The Hitting Coach Question, Part 1

There are a hundred statistics to tell you that the Pirates offense is horrible, that's not what we're here for. Let's just skip all that jazz.

A lot of people have decided to blame Pirates hitting coach Gregg Ritchie for some of the scoring woes. From the beginning I have thought that such claims were ridiculous. Here's my thinking - which I'm not saying is right or wrong. I mean, obviously I'm not going to say it's wrong, because I think it's right, but I'm not as stubborn about this as I am about other things.

To get to the major leagues, you have to be a pretty damn good hitter in terms of mechanics and approach. If you weren't nearly perfect in those types of things you would never get promoted. There are guys that are forced to the big leagues because of need or general lack of depth, so I'm more talking about everyday starters here. Big league hitters have been doing just that all of their life - hitting. They have taken countless hours of instruction, and have been coached by some of the best coaches in the world. There is nothing left to teach a hitter at the big league level. I'm convinced of that.

So how can you blame a hitting coach for a major league lineup not performing well? What is he supposed to do? Teach them how to hit? A major league hitting coach would be foolish to try and change something big about a hitter, because if it makes them worse that guy is getting fired faster than he can tie both cleats. These guys don't need to change much of anything after they get to the major leagues, they already have what they need.

A hitting coach has a number of responsibilities. I'm certainly not saying they don't do anything. They need to study opposing pitcher films and get his guys ready to face them, he needs to watch closely in batting practice and games and make sure that his hitters are staying true to their mechanics. Those are the two biggest things, I would think.

I asked former big leaguer (and Pirates pre and post game host on 93.7 The Fan) Kevin Orie about the roll of a hitting coach the other night. Orie told me that a hitting coach is "another set of eyes". Big league players know what to do and what not to do - they just might not notice things about their own swing at times. A hitting coach needs to be able to catch those little things and stop them before the hitter starts slumping too badly. That's not from my mouth - it's from a former Major League hitter's mouth.

While some hitting coaches are certainly better than others - I'm not willing to say that there's a huge difference in the best and the worst. Major leaguers know what to do and any coach at that level will be able to pick out what's wrong. There are rare examples that argue otherwise, such as the transformation of Jose Bautista, but you don't see those stories often.

The Pirates are the worst offensive team in the league, and it makes sense that people are trying to find somebody to blame for it. A lot of that has been targeted at Gregg Ritchie, but I just don't see how that's logical. He can only do so much with what he's been given, and it's a fact that he hasn't been given much in terms of talent. You could put the best hitting coach in the history of the world on that bench and the Pirates would still struggle to score three runs a game.

I'm going to do my best to talk to Gregg Ritchie and maybe even Clint Hurdle about these things in the coming days, so stayed tuned for that.