Atlanta Braves Hitting Coach Kevin Seitzer Talks On Workouts With B.J. Upton
By Jeff Schafer
The Atlanta Braves hired Kevin Seitzer to be their major league hitting coach from the Toronto Blue Jays. Spending the 2014 season with the Blue Jays, he led them to the fourth ranked AL teams in scoring and second in home runs. He was previously the hitting coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Kansas City Royals.
As a player in the MLB, he was a two-time All-Star third baseman and had a career batting average of .295 in 1,439 games with the Brewers, Royals, Indians and A’s.
Seitzer has the task of trying to turn around the careers offensively of B.J. Upton, Chris Johnson and Andrelton Simmons (as well as continue progress from everyone else).
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Upton met Seitzer in Tampa last week to begin their workout and try to plan for 2015.
“He was very open to what I suggested,” Seitzer said about B.J.. “We had a really good three days together, pretty intense days. I think he feels good about what I’m going to bring and I feel good about the adjustments that he’s made just by having conversations with what I’ve seen in video and him telling me what he’s felt when we started working in the cage and some other things that I saw that confirmed the things I saw on video as well. He’s already doing great and made great adjustments that I’m very encouraged about that he’s going to get back to what he was.”
Wow, did I actually type that and did you read that?!?
Upton doing great? And willing to adjust things? Well that’s interesting…maybe Greg Walker, former Braves hitting coach, just didn’t have control of his hitters.
So what exactally will Seitzer be changing with B.J.?
“Just a couple little adjustments…one is his approach he’s going to take and then making a little mechanical adjustment to shorten him up,” Seitzer summed up.
Freddie Freeman and Chris Johnson have also already met and worked out with Seitzer earlier this month.
“Chris Johnson is in the same boat with making that little bit of a mechanical adjustment to shorten his swing. These guys got here by being able to do the right stuff and in time, things just slide away and it’s a matter of pushing the right buttons to get them to lock back in…and that takes time, sometimes a drill or a different thought. When I get with guys, I can usually find the right buttons to push that maybe they haven’t done before or thought about.”
Seitzer was hired by the Braves back in October but wasn’t ready to get things geared up until the new year with his hitters.
“I like for the guys to have an offseason – I miss my job about two weeks after the season ends – but the guys need a break and to get away and let their body recover. Then mid-January start cranking it back up and getting their swinging muscles ready for Spring Training.”
Though he’ll be the new kid on the block, Seitzer is still ready to take on the challenge of turning what we saw in 2014 into a success in 2015.
“The hard part about being the new hitting coach is that you want to establish some sort of relationships early if possible but not get to a point where they’re going ‘give me a break’. I can do what I need to do in Spring Training and I’m looking forward to getting started when we get down there.”