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| Todd Steverson |
Hitting coach Todd Steverson and assistant hitting coach Greg Sparks will not be back with the team in 2020, and the words used to make the announcement amused me.
The club said it will not extend the contract of Sparks, which means, of course, that his contract was up. No such thing was said about Steverson. No, the Sox are "parting ways" with him. In other words, he had a contract for next season, but the team decided to move on.
Where I come from, that's called a firing. But I guess we don't say that in a Jerry Reinsdorf-run organization.
The press release the Sox sent about these moves touted the improvements made by AL batting champion Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada, who is now the best player on the team. Steverson was given some props for that, but two talented hitters playing up to their potential under his watch wasn't enough to save his job.
And it's hard to argue with the move, considering the general underwhelming performance of the offense at large. The Sox were third from the bottom in the AL in runs scored. They ranked last in the league in walk rate and second-to-last in strikeout rates and isolated power. The team on-base percentage of .315 isn't nearly good enough.
So, yeah, see you later, Steverson and Sparks.
However, here's my question: If the hitting coaches are being relieved of their duties, why isn't Don Cooper's head on the chopping block? His pitching staff arguably sucked more than the offense. The Sox had only two starting pitchers with an ERA below 5, and one of them was Ivan Nova (4.72).
Over the past three seasons, the Sox have issued more walks than any team in the AL. You can say Cooper hasn't had much talent to work with, and you'd be correct. But Steverson and Sparks haven't had much talent to work with either -- once you get past the success stories of Anderson and Moncada.
Why are some Sox coaches being held accountable while others seem to have jobs in perpetuity? Asking for a friend.
Don Cooper has outlived his value to the Sox years ago. I'm sure that many fans will join me in saying that you have to have someone in that position who can pick and develop a reliable relief pitching staff. Most important is a closer who can be counted on to shut down opponents.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you are talking about. The Sox had one of the better closers in the league who only failed to save a game 2-3 times this year vs. the 10 blown saves he had in Seattle last year. Bummer improved, Marshall found an additional setup spot. Cooper stays simply because he is one of the best in the game. I think he stays until HE wants to leave - he has forgotten more about pitching than many will ever learn. He has straightened out more reclamation projects than any other pitching coach in the game.
DeleteIt's about time that the Sox seek accountability from their coaches. But the important thing is to get replacements who teach their hitters how to make their at bats count. When a team strikes out more times than their hits, its a sign that something isn't right. Another sign that Sox hitters aren't being trained properly is the lack of walks. They have to be trained to take a pitch. Too many times the Sox have many fewer walks than their opponent. This, just like strike outs shows up in the box score. The flip side of this is the effect on opposing pitchers. If every batter would take two more pitches by the time they have gone through the lineup the pitcher has around 40 more pitches. This means that the other team may have to go to the pen perhaps two innings earlier. Too many times the Sox hitters swing at pitches that are way out of the strike zone. This includes ball four.
ReplyDeleteIronically, closing is one of the things the pitching staff did a decent job of this season: 60-1 when leading after eight innings. But the bullpen has little depth, and the starting rotation has even less depth. It's frustrating that so many young pitchers received opportunities, but only Giolito and Bummer stepped up to claim spots -- the former in the rotation and the latter in the bullpen.
ReplyDeleteCooper does the best what is given to him
ReplyDeleteCouldn't the same be said for Steverson?
DeleteThe same cannot be said for Steverson. Approaches at the plate for years have been terrible. Until this year, many went way too deep in the count, forcing them to fall behind in a count and having to hit the pitcher's pitch and not theirs. Many have no idea on how to situational hit and too many for years trying hitting through the shifts on them instead of taking an outside pitch thrown at them to the opposite field. There were a number of players who changed their hitting philosophies and hit a pitch very early in the count. These were the ones you saw solid improvement on (Garcia,Moncada, Anderson), while Engel and McCann would understand the concept of two strike hitting by choking up on the bat. My question is WHY DID IT TAKE THIS MANY YEARS FOR STEVERSON TO GET PLAYERS TO BUY IN ON THESE CONCEPTS? That is why he should be gone,
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong. I'm fine with him being gone. I just don't understand why the same principles aren't applied on the pitching side, where the same problems also have existed for years: Walks, walks and more walks.
DeleteAlso worth noting: Poor approaches existed under Steverson's predecessor, Jeff Manto. They also existed under Manto's predecessor, Greg Walker. We've been talking about not enough walks, low OBPs, high strikeout rates and not enough to power to compensate for those strikeouts across several regimes.
On some level, it's nice to see someone held accountable for poor performances. But is the right person being held accountable? Maybe the front office is just acquiring players who aren't good enough to embrace whatever concepts a coach is trying to implement?