A year ago, Kevin Seitzer was beginning his first season as Blue Jays hitting coach. On Friday, he returned to Toronto’s Rogers Centre as hitting coach of the Braves, with plenty of knowledge about the opponent.
“It’s good; I know these guys well,” Seitzer said. “Mixed emotions — I loved all of them. It’s good to see everybody and catch up.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was asked about using Seitzer’s knowledge to help with the scouting report entering the series, as is common among players and coaches when they move from team to team. Gonzalez began to answer, then turned coy.
“We talked a lot on the plane. He knows a little bit,” Gonzalez said, then paused and smiled. “I think he forgot a lot, I don’t know. … We haven’t asked him anything.”
The power-laden Blue Jays lineup that Seitzer inherited last year was quite different than what he’s coaching now. But in both places he got strong results, albeit a small sample size from the Braves with only nine games plus spring training.
Still, in some areas in which they wanted to focus upon — better situational hitting, more contact and fewer strikeouts — the Braves have produced tangible results.
After ranking 29th in the majors with a .236 average with runners in scoring position in 2014, the Braves ranked fifth with a .323 average (and .417 OBP) before Friday.
After finishing with the fourth-most strikeouts (1,369) and 29th in runs last season, the Braves were tied for 28th in strikeouts (58) and 17th in runs before Friday. They averaged 2.9 strikeouts for each walk drawn in 2014, and reduced that rate by more than 20 percent through nine games, to 2.3.
In Seitzer’s only season with Toronto hitting coach, the Blue Jays ranked fourth in the American League in runs (723) and batting average (.259), second in OPS (.736) and home runs (177), and third in on-base percentage (.323) and slugging percentage (.414). They’d been seventh or lower in each of those categories in 2013 except homers (fourth).
When asked if he was pleased with the early results from Braves hitters, Seitzer said, “Yeah. Guys are grinding and having good at-bats. That’s all you can ask. We’re constantly making adjustments with guys up and down — stay short, stay with the plan, stay with the approach. Everybody’s been great. Pleased so far.”
He’s worked with most of them for only eight weeks, and getting everyone onboard with changes in philosophy can sometimes be tricky or frustrating. But so far, there seems to be no resistance or negative feedback from Braves hitters.
“You know when you come in, you can’t just say, this is what we’re going to do,” he said. “You’ve got to ask questions and get to know them. And when, to a man, I said, OK, when you’re good what you’re approach, what are you trying to do. And they said, ‘I’m trying to stay up the middle of the field.’ OK, so when you get in trouble what happens? ‘Well, I start trying to pull too much.’ So that plays right into what I think as well.”
Through nine games before Friday, the Braves had not scored fewer than two runs. In their first seven games in 2014, they scored fewer than two runs four times and were shut out twice. The homer-or-bust type of offense didn’t work for the Braves, mainly because they got all the strikeouts such an offense typically generates, but not enough homers. And they consistently struggled to get runners over and in once they got them on base.
This season with runners on base, Braves hitters were third in the National League with a .296 average (behind the Dodgers and Padres) before Friday, and second in OBP (.367). The Braves had struck out only 16 times in 108 at-bats with runners on base, seven fewer strikeouts than the next-lowest NL total.
The Braves and Phillies have a league-low one homer apiece with runners on. But while seven of the Braves’ eight homers were with none on base, their .802 OPS with runners on ranked ninth in the majors, ahead of the Dodgers (.801).
The good approach with runners on base has been a point of emphasis for Seitzer. He’s not going to get carried away with results from nine games, but he’s encouraged.
“It’s early,” he said. “Guys are having good at-bats, and that’s all you can ask. Whether the results are there or not, as long as the approach and the plan’s right, it’s execution, it comes down to being able to do what you want. Because all you can trust are these eyeballs, and when things that look like good pitches end up being bad, it’s going to happen.”
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