Sunday Notes: Bonds, Bordick, Boston, Cubs, Giants, more

Barry Bonds being hired as the new hitting coach in Miami evokes memories of Ted Williams managing the Washington Senators (who became the Texas Rangers by the end of his tenure). The self-proclaimed “Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived” wasn’t nearly as accomplished in the dugout as he was in the batter’s box. In four seasons (1969-1972) Williams’ teams went a cumulative 273-364.

The comparison is apples-to-oranges — hitting coach and manager are two different animals — but parallels exist. The Senators were a woebegone franchise, and in many respects, the Marlins are the modern day Senators.

And then there are the protagonists.

Along with Babe Ruth, Bonds and Williams are the most prolific hitters in baseball history. They have also been famously irascible, particularly with the media. Bonds will presumably shelve his surliness — it won’t fly in his new role, not in today’s game — but a bigger obstacle looms.

As a manager, Williams had trouble reconciling himself to the fact that his hitters were so imperfect. Why did they all too often struggle to understand facets of the craft that came naturally to him?

If Bonds — every bit the ego-driven perfectionist that Williams was — can prove to be a more patient teacher, Miami’s new hiring should bear fruit. If not, we’re looking at what is tantamount to a circus act.

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I’ve never included a Q&A in my Sunday Column, but I’m going to test the waters by sharing one here. (Don’t worry, it’s a short one.) Feel free to let me know if this is something you’d like to see from time to time, or if slotting them into this space is mostly a bad idea.

This is from Orioles broadcaster Mike Bordick, who was known more for his glove than for his bat during his playing days. To a large extent, it’s a time-lag companion piece to the “Paul Janish on (Not) Hitting” interview that ran at FanGraphs in September.

Bordick on hitting: “When I first got the opportunity to play in the big leagues, Tony LaRussa pulled me aside and said, ‘All we care about is you catching the ball.’ I was a utility player. I was going to play at the end of games and maybe get a spot start. Whatever I could do offensively would be gravy.

“When you have a manager like LaRussa, who is one of the best in the history of the game, he finds a way to get the best out of you. He would use me in situational roles. I’d lay a bunt down, I’d hit-and-run, I’d hit behind runners. He had me do things that made me feel that I was contributing. That helped build my confidence and I ended up having some pretty decent offensive years. I was never considered an offensive threat, but I did well enough that I stayed in the lineup.

“It’s really hard to hit with limited playing time. Only a chosen few are gifted enough to hit well off the bench. Most players, if they want to have consistent success, need those consistent at bats. There’s an art to it, that’s for sure.

“It’s funny. You think of these guys who have probably the best hand-eye coordination on the field, like a Paul Janish. They are great defenders, and why doesn’t that translate offensively? A lot of times, I think it’s a confidence issue.

“For a number of years, you get labeled as all-glove. That’s the way I was perceived when I first made it to the big leagues. But you build off that. Hitting is all mental, really. Either you believe you can hit, or you don’t. Over time, I started to believe it.”

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When Boston signed free-agent outfielder Chris Young, they brought on board a right-handed hitter with a career 52.3 pull rate. The 10-year veteran was even more extreme in 2015, pulling 58.8% of balls he put into play. Jeff Sullivan wrote about this earlier in the week, adding that Young also hits a lot of fly balls.

Fenway Park’s Green Monster is an inviting target for hitters with Young’s profile, and Dave Dombrowski is certainly cognizant of that fact. Acknowledging that his recent acquisition has been “a pull-oriented hitter,” the Red Sox president looks at him “as a real threat, particularly against left-handed pitching.”

It’s hard to argue. Young slugged .575 versus southpaws last year.

The extent to which he is a perfect fit for Fenway isn’t as cut and dried. The ballpark has seen many high flies carry over the Monster, but there’s also a lot of room for balls to fall in right and right-center. Good right-handed hitters have long taken advantage of that expanse, in part because they’re often pitched away.

