"Shortly after Kevin Seitzer was informed he’d been fired as Braves hitting coach on Thursday, Seitzer said it was the most difficult season of his coaching career because he wasn’t able to get hitters to stop pressing and trying to do too much, to pick up the slack when others were injured or slumping and the team was struggling."
25 comments
So he wasn’t able to get the players to listen to him, which sounds like a coaching problem
Hard year all around, not just for the players but for the coaching staff too, with both Seitz and Kranny’s wives dealing with cancer.
Best of luck, Seitz!
He later commented that all the lollygaging was the worst he had seen since his time in the Carolina leagues in the 80s.
What a tough decision for AA, sometimes you have to make a decision that just hurts.
Was bad starting in April before injuries.
Sort of echoes the Chipper Jones interview where he talked about not being able to work with the current generation of hitters. That they only wanted a homerun instead of hitting a ground ball through the gap to drive in a runner on third, etc.
I was kind of suspecting at times throughout the season that coaching wasn’t always registering. Pitching adjusted to the Braves and combined with the balls being dead and everyone being injured adjustments were just slow in materializing. It was just a really ugly season offensively across the board besides Ozuna. I think he’s a good coach but I suspect that AA might have just decided that it was time to refresh the voice in the cage.
It was rough for all of us KEITH!!
He was calling out Arcia I see.
Might be a hot take on here, but I think firing him is pretty short sighted. He’s proven the last few years that he’s a good hitting coach and only struggled just this year. The struggles could be attributed to bad coaching, the injuries, or problems off the field as this article now reveals. It’s likely all 3. And to also blame him for pitiful playoff offense is also short sighted given that 10 games is such a small sample size, and playoffs are always a crapshoot anyway.
Pinning the poor hitting for one year on a single coach that’s done well previously just doesn’t sit right with me. I feel like he earned the benefit of the doubt for one more year, but I’m not a GM so what do I know.
You could see that type of frustration on Chippers face too when talking about the hitting approach for this team.
Saw Matt Williams frustrated with the new MLB approach to hitting and accepting 150+ Ks/season.
Hope it can be fixed.
Not stated in the article was that Arcia personally went to AA’s office and demanded Seitzer and the hitting staff be fired.
This article made me sad to read tbh. Im not sure where I fall yet on if it was the right move or not (Im gonna trust AA on this one as he knows worlds more than me) but no matter how insightful a coach may be, they have to be able to get the players to adopt their advice. Seitzer said it best that the guy they need to hire needs to be able to do that.
I wish him the best and we should all remember his impact on the 2023 season too, not just this one.
Feel for Keith
So many people want to dismiss Chippers statements as “old man yells at clouds,” but you are missing the trees for the forest.
No one is debating that home runs are the best route to a high-powered offense over a season long sample size. However, in the moment of each game, there are times when a bloop single or sac fly should be the goal. How many games did we lose by one run?
The stat nerds also overlook the fact that hitting home runs is the hardest objective. There is a reason why we keep count of them and not singles. So, sending a batter up to the plate with the goal of achieving the hardest outcome isn’t always the best idea.
It also seems to dismiss the fact that pitchers are going throw pitches that offer less chance to hit a home runs if they know that the batter is only trying to do that.
I think Chipper is right, that a balanced attack is needed. Be able to launch the ball, but also choke up and make contact when needed.
Good coaching, in any sport, is having the players submit themselves to the coaching process. If anything, this is on Snit more than anyone. Great coaches set up a culture in the clubhouse, find or develop the players who will be leaders and enforce the rules of culture, and make hard decisions about playing time for those who aren’t falling into line. Snit wasn’t able to do any of that. This team took a big blow in losing Freeman and Swanson, and it wasn’t just from a production standpoint. There are no leaders on the roster that I can see, just a bunch of goof-offs who enjoy cheerleading when things are going well. It’s Snit’s fault that players weren’t listening to the coaching staff. He’s the one who needed to go.
No amount of Kevin Seitzer coaching was going to make a lineup that consisted of Sean Murphy (while healthy) 78wrc+ in 264ABs/TDA (he’s exceedingly fine as he was above average in 340 ABs)), Jarred Kelenic (400+ ABs for an 86 wrc+), Orlando Arcia 600 ABs for a 72 wrc+, Adam Duvall 330 ABs of 58wrc+ any good.
