report that Greg Brown will not be returning to that role next year, though he was offered a different role within the organization. Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune adds that minor league hitting coordinator Dustin Kelly has been promoted to take Brown’s place and that Brown will leave the Cubs to pursue other opportunities.
The job has been remarkably volatile in recent years, with Mooney pointing out that the Cubs have employed 14 different hitting coaches since 2012. The Cubs have been rebuilding in recent years and have many young and developing hitters on the roster, meaning that they will be looking to help those youngsters maximize their potential while also providing some much-needed stability and continuity as they aim to be more competitive in the years to come.
Kelly has been in the organization for almost two years now and had spent the previous three years working with the minor leaguers of the Dodgers. In the past couple of seasons, Kelly has surely developed relationships with the young players that have been moving through the system. Whether those players are already in the majors or still working their way there, the Cubs are evidently impressed with the work he’s done and have quickly bumped him up to the show without any signs of having conducted a search of external candidates.
Ted Cruz undoubtedly helped push this through.
Once Crow-Armstrong, Davis, Alcantra, Horton and Wicks get some seasoning and Jed uses his luring charm to grab the market’s top SS, the Cubs will be unstoppable for years. Any team that wants a pennant will have to come to the North Side to get one. Save the trip because you’re not leaving with it.
This guy has lost his melon
Not really because the Cubs have a young core and pitching that is developing, so I wouldn’t laugh at the thought the Cubs will be back in contention next year.
If by “contention” you mean around the .500 mark and on the outskirts of the wild card, then sure. But they have too many holes to plug to make a serious run before 24 or 25.
Well, there’s no way of knowing how many holes will need to be filled til after the offseason. And no way of knowing how much progress they’ll make in ‘23 to make any serious predictions beyond that.
Pretty bold statement for a franchise that has won once in 114 years.
I count the chickens after they’ve hatched.
Could have hired Beltran, he did wonders this year for Judge and the yankees with his cheating ways in their booth.
You would think that a retired accomplished hitter at some point in baseball history would want to convey their knowledge to younger players but Virtually no great hitter who makes commensurate $$$ will be interested in a hitting coach job making a few hundred thousand a year, so teams have no choice but to accept the current system anchored in the proverbial “He who can, does and he who cannot, teaches”. Regardless, hitters probably don’t approach the coach unless their desperate and out of other options. 14 hitting coaches in 10 years calls into question as to the necessity of that position; squeezing the turnip for 10 years and still no blood.
You obviously don’t understand how the transfer of knowledge occurs. Ability to actually do it has little to do with a teacher’s success.
The track record for great players becoming great coaches isn’t, well… great. Often great players have immense talent. Hand/eye coordination and reflexes that can’t be taught. The best teachers are typically guys who had to grind out an existence, by maximizing their talent through study and practice. Those are the things a good teacher provides.
There are not enough former players in that category to reach any valid conclusion, much less assume that a great hitter is inherently less able to pass along important information to a young player. We only know that less talented hitters are good at coaching because they’re virtally the only one’s doing it. Again, why should any great hitter accept a contract that’s a small fraction of what they got as a player, only to suffer the humiliation of eventually getting fired? Same for a pitching coach-how many Cy Young winners accept that job?
You obviously don’t understand that my point was simply curiosity as to why no great hitters are ever interested in the job, but regardless, “teaching” has little to do with the “success” of the teacher, but everything to do with the success of the student. A responsible teacher should do nothing more than teach the student HOW to learn, not WHAT to learn and point them in the direction of available information. That certainly doesn’t apply to “teaching” a player how to be a better hitter, who should already have enough of the necessary information beyond A ball.
Rod Carew and Dusty Baker are two that I think of.
Now that you mention it, I recall Carew coaching some for the Angels but not for very long, and don’t think Baker was ever a hitting coach unless it was in the minors. With the rule changes, I hope we see more emphasis from coaches on a more level swing for some hitters but the latter will generally resist that if it isn’t reflected in player contracts.
You’re right, Baker was Giants hitting coach from ’89-’92.
Stop Now Whonose. Before you expose more ‘brilliance’. I’m guessing you are one of these parents who rant and rave about certain books, and teaching truth and facts, in schools.