The Cubs have been having trouble scoring runs this year so they made the only move the could make. They fired hitting coach Gerald Perry and replaced him with Triple-A hitting coach Von Joshua. The move immediately paid off as the Cubs went out and beat the Twins 3-2 to salvage the final game of the series with Minnesota.
Obviously, I kid. The move had no real impact and probably won’t for a while, if at all. It’s hard to put any real blame on Perry for the Cubs hitting woes. I don’t think any hitting coach could be so inept that he causes the kind of problems the Cubs hitters have had this year.
Having said that, I think there were some problems with Perry. I noticed that Lou Piniella had to get involved a lot when guys were in extended slumps. It’s great that Lou has the ability to get involved and make a difference, but if the hitting coach is doing his job, Lou shouldn’t have to. It seems to me that in too many instances,. Lou had to.
Even so, I don’t think that switching hitting coaches is the cure to the Cubs’ ills. Von Joshua, no matter how good he is, isn’t going to fix Milton Bradley’s head. He’s not going to make Lee into a power hitter again. And he’s not going to make Aramis Ramiez heal faster.
If Joshua wants to know where to start, here’s a list of the guys hitting less than .250:
- Ryan Freel .167/.211/.167
- Aaron Miles .200/.240/.252
- Andreas Blanco .212/.278/.303
- Geovany Soto .223/.332/.318
- Milton Bradley .227/.335/.383
- Alfonso Soriano .229/.296/.454
- Mike Fontenot .236/.324/.396
- Bobby Scales .241/.333/.466
- Koyie Hill .246/358/.386
