Thread: Why haven't we hired Mickey Hatcher?

With several teams going with two hitting coaches these days, Hatcher seems like a good fit for a few reasons a) Twins roots in his past b) by all accounts a solid instructor that learned future managerial skills from Scioscia and c) would bring a new voice to this team on the coaching ranks.

Not saying that gardy needs to be fired, although no one keeps a job forever, but maybe bringing in a guy like Hatcher would inspire Gardy a bit as well?

Nothing against Hatcher but I'd like to see them hire a Spanish-speaking coach at the major league level. (Of course I also think that they generally need an infusion of some new personnel in the coaching staff).

Do we know that Hatcher is even looking to geg back into coaching at this point
Joe Vavra has done a terrific job as Twins hitting coach. Rightfully, the Twins wouldn't bring someone in as a 2nd guy for that spot.

Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

Joe Vavra has done a terrific job as Twins hitting coach..

A

As measured by? The Twins have been on the bottom of most hitting categories for ages. Part of it was Scotty and then he was beamed up to 3rd base and Vavra took over. Still futility. I don't know how you define "terrific", but it more like horrific to me...

I would bring in Coomer, before Hatcher. I actually would like to see Stele (love the guy) retire and someone else replace Ullger. I keep hoping someone will offer Ullger a short-term managing job just to get him elsewhere. Watch Rochester...the Twins may be grooming a full slate to move up from there, with also names like Jeff Smith, Jake Mauer and Tommy Watkins considered for coaching jobs if the Twins make a big change.....

Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

Do we know that Hatcher is even looking to geg back into coaching at this point
Joe Vavra has done a terrific job as Twins hitting coach. Rightfully, the Twins wouldn't bring someone in as a 2nd guy for that spot.

I think Vavra gets more crap then he deserves, but I wouldn't exactly describe him as "terrfific" I'd more or less give him a "meh", which is what you can give to the majority of major league hitting coaches.

Originally Posted by thrylos98

The Twins have been on the bottom of most hitting categories for ages.

No they haven't...

Because he's prolly not very mobile out in RF these days?

//rimshot//

Paul Molitor anyone????

Originally Posted by ltwedt

Paul Molitor anyone????

Seattle tried that for a year and it clearly didn't go that well because it only lasted one year. There's no guarantee that Molitor would be interested in the job anyway.

It's always hard to judge how good a coach is, because you don't always have the opportunity to make a fair comparison with how other coaches would do with the same player. The two people off the top of my head that did better with other teams than they did with the Twins under Vavra are Delmon Young (who did have streaks of greatness with the twins, and still has a long way to go to prove he can be a consistent great hitter) and JJ Hardy (who was coming off a terrible year and struggled with inures during the one year he was with us). What other hitters have worked with Vavra and done significantly different when working with a different major league hitting coach?

Originally Posted by spideyo

The two people off the top of my head that did better with other teams than they did with the Twins under Vavra are Delmon Young (who did have streaks of greatness with the twins, and still has a long way to go to prove he can be a consistent great hitter) and JJ Hardy (who was coming off a terrible year and struggled with inures during the one year he was with us).

Is there another Delmon Young that played for the Twins other than the one I'm thinking of? And as long as we're mentioning JJ Hardy, one might mention that he gave an interview this year where he gave a lot of credit for his current success to the work of Vavra.

They arent gonna hire Hatcher & if there is a change, its pretty obvious that Mickey's former teammate Tom Brunansky is the hitting coach in waiting.
Gardy has never favored ex players that had success. That would challenge his authority. With Gardy's deal on its last year, after this one, its either extend him or let him go time. Terry Ryan may try to change the coaching staff & if he does, Gardy may just resign...as he's extremely loyal to his coaches. This gets both off the hook. If he wants to stay & get extended, now is the time to get a coaching shakeup with Gardys blessing.

[ The two people off the top of my head that did better with other teams than they did with the Twins under Vavra are Delmon Young (who did have streaks of greatness with the twins, and still has a long way to go to prove he can be a consistent great hitter) and JJ Hardy

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos

2012

26

DET

AL

63

251

238

18

62

14

0

5

24

0

1

8

50

.261

.295

.382

.677

84

91

7

4

0

1

0

D7

MIN (4 yrs)

497

1977

1845

233

530

106

7

47

273

22

14

93

333

.287

.324

.429

.753

103

791

64

17

1

21

15

I don't think Young is doing much different this year than he did with the Twins

Well there you go. My point is valid, there isn't really any player that you can point at and say "Joe Vavra made him a crappy hitter"