WHICH YANKEE COACHES ARE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK?

The Yankees have over a dozen games left this season and every single one of them are crucial. No pressure fellas, but we are pulling for you! We are not ready to watch Mariano Rivera walk off the mound for the last time without postseason berth. I just can’t accept that. I WON’T accept that. Postseason tradition and excellence are both on the line here….and so are people’s jobs. Believe it.

I refuse to look at the odds no matter how bleak they may seem sometimes because we have to find a way to win. I believe that this isn’t over until the fat lady sings and she’s not signing yet. In the event that the fat lady does sing though I think some heads will be on the chopping block, specifically the coaching staff.

Love him or hate him but I think Joe Girardi deserves a lot of credit this year. A lot of people do not like his binder and his methods but this year no binder or any other strategy guide could have prepared him for the onslaught of issues he had to deal with. Sure, age catches up with players eventually but no omen could have possibly told him that the Yankees would have this many injuries and used a AAA roster for a good part of the year.

I believe that Girardi did the absolute best with what he had….which wasn’t much thanks to no off season moves and not a very attractive free agent market to play with anyway. You can’t fault him for that. If you want to point a finger then look at Hank and Hal for not being more aggressive with the few gems that were in the free agent pond during the off season. Girardi had limited resources, and I think he has done well with what was available.

Who knew that Derek Jeter was only going to play in 17 games this year? I’m sure he didn’t know that he would also have seven different players play at shortstop. Who knew Curtis Granderson was going to be on disabled list twice? Who knew that Mark Teixeira was going to play 15 games and eventually need season ending surgery? Who knew that the Yankees savior at first base would be Lyle Overbay and also Mark Reynolds? He pieced together a good team. Everyone counted us out and here we are 1 game out of the wild card.

Larry Rothschild deserves a lot of credit also. I think he has flown under the radar a lot this year but he knows what he is doing out there. I have to single out Ivan Nova here. His season started out pretty awful and many were wondering if 2011 was as good as it would get for him. After being sent down to the minors for a while Nova has come back strong again. In fact, some say he is performing like a front end starter. Shawn Kelley and David Huff have been outstanding this season for us, and you have to believe that Rothschild has played a part in this. Sure, there are some pitchers that have not had the greatest season like CC Sabathia, and PhilHughes but I would say the positive outweigh the negatives and he is one of the best pitching coaches in the game.

Then we have Kevin Long. There is no way to sugarcoat this I’m just gonna throw it out there. Kevin Long is on the chopping block and he just might need to go! Look, this team has struggled for years now with situational hitting and we have talked about this before, read NOW IT'S TIME FOR A LONG WINTERS NAP. He has these famous drills that he does with the team during practice but when the game is on the line and the lights are shining the team can’t hit with runners in scoring position. Sure, he can’t swing the bat for this team but he needs to be able to identify the issues and help these guys fix them also known as preventing the hitting flaws. His job also includes keeping hitters as consistent as possible and creating routines that will prevent them from falling into bad habits. They are professional ball players, but if he can’t help them then someone else needs to take that role. If you look at stats the Yankees are on the bottom of the totem pole in almost every category except one, and in that case they are middle of the pack. When it comes to batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage the Yankees are on the bottom. I hate to play what if….but I will. What if the Yankees were better in all of those categories? It probably means fighting for the division rather than the wild card.

I am not trying to discredit Long, he is a great hitting coach. He is probably one of the best if not the best in the sport but reputation will only take you so far. Last year Brian Cashman was quick to come to Long’s defense saying "He's safe. ... Kevin Long is without question one of the best hitting coaches in the game, and what took place here is a collective failure, not an individual one, and no one is going to be pointed at as a scapegoat," read the rest HERE.

How long is this a “collective failure” and how long until it does come down to one person? If the Yankees miss the postseason you can’t use this same argument because then it becomes a breakdown of fundamentals. Last year the bats disappeared during the postseason and we all know what happened. If the Yankees miss this season, you have to look at the stats that asted an entire season and realize that this is just a breakdown that has carried over, period.

Other hitting coaches have taken the blame for less of an offense. Take Los Angeles Angels hitting coach  Mickey Hatcher. He was fired last season after superstar Albert Pujols had his worst offensive start of his career. The team as a whole ranked 13^th in the American League in runs scored and 12^th in on-base percentage. They were also shut out eight times before the month of May was even over. Even after a long 12 year tenure as the hitting coach those results were not acceptable for a team that was expected by many to make the postseason with the new additions to that club.

More recently, let’s look at Rick Eckstein. The Nationals were expected to be a top contender in the NL East this season, but the team struggled offensively the entire first half and now Eckstein is out of a job. At the time of his release the Nationals were tied for 28^th in runs scored and were 27^th in batting average. Before his release he was the most tenured hitting coach in the NL East and had been with the Nationals since 2009. He too was well liked, but as stated before reputation will only take you so far. Like the Nationals, the Yankees are also on the bottom of these same categories so the same thing could happen to Long.

Maybe I am wrong...but maybe Kevin Long's time in the Bronx is up. Going forward this team needs to find a way to hit consistently. There is a coaching flaw, and right now all signs point to him. I just hope the Yankee bats come alive and I eat my words later.





--Jeana Bellezza, BYB Senior Writer and Editor
Twitter: @NyPrincessJ

 

 
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