And by firing Rettenmund who had been the team's hitting coach since June of '06, they became the third team in the weak-hitting NL West to fire a hitting coach. The Dodgers fired coach Eddie Murray and replaced him with Bill Mueller, and the D-Backs canned Kevin Seitzer about three weeks ago, replacing him with Rick Schu. So once again, I'll bring up my question -- how much responsibility for the lack of hitter's performance should be assumed by the hitting coach? Seems like it's just the easiest way for the teams to address their problem.Here's the thing: going into the year, it was common knowledge that the Padres didn't have much offense. The fact that they're last in the majors in batting average shouldn't be much of a shock. The team would be hard-pressed to do worse than .244, making Wally Joyner's job seem somewhat easy. The firing was also good timing by the Padres; they did it the same day as the trade deadline, possibly hoping all the deals would overshadow the firing. That's not the feeling in the Padres clubhouse -- some of the players knew they could have saved Rettenmund's job had they performed better.
Previously at FanHouse:
Dodgers Can Hitting Coach Eddie Murray
Do Hitting Coaches Impact the Game?
I've always been part of the school that thinks baseball managers have little influence on the game -- certainly far less than football and basketball coaches to be sure. Through their bullpen maneuvering, they might influence the outcome of 10-15 games a year in my estimation, which is a far less percentage than the impact football and basketball coaches have. When all is said and done, it comes down to the performance of the players. So where am I going here? I want to know how much hitting coaches impact the teams they instruct.
