Rockies hire Lansford as hitting coach
The Colorado Rockies announced Friday they have hired for major-league infielder Carney Lansford as their major-league hitting coach. Lansford was with the organization in 2007 as the hitting coach for Triple-A Colorado Springs, which was managed at the time by Rockies bench coach Tom Runnells.
Lansford was the hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants in 2008 and 2009.
Don Baylor, who served as the Rockies hitting coach in 2009 and 2010, has been offered a special-assistant position within the organization but the team says he is still considering the opportunity. Baylor is rumored to be a candidate for several open managerial positions, including the Toronto Blue Jays, whose outgoing manager, Cito Gaston, reportedly recommended him for the job.
In addition the hiring of Lansford, the Rockies announced that the remained of the 2011 coaching staff will return for the 2011 season:
— Manager: Jim Tracy.
— Bench coach: Tom Runnells.
— Pitching coach: Bob Apodaca.
— First-base coach: Glenallen Hill.
— Third-base coach: Rich Dauer.
— Bullpen coach: Jim Wright.
Wow, are we a prophetic bunch of posters or what. On the surface I think it’s a good move. Judgment will come much later as some of his “projects” (Stewart, Iannetta et al, if they are still on the team) progress during the 2011 season. He does know some of the players from CS and they know him. Seemed to do a good job at CS.
Timing is perfect given the talk today. Interesting choice. A little like Baylor, I think he took the heat for an underperforming team with the Giants last season. There just wasn’t an impact bat in the entire lineup other than Sandoval before they added Huff and Posey this season, but somehow they were expected to hit and Lansford paid for it. The key is that he worked quite a bit with the players that have been identified mostly as disappointments.
That right there is some good news! Hopefully he can teach them about pateince at the plate and putting the ball in play.
Yep, I like this move alot! Just based on the type of players he was in his MLB days, Lansford seems like he would be the type of hitting coach that the Rockies need. It will be very interesting to see if the various player hitting approaches change at all.
Interesting move to say the least. Former teammates passing the torch.
Not what I epxected. I guess they also believe in keeping a top notch guy in the Springs, which is a good thing.
Didn’t expect this today, but glad to see the shakeup.
We all saw this coming a mile away…just not the guy we all expected….Lachemann down in the Springs. I hope he does well as he was here in 2007 and has seen alot of the players come through.
I actually mentioned this move a while ago during the season. IMO Lansford (someone who didn’t make his name with the long ball) is the perfect kind of former player/coach for this team. Hopefully he can work especially with Stewart and Smith to get them to be more contact hitters instead of going for the long ball. Great move Rockies.
“Carney is a great hitting coach, very intense. He will be as hands on or as hands off as the player wants him to be.”
That’s a quote from Seth Smith.
Don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Will Stewart want the help or will he want Lansford to leave him alone? We will see.
Finally!!! Baylor may be a nice guy but as a batting coach left alot to be desired. He supposedly worked with Ian in the last off-season but watching him it seemed to no avail. Give Kevin Long of the Yankees “one” week with Stewart and the difference would be remarkable. The wide looping swing would be modified, the noise would be eliminated and the bat would be positioned closer to the shoulder (tighter); he would be able to effectively deal with any pitch in the zone…..Stewart has not come close to realizing his potential in large part due to less than adequate guidance from the coaching staff, which, across the board, has been abysmal in my 15 years following the team. As to the manager, I was initially enthused, but then again, anyone was an improvement over Hurdle. Tracy’s homilies, trite comments, and excessive propensity for lauding each and every player when things are going well, just haven’t played out well. We could have used Buck S., but that horse is out of the gate. Bobby V?…..I would love to see it but it’s not going to happen given ownership and higher management. Hopefully though, Carney is a step forward and Stewart will benefit. Frustration is an understatement.
I think it’s a great move. Remember Carney was up as an additional batting coach in September of 07. When he was here it seemed that the entire team got better in situational hitting and the big hit. Can’t remember the stats but we won games and that is the most important stat. Win games.
I’ve always been a big Baylor fan and thought he got shafted when they fired him and replaced him with a guy who quit on the team. However he didn’t get the job done this year. The team, with the exception of Tulo and Cargo, regressed quite a bit. Time for a new voice.
I would have love to see them replace the pitching coach. I know Apodoca has lots of fan, even some of the posters on this site, but I’ve never been one of them. Aaron Cook and Jeff Francis really never lived up to their potential. Injuries of course played a part in that but there were times when Cook would go away from his bread and butter, the sinker, and try something else. He would then walk guys or give up hits and Apodoca would sit on his backside and not seem to care. But it’s not going to happen. Maybe Apodoca will see that he has to produce or he could follow Baylor out the door.
Speaking of coaches, perhaps Steve knows the answer to my next question. Do they have somebody in the system who can tutor Dexter, EY and others on how to bunt and how steal. Seems to me that if they could bunt better, but for a hit and for a sacrifice, it would make Lansford job easier. I know EY has great speed but he ran the Rockies out of some innings this year by a) getting thrown out or B) by stealing 2nd with Cargo up. They other team would then walk Cargo. With Tulo hitting that didn’t happen much, but when Tulo was slumping or out of the lineup we just lost Cargo’s bat.
