The other thread about the Hitting Coach Search has gone completely off the rails so starting a new one. Anyone heard any new names? Did Gabe mention anything this morning? This is Gabe's previous list.

Lance Harvell, Sam Houston State hitting coach Spent the last five seasons as hitting coach of the Bearkats under Matt Deggs. SHSU hit .301 / .371 / .453 with 50 home runs and 59 steals in 2019. An Aggie graduate who served as a grad assistant coach at A&M in 2008 and '09, including a one-year stint as strength and conditioning coach in '09.

Austin Morgan, NC State assistant coach Assistant coach with the Wolf Pack the last two seasons. NC State hit .273 / .382 / .447 with 68 home runs and 44 steals in 2019. Spent two seasons as volunteer assistant with the Aggies in 2014 and '15.

Justin Seely, Texas A&M assistant coach Just wrapped up his 11th season as an assistant in Aggieland ... the last 10 as a full-time assistant and the last five as recruiting coordinator. The Aggies hit .251 / .333 / .362 with 42 home runs and 46 steals in 2019.

Jeremy Talbot, UL-Lafayette assistant coach Assistant coach and recruiting coordinator of the Ragin' Cajuns the last five seasons. UL hit .280 / .376 / .434 with 63 home runs and 93 steals in 2019. A&M hitting coach and recruiting coordinator from 2005-09.

Lance Harvell is going to Nebraska with Bolt I believe

How is Seely on this list? I thought RC was looking to "cast his net outside his circle." If I understand correctly, Bolt ran the offense in general and Seely was hitting specifically. I get that this was only one year of really down hitting, but it's not like we replaced 2/3 of the lineup. We had several returning starters and guys that saw several at bats last year.

This list is good, if by "wide net" you mean A&M ties.

The previous "wide net" seem to mean a SEC coach (and one that the AD knows).

How about someone out of state / out of conference?!?

According to the bio's of the coaches, Seely is the hitting coach. Bolt was the offensive coordinator so to speak, but hitting mechanics and approach has been handled by Seely for several years. Seely is also the recruiting coordinator. Unless Seely is moving to a new responsibility, the Aggies are not really in the market for a hitting guy. Bolt was in charge of the infielders, so that would be what RC would be looking at picking up.

Alpha Texan said:

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How is Seely on this list? I thought RC was looking to "cast his net outside his circle." If I understand correctly, Bolt ran the offense in general and Seely was hitting specifically. I get that this was only one year of really down hitting, but it's not like we replaced 2/3 of the lineup. We had several returning starters and guys that saw several at bats last year.

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Why does this keep getting repeated? Also, RC's first choice was inside his circle, albeit a qualified choice. I doubt he's going to hire someone he's not familiar with. I'm not trying to turn this into the other thread, but your list of candidates really should include several he has ties to, but not exclusive to them.

Terry Davis followed Brian Green to Washington State from New Mexico State. They have had a ridiculously good offense and had a ton of players from TX, so they're familiar with recruiting TX.

The list is from Gabe bock.

JDay said:

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According to the bio's of the coaches, Seely is the hitting coach. Bolt was the offensive coordinator so to speak, but hitting mechanics and approach has been handled by Seely for several years. Seely is also the recruiting coordinator. Unless Seely is moving to a new responsibility, the Aggies are not really in the market for a hitting guy. Bolt was in charge of the infielders, so that would be what RC would be looking at picking up.

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Just based on some limited talk that I heard from a good source, I don't think I would put much stock in those job descriptions. Bolt was involved in hitting instruction.

Those job descriptions are not set in stone. I know a lot of assistant VB coaches in charge of "defense" and or "setting" who did none of those things specifically but it helps with recruiting sometimes but more importantly for future jobs and some accolades

BoozingAg said:

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Alpha Texan said:

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How is Seely on this list? I thought RC was looking to "cast his net outside his circle." If I understand correctly, Bolt ran the offense in general and Seely was hitting specifically. I get that this was only one year of really down hitting, but it's not like we replaced 2/3 of the lineup. We had several returning starters and guys that saw several at bats last year.

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Why does this keep getting repeated? Also, RC's first choice was inside his circle, albeit a qualified choice. I doubt he's going to hire someone he's not familiar with. I'm not trying to turn this into the other thread, but your list of candidates really should include several he has ties to, but not exclusive to them.

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I think I leaked a little bit of info from the premium forum where Gabe said he will likely be looking outside his circle.

I was impressed with the hitting success that Duke had against our pitching.

As Dermdoc had previously said they also had a lot of very large humans swinging the bat.

