Mariners finally fire hitting coach
Posted on 09. May, 2010 at 1:36 pm by SKI in Baseball, MLB Baseball, Seattle Mariners
SEATTLE (AP)—Hitting coach Alan Cockrell has been fired by the Seattle Mariners as the team continues to slump with the worst offense in the American League.
The Mariners made the move Sunday morning before closing out a miserable homestand against the Los Angeles Angels. Seattle has dropped the first eight games and scored just 12 runs over that stretch.
Alonzo Powell has been promoted to take over Cockrell’s duties. Powell was the hitting coach at Triple-A Tacoma for the past three seasons.
General manager Jack Zduriencik says in a statement that “you get to the point when change is inevitable.” Seattle is hitting just .225 and ranks last in the AL in eight offensive categories.
Who didn’t see this move coming. You can’t have this bad of an offense and not make a change, even though this new guy coming in probably can’t do anything to turn this offense around. Maybe these Mariner hitters will start hitting better now for pride since they cost this guy his job. Right now this offense is just pathetic. Last 8 games they have scored a total of 12 runs. The Brewers this year have scored 11 runs or more 7 times. In those 7 games the Brewers scored 100 runs, on the season the Mariners have scored 94 runs. That’s laughable. It’s time the Mariners started to bring up some young players to see if any of them can hit, because no one on this current roster can.
So have fun the rest of the season Mariner fans and when Lee gets traded and Ichiro doesn’t resign with the Mariners get ready to be lumped in with the Pirates and Nationals as the worst teams in baseball.
Tom
09. May, 2010
I don’t really think this will matter much. A new hitting coach isnt going to make Griffey Hit, or sweeney or Wilson or Langerhans or, well you get the picture.
The Mariners just have to face the facts, they aren’t very good. Their slugging percentage is abysmal, 2nd worst in the league to be exact. You can’t win unless you drive in runs. Since the Mariners have the 2nd worst on base percentage in the world, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
SKI
09. May, 2010
Tom I couldn’t agree with you more. A new hitting coach can’t turn back time on Griffey and Sweeney and lets face it Jack Wilson, and Rob Johnson never will hit. I did see that the Mariners did listen to me and Josh Wilson and MIchael Saunders both played and both hit homeruns, but still they wont be enough. I do see some upside if the Mariners will be buyers and not sellers coming up. Adding a big bat and maybe another decent bat could give them a decent lineup. Because Ichiro and Guiety are both hitting and Chone has to figure it out sometime and add 2 bats that would be good enough with how well their pitching has been. Lets just see what they do.
Tom
09. May, 2010
I hear you, but in the last 10/15 years the Mariners have not tried to better the team before the deadline. There was one year, (I cannot remember the exact year) but the M’s desperately needed a bat at the deadline and they didn’t even try to get one, they ended up failing badly in the playoffs. If Ken Jr. was named Ronald Smtih, he would have been released a long time ago. Cliff Lee will not resign in seattle, so they need to get rid of him. Maybe to San Diego for Adrain Gonzalez? Although, SD is winning, so I doubt they will move AG. Honestly, there isnt much out there in terms of a player that will make the Mariners instantly better offensively.
Mick
10. May, 2010
The fact that their hitting is terrible is in no part due to their hitting coach. The best hitting coaches in the game couldn’t get that lineup to hit. Firing Cockrell is all for show because everyone now knows what ESPN didn’t at the start of the year.
The M’s only shot is to trade Lee to a contender that needs pitching. San Diego has plenty of good young arms; not needed there in that small market. LA has zero pitching and plenty of hitting. Would LA be willing to send Loney to the M’s for Lee? Probably not, but a larger market is the best chance that the M’s have for getting any young hitters that can produce right now in the show.