Nice move. I’ve never seen much evidence that a big league hitting coach has a significant impact, but clearly it was time to try something different here.
Bill, I wasn’t an Apodaca fan for his first few years here. But what’s not to like lately?
Jimenez: moved from raw flamethrower with control problems to true ace
Chacin: tremendous progress between his cup of coffee last year and his excellent 2010
De La Rosa: total project with a great arm, so bad that the Royals gave up on him. Now we talk about him as an 8 million dollar man
Jeremy Affeldt: total project with a great arm, so bad that the Royals gave up on him. (Wait, didn’t I just say that?) Now one of the more dependable lefty setup men around.
Hammel: emerged as a very solid back end of the rotation starter shortly after coming over from the Rays
Belisle: guy who kicked around for years without lasting success in any role; now a very good setup man.
Sure, he’s had his disappointments. Franklin Morales, anyone? But isn’t that more on his minor league coaches, or (to be honest) on his apparent uncoachability?
Cook and Francis failed to reach their potential? Exactly what did you think Cook’s potential was? He was always described as a 2nd/3rd starter type, great sinker but lacking the ability to miss bats. And that’s exactly what he’s turned out to be. Francis? Yeah, I was hoping for a bit more, but pre-injury he turned out to be a very solid 2nd/3rd starter type, so he’s hardly been a bust. Greg Reynolds? Umm, that one’s on Dan “He has the Big Frame to Avoid Injury, So We’ll Pass on that Little Guy Lincecum” O’Dowd …
Thank goodness. I was thinking of going off topic on another discussion topic to discuss hitting, and then I saw this news. I am watching parts of the Texas game, and am very impressed with the swings they are taking. Poking the ball over the infield, going the other way, etc. These are the swings our beloved Rockies should be taking. I hope we see more of that in the future, and an emphasis on small ball when the situation calls for it.
Ugh – I wrote that too soon about the Rangers. Too many obvious comparisons to the ’10 Rockies tonight: score early but then sit on lead, complete bullpen meltdown, sloppy fielding, base-running blunders. It’s good to watch other teams play to see that all teams have these problems at times. No fan can expect perfection, except maybe Yankees fans.
Agbayani,concise and I believe fair and honest appraisal of “Dac”Bill,everything I’ve read about Cook/Apodaca has been the coaches opinion[in the media]that Cook throws secondary pitches too often,and should go 80% sinkers.On topic,I too always felt Baylor got shafted by Rox when fired,but in this case probably had to go.Maybe just too appease about 90% of posters on this site.Like all positive things said above about Lansford above and agree-incld.EY/Dex bunting for hits,hitting more balls on the ground.Baylor is class,even when fighting racism in my home town of Rochester,N.Y.[Red Wings-AAA]back in the day.I would love to see him manage again,and Toronto would be a good fit.
Gary, interesting point on Cook. I have to agree that my perception was the same — that Cook has tried to hard to blend in other pitches and moved away from his best pitch, the sinker.
But the numbers say I’m wrong. According to fangraphs, Cook threw 81.8 percent fastballs last year (granted, some of these may not have been his sinker grip, but that’s not many). And that’s been remarkably consistent across his career. In 2008, his best year, he threw 81.9 percent fastballs. What’s happened is he’s lost a tick off the velocity (and I’d say movement too) of his fastball with age. He’s always been a one trick pony with the sinker, and never developed a good secondary pitch. That’s why at one time I thought he and Brandon Webb were roughly equal. Then Webb developed a full repertoire and Cook didn’t. So I wouldn’t put this on Apodaca. Fact is, Cook is and always has been limited. But that sinker is a great one, and it’s managed to make him a very successful/lucrative career despite having only one pitch.
I think this is what I’ve learned from paying attention to the stat-heads: don’t trust my unmeasured perceptions of reality, and don’t even trust a player’s own perceptions of what he’s doing right and what he’s doing wrong. Example: early this year on this site I questioned Randy Flores’s statement that he had changed things a bit and picked up some additional velocity on his fastball. I have no doubt Flores believed this, and that belief may have boosted his confidence in his fastball. But that belief is wrong. Average fastball velocity year by year for Flores:
2004: 87.8
2005: 88.4
2006: 88.3
2007: 88.8
2008: 88.8
2009: 89.0
2010: 88.5
About as consistent as you’ll ever see. I think that’s one thing a pitching coach should do — correct a player’s own misperceptions of his ability.
Love your stats Agbyani.
Just read an article that said Royals are willing to listen to any and all offers fro Greinke, and that they have some young studs pushing to get to ML, one of those a 1B. DanO make a deal happen for Greinke/Butler, or at very least Greinke. I’d take UJ, Greinke, DLR, Cook (?) and Hammel.