AA didn’t expect multiple offensive cornerstones to be out for extended periods of time with injuries, but like, that’s not a coaching problem. That’s a ‘these guys are kinda dog shit at hitting’ problem. Is Seitzer supposed to just tell them ‘hit better! be a good hitter!’?
Hell, it seems like Seitzer’s coaching is the only reason why Arcia’s 2023 was well above his career 78 wrc+. Bad hitters aren’t suddenly going to just start hitting, no matter the coaching. Maybe they can squeeze %s out of em at best.
fans and players alike, got way too high on themselves and expected (maybe assumed) too much.
I’m not sure firing coaches were needed. I do think that there needs to be some changes to the overall hitting philosophy and then training to implement. This goes for the minor leagues as well.
I’m fine chasing HRs. But swing at pitches that will help with that. Braves are just out there flailing at anything and everything it seems.
Too many guys with high strikeout rates and low walk rates. If you aren’t making contact, at least walk. Find some kind of value by getting on base. I can only imagine if Harris, Kelenic, Albies had 10% or higher walk rates, and how that could lead to more steals and eventually more runs by getting themselves into scoring position. I’m sure more guys on base also leads to hitters seeing better pitches too.
And watching the minors has been a nightmare the past couple of years. You see guys with 40% strikeouts rates and they also never walk. And the funny thing is, you aren’t seeing 20+ HR seasons from Braves minor league players. So what the hell are we teaching them?
My 3 main questions:
**What do you need to do to improve pitch recognition?**
**What do you do to help improve in zone contact rates?**
**How to reduce chase rates?**
If you can solve for these questions, you should see better contact rates and more walks. Obviously easier said than done.
Thank you Seitz
go prove us wrong 💪🏻
Exactly what a lot of us had said. The approach simply never changed. Good luck to Seitzer but that’s your job. If you can’t get them to change their approach then someone else has to try. If they can’t then you need to move on from those players who are not malleable.
Non paywall
[non paywall](https://archive.ph/WGt5l)
Unfortunately no one remembers a pure hitter over someone who slams 50 plus home runs
I feel bad for Seitz, man. I was so surprised by yesterday’s news. The shitty season certainly wasn’t the fault of these three coaches, but maybe the FO was thinking that the players were getting a little too comfortable, a little soft (especially with the departure of Wash and EY) and this is their way of showing that this is a business, and results matter. I’d have to imagine that a few of the guys that underperformed at the plate are feeling a little built guilty over these three losing their jobs ☹️
I feel very neutral about this because I just don’t really think that your avg MLB hitting coach has enough of a significant impact on the teams lineup game in and game out. Inside the org, management responsible for these moves could’ve perceived maybe KS wasn’t making enough effort to work with these guys in the cage, and maybe that went into the decision, but that’s just something the avg fan including myself have no way of knowing. Ultimately it is on the player to make the adjustments and figure out how to get better results. You’re not going to necessarily change a former all-star’s batting stance, who’s an adult, with a possible ego making millions of dollars in the middle of the season. The approach in the box is a league wide issue today. Everyone seems obsessed with analytics now a days like exit velocity but what really matters is what pretty much every player is taught fundamentally about hitting a baseball and being aware of the situation you’re in as a hitter. Too many times this year did we see so many guys (often the same guys) have the same shitty approach with runners on, 2-strike counts, not hitting the ball where it’s pitched but instead come out of their shoes and try to pull the ball, not being ready to pounce on the fastball or not even swinging at the only good pitch the whole AB. That seems to me like an individual player, kinda selfish attitude issue. We can’t think of Seitzer comparative to like an offensive/defensive coordinator in football who are literally calling plays on the field. Hitting a baseball is incredibly hard, and as a hitter you can burry yourself into bad habits that can carry on throughout the whole season. Seitzer isn’t a dummy. When he sees his guys consistently swinging at breaking balls off the plate, or popping the ball straight up early in the count and not working the count, I can assure you both him and the player responsible know what they’re doing. He can’t just give these mere advice or work with them in the cage to necessarily not do this stupid shit out in the game. I think it was just an unfortunate season all the way around and unfortunately for Seitzer the offensive stats said what they said at the end of the year, and the Braves made a reactionary move. May be it’s time for a change, idk.