Young is likely aware of that, but he didn’t sound in a hurry to change when I brought up his batted-ball profile in his introductory conference call.

“I’ve continued to work on using all parts of the field, but at the same time, as a player you don’t want to get too far away from your strengths,” said Young. “One of my major strengths is pulling the ball, and I think Fenway can be advantageous to that.

“I’ve played in some larger yards where I’ve had deep fly balls (not make it to) the wall. When I’ve played at Fenway, and also at Minute Maid Park, a lot of those near misses — balls I didn’t square up all the way — have gotten up the wall. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see Fenway as a better fit for me.”

In terms of fly balls to the pull side, he’s right that Fenway will be friendlier to him than Yankee Stadium was last year. How it affects his overall numbers — Young’s career slash line is .235/.314/.429 — remains to be seen.

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Last week’s column featured Cecil Fielder, who was part of a power-packed Detroit Tigers team in the 1990s. Along with should-be Hall of Famers Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, the lineup included sluggers like Rob Deer and Mickey Tettleton. The club wasn’t fleet of foot, but they could knock down fences. From 1990-1995, Detroit led the American League in home runs three times, and ranked second twice.

Fielder, Deer and Tettleton were muscle men, as was Pete Incaviglia, a 1991 Tiger. All K’d a lot, but when they squared up baseballs, they traveled great distances. Next to Fielder, which of the foursome had the most juice?

“I would say Mick,” opined Fielder. “He switch hit, and he could hit it a long way from both sides. Right field was easier at Tiger Stadium, and Mick could go up there at will. He hit after me for years – he was my protector – and I give him a lot of respect.”

The respect was well earned. In four years as a Tiger, Tettleton had a 135 adjusted OPS and three 30-plus home run seasons. Over his under-appreciated career, he hit .241/.369.449, with 245 home runs.

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Tettleton was a catcher, although not a particularly good one defensively. As a result, he also saw time as a corner outfielder, first baseman, and designated hitter. Thanks to his bat, there was usually a place for him in the lineup.

As of the moment, 22-year-old Kyle Schwarber is a work-in-progress behind the late. The Cubs are (at least publicly) confident that he can develop into a competent catcher, but the jury remains out. This past season, Schwarber spent the majority of his time in the outfield after being called up.

In his NLCS post mortem, Theo Epstein addressed the youngster’s defensive future with both a question and an answer:

“With Schwarber, is it imperfect development if he’s doing both (catching and playing the outfield)? I’d say it is, but when the alternative is sticking that kind of a bat in the minor leagues until he’s Johnny Bench defensively, I like the imperfect path.”

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If you followed the Cubs this year, you know that Joe Maddon batted his pitcher eighth in the vast majority of games. It’s a strategy Tony LaRussa used to employ, but never to this extent. Chicago’s Mad Genius had his pitcher in the nine hole just 12 times.

There was also a method to the madness when the pitcher did bat last. Maddon explained one of the dozen instances — a September game where the bottom three in the lineup were Starlin Castro, Javier Baez and Jake Arrieta — as follows:

“Castro has hit (AJ Burnett) well in the past. If you hit him seventh with the pitcher behind him, I think he’s going to have less opportunity to hit. I could hit Starlin ninth, but I don’t really like hitting him there. I like him a little closer to (Miguel) Montero. If you hit Arietta eighth, after Castro, and Baez ninth, then you’re not getting everything done that you want.”

On a related note, Cubs pitchers ranked 11th among the 15th National League teams with a .135 wOBA. The Giants were tops, at .205, while the Braves were last, at .117.

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Would Mike Leake, a solid but unspectacular starter, be a good free agent option for the Cubs. Leake has been one of the better hitting pitchers in the game, but is that at all meaningful to Epstein and Maddon? Should it be?