Wayne,
I saw that article as well. The article said that Greinke will get $27,000,000 over two years. Given that we have 15 – 20 million to spend this year on new players, spending about 13.5 million (I don’t know how Greinke’s 2 years split out) seems too high unless we can unload some salaries back to the Royals. For example, would the Royals take Cook as part of the trade for Greinke? How about Iannetta or Delcarman? If we can unload some salaries that we may not want, that may make the Greinke salary work. That was what we did when we traded for Marquis, who was expensive, but traded away an expensive reliever we didn’t want any more. Of course, I don’t want to trade any of our top 4 or 5 minor leaguers for Greinke.
Julian, I have to agree with you. The trade should be to dump some salary, give the Royals some perceived value, and keep our top prospects. Other teams seem to do this all the time. But with what we trade away in salaries if we could offset enough to get Greinke down to 7-8 million per year, it may be worth it. Dreaming of course, don’t see the Monfort’s doing that.
Wayne,
If the Royals saw some value in players like Cook, Ianetta and/or Delcarmen and one or two midlevel prospects, the net out of pocket for the Rockies would not be unreasonable, and it might not actually be dreaming on our part, from a financial standpoint.
Of course, some other team might offer a much better package for Greinke, so the notion that we could get Greinke for Cook and other players/salaries that we don’t want plus some midlevel prospects might be dreaming.
I at least hope we make a run at him. He is a front line SP and would fit nicely in the 2 slot, or 3 slot if we can also sign DLR and go right, left, right. We really need to make a run at him.
The problem is, including with resigning Jorge, is that there are teams that will be willing to overspend. The Nationals are a good example. There are already stories circulating how they WILL overspend the get the pitcher(s) they want.
Since this has morphed into pitching, what’s up with Friedrich working out with Mike Hampton? Is this some way the Rockies are trying to re-coup some of their money?
I don’t think that the Rockies’ budget allows them to have both Greinke and DLR. Having both of them does sound like dreaming.
Agreed, Julian. And if we were to get a Greinke, I don’t think anyone would be too upset about letting De la Rosa walk.
Despite seemingly trying to drive down Iannetta’s value for most of the last couple years, the truth is he’s still signed to a reasonable contract, is still young, and offers cost predictability to a club trying to rebuild. In other words, I think he has trade value. Getting Greinke comes down to “who offers the best prospect,” and right now for the Rockies there’s only a few blue chippers out there: Rosario (catcher coming off ACL surgery, so that makes buyers beware), maybe Friedrich (although he slipped a lot), Matzek (the only untouchable I see), maybe Nolan Arenado (but he’s a guy who’s best position will likely be DH). Chris Nelson may also have that value, but he’s getting up there. So I’m thinking you’d have to give up a big-league starter ready guy (think Fowler), plus an Iannetta, plus a very good prospect. That would allow the Royals to sell it to what remains of their fan base (since they wouldn’t get horribly worse right away), while actually helping them to aim for competitiveness in 2-3 years. Isn’t that too smart for the Royals to ever do?
I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss De La Rosa. Left handed pitchers are a must in the rotation. Check out who is playing… Rangers have Lee and Wilson, Yankees Sabathia and Pettite, Giants Sanchez, Phillies Hamels. I would love to see a way to keep DLR and get another stud pitcher. Right now the window of opportunity is only 3 years at the most with Tulo, Cargo and Ubaldo. After that who knows. But if we get to and win a couple of WS Rockies should have built up good-will and hopefully many more fans. Which should mean raising the budget and maybe keeping two or three of those guys.
Agbayani your the stat man and I usually agree with you or find them thought provoking. And usually I’m a glass half full type of guy, but if you get negative about the pitching staff you could come up with the following:
Jimenez: had a comparitively poor 2nd half and near the end of the season started to regress somewhat
Chacin: improved greatly, but couldn’t get it done the last few stars.
De La Rosa: agreed he became a great pitcher in 09, but only a good pitcher this year.
Jeremy Affeldt: Actually hardly pitches. Another Rockie reject Javier Lopez has taken over as the lefthanded set up man
Hammel: Is only a 6 or 7 inning pitcher at the most. Was terrible the last 6 weeks.
Belisle: guy who kicked around for years without lasting success in any role; now a very good setup man but made one of the key errors of the year.
I think Apodoca has gotten some of these pitchers to improve their game but we need somebody (and I have no idea who it is) to get us to the next level. Branch Rickey (I think it was him) said he would rather get rid of a player a year too early than a year too late. Perhaps the same thing could be said for the pitching coach. Perhaps if we had Lansford as the hitting coach this year maybe we’d still be playing.
And again, maybe I’m all wet.
I agree with Agbayani that some of the guys showed amazing improvement but then they stopped. Not sure why. Yes, Ubaldo had some really bad luck the last two months, but he also had some very poor games. He really didn’t have any the first three months of the season. And that seems to be the trend with Rockies pitchers.. Cook a few years ago for example.
Anyway I’m getting off topic here. I think Lansford is a great hire and I do hope they keep Baylor around because as somebody mentioned above, he is “good people”.
Yeah!