Richline said:

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As Dermdoc had previously said they also had a lot of very large humans swinging the bat.

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Size does not necessarily equate to the ability to hit the ball hard. See Jose Altuve. See Boomer White. Heck see "Big" John Byington who did not get the Big moniker due to his size.

jkag89 said:

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Richline said:

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As Dermdoc had previously said they also had a lot of very large humans swinging the bat.

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Size does not necessarily equate to the ability to hit the ball hard. See Jose Altuve. See Boomer White. Heck see "Big" John Byington who did not get the Big moniker due to his size.

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Oh, so see a handful one-off exceptions? Wow. Mind blowing.

Bunk Moreland said:

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jkag89 said:

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Richline said:

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As Dermdoc had previously said they also had a lot of very large humans swinging the bat.

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Size does not necessarily equate to the ability to hit the ball hard. See Jose Altuve. See Boomer White. Heck see "Big" John Byington who did not get the Big moniker due to his size.

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Oh, so see a handful one-off exceptions? Wow. Mind blowing.

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Actually, most of the '89 lineup (and certainly the top 3 hitters, Knoblauch, Byington, and Taylor) was pretty slight in stature.

See our resident Sasquatch that hit right around.200 with 2 HRs. *Guessing because I'm too lazy to look up the depressing stats*

I realize size doesn't equal the ability to hit but he's working with an entirely different build of guys in his lineup. The majority of the teams in the world series are built different than the Ags.

jkag89 said:

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Bunk Moreland said:

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jkag89 said:

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Richline said:

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As Dermdoc had previously said they also had a lot of very large humans swinging the bat.

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Size does not necessarily equate to the ability to hit the ball hard. See Jose Altuve. See Boomer White. Heck see "Big" John Byington who did not get the Big moniker due to his size.

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Oh, so see a handful one-off exceptions? Wow. Mind blowing.

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Wow, how many more names do I need to add for you accept the premise. If there is a sport in which stature does not matter it is baseball. I want a squad of players that can play the game, whether they are small or large matters not to me.

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I agree with this but the problem is the rest of college ball does as well. We could get higher quality hitters(and a better team Avg) if we went back to recruiting gorilla ball players that we had in 2016-17 as they might have been passed over by other top programs. We're poor at defense anyway so we might as well try to improve one of the 2 lacking aspects of the game, defensively we ride pitching anyway so it isn't much of a risk at all.

At very least hopefully the new coach will not have us fastball hunting because it was painfully obvious that did not work this year.

My simple minded observation is that the Aggie team is NOT built like the one's in the CWS. It makes me question our Strength and Conditioning program. Shewmake looks to be the same size as a Junior as he was as a freshman. While this is just a 'one of' comparison, the entire team does not appear to have the athleticism of the CWS teams.

Richline said:

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The majority of the teams in the world series are built different than the Ags.

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Now H/W does not tell the whole story, not every 6' 1" /190 LBS player has the same athletic ability but since you brought up the eye test, a quick look of the various CWS participants except for L'ville & FSU (even so it just that these squads have fewer players under 6 feet) does not show a glaring difference in the build of position players vs that of A&M. Again this is a quick scan, I did not try to determine the build of the regulars.

Auburn
Arkansas
Florida State
Louisville
Michigan
Mississippi St.
tech
Vandy

As a team, with the exception of the 15 and 16 teams, we've seemed small compared to the rest of the SEC West. Coincidentally, or not, those were far and away our best hitting teams, and the only teams we've hadn't that have put up good power numbers.

Being able to fastball hunt isn't a bad thing, however I think it's the lack of awareness of the What hunting fastballs truly means... The inability to hit any breaking pitch killed us and lead us to pitcher friendly counts. And that left us in 2 strike counts looking for fastballs but getting breaking balls.

Pushing pitchers to deeper in the count to get a more predictable pitch is often the key to good hitting... there is no telling how many 4 pitch strike out at bats I saw this year... it was beyond frustrating.

Strength and conditioning has baffled me... we have quite a few guys who are just skinny who could carry productive weight and muscle. But don't appear to gain anything from fish to jr year.

Beginning with Bolt's tenure and recruiting of hitters (15/16 were already here ) were have gotten away from hitting the ball for power and trying to hit for average but at the same time our plate discipline has dropped to epic levels. If "smaller" than most then you would think we would be built on speed but yet we don't steal
We have no identity collectively and individually we have regressed, a change had to be made and him taking the Nebraska job allows us to change our offensive philosophy.

