I see that the Reds have hired a new hitting coach:
Brook Jacoby took on the tall order of filling in for renowned hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo last year in Texas. Now, he has a full-time Major League coaching job of his own.
The Reds named the longtime Major League third baseman and veteran hitting instructor as their new hitting coach on Friday, filling one of two openings on manager Jerry Narron’s staff for 2007.
It’s a return to the Reds organization for Jacoby, who was the hitting instructor at Triple-A Louisville in 2001-02. He was there when a young slugger named Adam Dunn passed through on his way to the big leagues. Jacoby returns to the big-league level to take over an offense that struggled down the stretch last year.
“The one thing that impressed me,” Narron said, “was when we were having our interview and just talking hitting, he was very well prepared. He knew what our deficiencies were in situational hitting and hitting with runners in scoring position, and what we had to do.”
Hey, maybe Jacoby will be coming to town just as his old student Dunn leaves the Queen City!
I don’t really have any grand thoughts about Jacoby joining the team. We just don’t know enough about Jacoby right now to allow for an informed opinion either way on his ability as a hitting coach. Frankly, I didn’t have a problem with the recently-fired Chris Chambliss in that role.
We’ll wait and see on this one. For now, all I can tell you is that I saw Jacoby play in AAA, when he was a member of the Richmond Braves, years and years ago.