{"id":287466,"date":"2024-10-07T09:07:26","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T14:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=287466"},"modified":"2024-10-07T09:08:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T14:08:28","slug":"new-hitting-focus-as-twins-eye-coaching-staff-replacements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=287466","title":{"rendered":"Hitting Focus As Twins Eye Coaching Staff Replacements"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MINNEAPOLIS — There are certain things the Twins can point to that indicate their offense, in aggregate, was a reasonably successful one across the last two seasons — but they came to the point where they simply couldn\u2019t overlook the deep lapses in consistency and approach that they felt cost them winnable games in that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, they parted ways with all three of their hitting coaches<\/a> following the 2024 season. In the aftermath, as they figure out how to replace the departed David Popkins, Derek Shomon and Rudy Hernandez, the Twins look to have a different emphasis in mind in regard to their hitting philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Situational-hitting approach, things like that, are going to be part of the conversation we have here around the next hitting group,\u201d president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. \u201cWhat that looks like, what were we missing on that. It did feel like, particularly in certain situations, it was hard for us to execute in maybe a key moment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the words of many of the Twins\u2019 hitters over the last few years, their approach in that time largely boiled down to honing in on pitchers\u2019 mistakes and taking powerful swings to do maximum damage against those pitches. Many hitters were also very complimentary of Popkins\u2019 work ethic and the staff\u2019s methods of drilling deep on swings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When all that worked, the results were spectacular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the second half of 2023, for example, when the Twins had the third-best offense in baseball per wRC+<\/a> (123) and slugging (.463), or the period this season from April 22-Aug. 17 during which they had the best record (63-40) in the Majors, thanks to the second-best wRC+ (121) and fourth-best slugging percentage (.448) in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the downswings proved brutally costly to the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An extended offensive slump to start the season was a significant contributor to the club\u2019s rough 7-13 start, and the Twins had one of the worst offensive outputs in the sport amid their 12-27 collapse out of the playoff picture. It culminated in an 8-6 loss in 13 innings to the Marlins on Sept. 26 during which the club went 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position amid bad execution lapses that Falvey has pointed to several times as a critical point of reckoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli had been openly critical of his team\u2019s lack of approach — or ability to stick to one — at several points toward the end of the \u201824 campaign, asking for more consistency in \u201cdominating one part of the plate\u201d and stringing together productive plate appearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Twins scored four or fewer runs in 24 of their final 30 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were a lot of games that were tight, very tough ballgames where we couldn’t really muster anything up,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cIt depends on how you want to break it down and how you want to look at it, but I do think that consistency in approach that I\u2019m hoping we can carry out, that we need to carry out, for 162 games will be something that we address and that we can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those extended slumps had become a trend. While the offense put up solid numbers in aggregate in \u201823, the first half was tough enough for the bats that, at various points, Royce Lewis remarked that he was straying from the team\u2019s approach and trying simply to put the ball in play. The players briefly took over leadership of pregame hitters\u2019 meetings, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Having one strength that can carry you for a long time — those strengths don\u2019t necessarily carry you for that long anymore,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cYou have to keep changing with the game and we\u2019ve always talked about adjustment-making being important, but you can\u2019t survive and flourish in today\u2019s game without the ability to change things on the fly, on your feet, and become a different kind of hitter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Baldelli and Falvey didn\u2019t yet indicate a timeline for any potential hires, the transition away from an entire hitting group certainly seems to indicate a philosophical change is in order — and they, of course, noted that shortstop Carlos Correa was looped into the process early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The thing he always wants to know is, \u2018Do you have the resources to help me be the best player I can be?\u2019\u201d Falvey said. \u201cThat’s our mission. We need to make sure Carlos has the resources he needs and the other players have the resources they need and work with a group that can provide that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS — There are certain things the Twins can point to that indicate their offense, in aggregate, was a reasonably successful one across the last two seasons — but they came to the point where they simply couldn\u2019t overlook the deep lapses in consistency and approach that they felt cost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":287467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287466"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287469,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287466\/revisions\/287469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/287467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}