JD says we’re screwed:
So there you have it. If Chambliss is telling the truth, and I really can’t imagine him lying here, the front office is blaming the hitting coach and the players for not making good adjustments in the second half.
The offense sucking in the second half had nothing to do with Wayne Krivsky trading 25% of the starting lineup (for some magic beans), or Royce Clayton playing all the time, or Ken Griffey Jr. hurting his big toe. No, it was apparently all about not making good adjustments.
You have to honestly wonder if it’s crossed Krivsky or Narron’s mind at all that Adam Dunn might not have gone into a tailspin if guys like Kearns and Lopez were still in the lineup. What was the incentive to pitch to Dunn in September? There was no Ken Griffey Jr. Other players were slumping. Kearns and Lopez were long gone. If I’m an opposing coach I sure as hell wouldn’t be giving Dunn anything to hit.
And remember what I said about communication? Here we’ve got a hitting coach getting fired for problems that weren’t relayed to him at the time they were occurring.
This is not at all a promising development. I’ve got a bad feeling about all this, and all I can hope is that I’m not giving Krivsky enough credit.
I agree, not a promising development.
Look, Chambliss may have been a terrible hitting coach for all I know. I don’t see what he does with the players from day to day. But if they’re trying to make him the scapegoat for the disastrous performance of the team post-TRADE, well, Krivsky and company need to look a little harder.
What was the incentive to pitch to Dunn in September?
Is that what happened? They pitched around him, or he was an easy out? My anecdotal evidence was the it was moreso the latter.
Make excuses for Dunn all you want, but the fact remains that he is not the first hitter to have that issue. Albert Pujols this season mashed despite sitting in the middle of a weak lineup, as did Barry Bonds in a season where he was flanked by Marquis Grissom and Pedro Feliz. If Dunn is as otherworldly a hitter as his supporters would like us to believe, this “weak lineup” argument would be unnecessary.
I think Dunn just misses his Lil’ Buddy….