Atlanta Braves’ Hitting Coach Kevin Seitzer: Kinda Like Starting Over
2015 Raves From Players are Great Signs for Seitzer, But It’s Still a Whole New Year
It was at the end of October in 2014 when the Atlanta Braves hired hitting coach Kevin Seitzer. If you are a believer that coaching – and the coaching of hitting – is a cumulative discipline, then you might yearn for some better roster stability.
Consider the hitters who played for the Braves on Opening Day, 2015:
- Eric Young, Jr. – belongs to Milwaukee, minor league deal
- Jace Peterson – still here, but had his thumb duct-taped to the rest of his hand for 4 months.
- Nick Markakis – still here, but neck issues removed his power in 2015
- Freddie Freeman – still here, but missed 1/3rd of the season due to injury
- Christian Bethancourt – belongs to San Diego
- Kelly Johnson – re-signed, but was elsewhere for 2/3rds of the season
- Cameron Maybin – belongs to Detroit
- Alberto Callaspo – not currently attached to any club
- Andrelton Simmons – belongs to the Angels
…and that didn’t include Chris Johnson, who played the next day. He was released by the Indians and has now been picked up by the Marlins. Counting him, that makes 4 returnees out of the original 10 noted here, though each of the 4 had some sort of issue themselves.
Nonetheless, there were some public plaudits for Seitzer’s approach and theories last season:
"[Kelly] Johnson said he’s benefited “big time” by following Seitzer’s tenets as well as his attention to detail and persistence. (AJC, via cbssports.com, 5/5/15)“[Seitzer] helped me a lot,” [Cameron] Maybin said. “Just having a game plan that I am stubborn with, that I stick to and don’t come out of. Sometimes you go into a game with a plan and things happen and you want to come out of it, but he just stayed adamant on knowing what kind of hitter I needed to be and I’ve stayed with that approach.” (Detroit News, Jan 25, 2016) “[Andrelton] Simmons has benefitted from his work with new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, who wanted him to focus on a more compact swing that would allow him more time to use those quick hands — the ones that are responsible for the slight of hands in the field — to recognize pitches.” (foxsports.com, 4/27/2015)"
Unfortunately, two of those 3 are gone. It will be interesting to see how the third – Johnson – is used this coming season.
Seitzer’s Challenges
So it’s not really even worth trying to make an evaluation of Seitzer Year 1, for you could seriously argue that none of the returnees could be adequately measured for signs of improvement for some reason or another.
It is truly a clean slate for 2016 with lots to accomplish and lots of questions:
- In 2013 and 2014, Freddie Freeman totaled 9.2 fWAR with 150, 141 wRC+ respectively. Even missing 44 games, he managed a 3.4 and 133 last year. It would be great to have a healthy year and get him back to the former form.
- Jace Peterson. Nice start, but there was the thumb thing. Or maybe not. Either way, he had his first full major league season, and we will be watching to see if Year 2 improves… and if that thumb is truly better.
- Erick Aybar. Old dog… will Seitzer’s new tricks even matter? He’s probably “1-and-done” with Atlanta regardless.
- A.J. Pierzynski. Older dog… but then he doesn’t have any hitting troubles.
- Tyler Flowers. He probably is what he is, but anything better than .230 and nobody will be care.
- Gordon Beckham. Never has hit with the promise expected since hitting .270 in his 2009 rookie campaign. He could use some Seitzing.
- Kelly Johnson. Nice year: his .265 average was best since 2010. Can he repeat?
- Adonis Garcia. An enigma. Just how ‘real’ was that .277 with 10 HR in 2015?
- Nick Markakis. Can’t complain about the .296 average…can that be repeated with a bit more pop?
- Ender Inciarte. New kid on the block. If Seitzer just doesn’t mess him up, I think we’ll be thrilled with the same .303 from 2015
- Hector Olivera. This is the big question.
Olivera didn’t do too much late in 2015. Didn’t do too much in Winter Ball. But the declarations continue to be positive:
"“…this guy, we feel like he can hit. He’s going to play left field and we might run him out at third base and get him some ground balls too … give us some flexibility for the roster. But I think this guy’s going to hit.” (David Purdum, AJC, 1/31/2016)"
Okay. Fredi believes that Olivera’s whirlwind year played a part: living in various places in the Caribbean after escaping Cuba, working out for teams, getting signed by the Dodgers, first time in the United States, starting to play, getting hurt, getting traded, playing with the Braves… yeah, I can understand that. Hopefully things are now getting a bit more settled for him with a few months of consistent stateside presence.
Kevin Seitzer himself made a trip to Puerto Rico to watch Olivera play for Criollos de Caguas. For whatever reason, Hector only stuck around for 5 games and 21 plate appearances, but apparently that was enough for Seitz – and he reported that back to Gonzalez.
Next: Happy Birthday to the Hammer
In the most optimistic scenario, you could argue that there is a chance virtually everyone on the roster could have a better offense year than last. After all, there’s hardly any place to go but up. But given the general upheaval, it’s really impossible to pin any blame for that on the hitting coach.
Seitzer has had his detractors – but he also has a World Series winner to point to that he helped create, and a history of better hitting there. Hopefully he will have a chance to see at least a few of these guys for more than a couple seasons so that we can actually see his philosophies work.