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Fourteen months ago, Christian Arroyo told me that he looked at the 2014 season as a learning experience. That’s not surprising. The San Francisco Giants shortstop prospect had not only battled injuries, he’d also dabbled at a new position. In his first full professional season, he played nearly a third of his games at second base. After getting off to a slow start with the stick. he rallied to finish with a .734 OPS.

When I spoke to Arroyo last month, he described this season as being “very similar” to last. He “battled some adversity early on, with the injury to my oblique, but I came back as strong as I could. I feel I had a successful year.”

His numbers were better. Playing at high-A San Jose, the 20-year-old former first-round pick slashed .304/.344/.459, with nine home runs, in 409 plate appearances. Acknowledging that the California League is hitter friendly, Arroyo pointed out that “You still have to put together good at bats,” and he feels he did that.

Arroyo does have work to do in the plate-discipline department — he had 19 walks and 73 strikeouts — which he readily admits. Even so, he doesn’t see himself as a take-a-lot-of-pitches guy.

“I’m more about putting it in play,” Arroyo told me. “I hunt for pitches – look for certain pitches in a zone — and try to put the ball into play hard.”

As for his future position, the Giants signed Brandon Crawford to a six-year, $75 million extension last month, so his shortstop days could be short-lived. That won’t be a problem for the youngster, because all he really wants to do is play.

“I only played short this year, and I’m satisfied with how I did defensively, but other than that, I don’t know,” said Arroyo. “I’m still young. Whatever plan the Giants have for me, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Baseball America currently ranks Arroyo the top prospect in the San Francisco system.

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With the minors in mind, here is something from Joe Thurston from my unused-quote folder. A former big leaguer who spent most of his 15 professional seasons in the minors, Thurston was talking about his end-of-career days in independent ball:

“Guys in Double-A aren’t making a great lot of money, but they have aspirations to get to Triple-A and then to the big leagues. In indie ball, there are no major leagues. You play and you make sunflower seeds for money. And you deal with it.”

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Tampa Bay Rays pitching prospect Taylor Guerrieri and an off-season workout buddy, Red Sox prospect Ryan Harris, recently golfed at Jupiter Hills in their native Florida. While they were hitting on the range, a man noticed Harris’s Boston cap and walked over and introduced himself.

Harris told him that he plays minor league baseball for the Red Sox, and the friendly stranger responded by saying, “No way.” Harris proceeded to get his phone number and promised to call and leave him tickets for one of his games next summer.

The man was hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Orr.

“Ryan and I didn’t really know who Bobby was,” Guerrieri admitted to me earlier this week. “I’d heard the name, but he was a little bit before our time.”

What did the just-turned-23-year-old Guerrieri think of the Boston Bruins legend?

“He looked good,” opined Guerrieri. “From what I’ve been told, they didn’t wear helmets in his era of hockey, but he didn’t look beat up in the face, or anything like that. And he was as nice as can be, too. It was pretty cool to meet him.”

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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Joey Votto swung at 62% of pitches in the strike zone this year, and 19.3% of pitches out of the strike zone. Pablo Sandoval swung at 75.2% of pitches in the strike zone and 48.6% of pitches out of the strike zone.

Michael Brantley swung and missed at 3.1% of the pitches he saw this year. Avisail Garcia swung and missed at 17.3% of the pitches he saw this year.

A few days ago, Pedro Alvarez was non-tendered by the Pirates two years after leading the National League in home runs. Dave Kingman hit an NL-best 37 home runs in 1982 and was cut loose by the Mets in January 1984.

On this date in 1989, the New York Mets traded Randy Myers to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for John Franco. The two combined for 771 career saves. Franco finished with 424, fourth all-time and the most of any left-hander.

Wes Ferrell, who is on this year’s pre-integration ballot, won 20-or-more games six times. In 1,345 plate appearances, he hit .280.,351/.446, with 38 home runs. The highest percentage of Hall of Fame votes he garnered from the BBWAA was 3.6, in 1956.