The opportunity for Tim Hyers to return home?
“It totally caught me off guard,” Hyers, the Braves’ new hitting coach, said.
He was happy in Texas as the Rangers’ hitting coach. The organization treated him well. He experienced special times, like winning the World Series last year. He made good friends.
At some point after the Braves relieved former hitting coach Kevin Seitzer of his duties, Hyers received a call from Chris Young, the Rangers’ executive vice president and general manager.
Young informed Hyers that the Braves wanted to interview him. “It just came out of nowhere, really,” Hyers said. The process moved quickly. Hyers spoke with Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos and manager Brian Snitker during this whirlwind time.
The Braves hired Hyers.
Hyers, who went to Newton High in Covington and now lives in the Atlanta area, is back home.
For years, Hyers’ family chased him around for baseball. Hyers, a first baseman and left fielder, played in parts of four major-league seasons. Then he began coaching. He’s spent the past nine seasons on a major-league staff.
“I know it’s not a big deal to other people, but to me and to my family, it’s rewarding to work closer to home,” Hyers said.
But …
“I think that’s a bigger part is, was it a fit, and could I help out?” Hyers said. “After talking to Alex and the front office and obviously Brian, I felt at ease. I loved their vision, I loved the things that they had to say about building an organization, building an offense and moving forward and winning championships.”
Here are some main points to know about Hyers.
His three core principles
Asked to distill his hitting philosophy, Hyers begins with this:
“I’m a simple guy. I like to keep things simple so that players can understand, we can have a confident approach.”
Then he mentions three core principles he’ll preach daily: Game-planning, swing decisions and movements in the batter’s box.
He began talking in-depth about them. First, game-planning. We’ll start there.
“Game-planning, we have so much information these days – which is great. I love information,” Hyers said. “But I think that’s the art of coaching in this day and age is funneling that information so we have that one idea, that one thought that we can go compete in the batter’s box. And I think a lot of hitters, they can only think about one thing at a time (when) hitting 97 mph. So game-planning is big for me, is taking the information, what’s the most important part and let’s go battle.”
Swing decisions.
“You’re only as good as the strikes you swing at,” Hyers said. “It’s basic. And I think you can break that down into two groups is chase percentage – can we eliminate some chase? – and what are we swinging at for our strengths, in parts of the zone? I think there’s some ways we can identify that to get players swinging at their pitches.”
Movements in the box. (This one came with an interesting point.)
“Just watching some video, kind of doing some studying here, I think that some of the injuries caused some players to get out of their swings,” Hyers said of the Braves. “And I think the mental affects the physical – when guys want to do more because some key players got hurt. I think we can clean up some of those patterns and get them back into their groove. Not trying to do much, (not trying to) have those thoughts, ‘I need to get a hit’ or ‘I need to hit a homer here.’ And I think that kind of messes up the physical.”
Yes, Hyers knows he’s simply talking about hitting fundamentals.
“But in the big picture of the offense, if you dominate those things, I also think that helps your team be prepared, be disciplined and also be fluid,” he said. “The fluid part of this is important, because you have to be able to score runs in multiple different ways. There’s days that we can slug, and obviously this team can slug and hits the ball really hard. I’m excited to be a part of that. But also, there’s days when you gotta score runs in different ways, and how quick can we be fluid into identifying that and do that as a group to be consistent with it?”
The quote above – about fluidity and needing to score runs in different ways – probably jumps out to people who watch the Braves frequently. They’ve been an elite offense, but at times they’ve appeared unable to plate guys in multiple ways. Sometimes, they’ve been a homer-or-bust offense.
More on that now.
The 2018 Red Sox and the Braves
The Braves are a team full of guys who hit for power. But can some of those hitters develop tools to help the team in other ways? Is that even possible?
In the Braves, Hyers sees the 2018 Red Sox. (He was a hitting coach on that team, which won a World Series.) That Red Sox club swung a lot, but also had the ability to alter games.
This is what he sees with these Braves.
“They can impact the game with one swing and change the scoreboard in a hurry,” Hyers said. “But also, identifying those other times to take it down a notch and be a complete hitter and win 90 feet to start rallies and understand how to score runs. I think there’s multiple ways to do that, and I think that’s where the environment starts and the culture of getting those leaders together and, what does it take to win games? Yes, it’s in their DNA to mash baseballs and impact the game. But also, picking those little areas and spots during the season, against different matchups, to help them see different ways to score runs. I think we can do it. It’ll obviously be a challenge, but if you go back to the core fundamentals – if we swing at better pitches, if we’re the most prepared team offensively, I think those things blend into helping them use the whole field, identify situational hitting and grind out with two strikes and not just give at-bats away.”
Fitting the organization
In talking to Anthopoulos and Snitker, Hyers learned about the organization, its intention for the offense and more.
What did Anthopoulos and Snikter relay in that conversation in terms of how they wanted the offense to look?
“I just think they were sticking to the fundamentals of what complete offenses do,” Hyers said. “It wasn’t something that was over-complicated. We have some talent, they know the talent is here. It’s, how do you get the talent to jell? How do you get the guys to continue to play together and to focus day in and day out? I just love the simple approach. I know Alex has got a big scouting background. His job, he talked about getting good players on the field, keeping them healthy and then (he hands it) over to to (us coaches), and (we) do (our) thing. And he was just talking about Snit letting you do your job.”
Fun fact: Hyers was an assistant hitting coach for the Dodgers in 2016 and 2017, when Anthopoulos was the club’s vice president of baseball operations. Now, Hyers is Anthopoulos’ hitting coach at a place Anthopoulos has built into a sustainable winner.
At his core, Hyers is a simple guy who wants to have simple messages for players.
“I like the one part where – I can’t remember who was talking about it – but taking a lot of information, taking the wide, to narrow,” Hyers said. “Just day in and day out, doing those simple things that win games, and not trying to make it more. Because we have talent. Letting that talent show itself on the field and not getting in the way of it.”
Pressing and perfectionism
Over the summer, Seitzer told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his hitters were pressing. Anyone could appreciate Seitzer’s candor because he was the most credible voice to say that.
After a record-setting 2023 season, the Braves didn’t remotely resemble themselves in 2024. And Hyers saw an electric Rangers offense win a World Series in 2023, then regress in 2024 – partially due to injuries, just like the Braves.
“The players are kind of perfectionists,” Hyers said. “They want to do so well, because they want to do it for the fanbase, they want to do it for themselves and their teammates. And so when you have these obstacles in the way like Texas, obviously some injuries, and then the Braves have injuries, that mental (aspect) can play a big part in it.
“And so, yes, that’s part of my job to help them see it in a different way, identify some things that can help them relax at the plate, just do a little bit less to help the team out, change the narrative. But the big part is creating a culture and an environment so they come together and aren’t trying to put that pressure on themselves and be individual hitters, but more of, ‘This is a team approach. This is nine on one, I do my part, pass the baton, move on and let’s find ways to score runs and win tonight. And tomorrow will take care of itself, but let’s be a good team today.’”
Hyers is excited to reach out to players over the next week and begin building relationships. He won a World Series as Boston’s hitting coach, then one as Texas’ hitting coach.
Now, he steps into the same role with the Braves, who are set up to contend on an annual basis.
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