Besides Melton (often dismissed as a fat tub a goo) and Gideon name another regular position player that would meet the eye test of a large player? Certainly not Birk, Banks, White or Barash.

jkag89 said:

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Besides Melton (often dismissed as a fat tub a goo) and Gideon name another regular position player would meet the eye test of a large player? Certainly not Birk, Banks, White, Barash.

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Mitchell Nau was one. Before his last year here (2015), he was much bigger. In the offseason he lost something like 20 lbs and slimmed way up. Then he started mashing the ball. Then again, once he lost all that weight, he looked more like Banks than Melton.

I don't think we need "size"... Heck, Allemand could hit for power and he was smaller. I just think that the overall strength of the team has diminished. That said, I bet if we did better at squaring the ball up, it would travel more. Guys like Hunter Coleman are stocky and should be sending the ball deep far more often than they do.

I would add that if your primary philosophy is to "hunt fastballs" you better not miss fastballs thrown over the plate. Something we consistently seemed to do throughout the year.

Personally, and I think each hitter is a little different, I prefer to look for pitches in a particular zone early in the count. So if you're sitting middle out, regardless of pitch type, you have an area of the plate you're trying to cover. That can change pitch to pitch depending on the situation, or AB to AB. But that mentality is that you'll handle whatever pitch is thrown to that particular part of the plate. It also doesn't take away from pitch recognition, because you still need to do that for timing, but the mentality is a lot different than sitting on a particular pitch that could be thrown anywhere in the zone and now if you miss it, you're in a much bigger hole so to speak.

TxA&Mhunter said:

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Pushing pitchers to deeper in the count to get a more predictable pitch is often the key to good hitting... there is no telling how many 4 pitch strike out at bats I saw this year... it was beyond frustrating.

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This year's club did not strike out a lot, it was one of the better clubs in the SEC in not striking out. Certainly we could have worked the count better but the end result usually was not a K.

TAL06RES said:

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Personally, and I think each hitter is a little different, I prefer to look for pitches in a particular zone early in the count.

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Only problem is that on a macro level, if you do that and don't get hits, you're helping a pitcher out and keeping his pitch count lower. So I agree- you need a mix of guys hunting early-count fastballs and trying to drive them while also having smaller leadoff guys who try to get walks, foul pitches off, and just be a nuisance.

Can not address strength and conditioning other than the team has a weight room at Olsen and a strength and conditioning coach that works only with the baseball team. In other words the team is not competing with other teams on campus to use equipment or has a coach whose attention is split. Now the fault may be with McMillan but he was here when during the 2015-16 stretch when folks believe we were bigger and stronger.

Aggies2009 said:

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TAL06RES said:

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Personally, and I think each hitter is a little different, I prefer to look for pitches in a particular zone early in the count.

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Only problem is that on a macro level, if you do that and don't get hits, you're helping a pitcher out and keeping his pitch count lower. So I agree- you need a mix of guys hunting early-count fastballs and trying to drive them while also having smaller leadoff guys who try to get walks, foul pitches off, and just be a nuisance.

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Not necessarily. Guys that hit a particular zone well will, more often than not, be pitched away from that zone early (unless they are being pitched into a shift). But obviously, any approach, you have to execute when you get the location or pitch you want to hit.

The problem we've consistently had is we "hunt fastballs" and then foul off a fastball thrown belt high to any part of the plate... or in the case of Deloach in particular, he hits a weak groundball to second because he tried to pull an low and away pitch.

Sitting location, should in theory, lead to more balls being barreled up when you execute the approach correctly.

TAL06RES said:

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Aggies2009 said:

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TAL06RES said:

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Personally, and I think each hitter is a little different, I prefer to look for pitches in a particular zone early in the count.

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Only problem is that on a macro level, if you do that and don't get hits, you're helping a pitcher out and keeping his pitch count lower. So I agree- you need a mix of guys hunting early-count fastballs and trying to drive them while also having smaller leadoff guys who try to get walks, foul pitches off, and just be a nuisance.

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Not necessarily. Guys that hit a particular zone well will, more often than not, be pitched away from that zone early (unless they are being pitched into a shift). But obviously, any approach, you have to execute when you get the location or pitch you want to hit.

The problem we've consistently had is we "hunt fastballs" and then foul off a fastball thrown belt high to any part of the plate... or in the case of Deloach in particular, he hits a weak groundball to second because he tried to pull an low and away pitch.

Sitting location, should in theory, lead to more balls being barreled up when you execute the approach correctly.

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Most definitely. So many pitches at the belt and right over the plate were popped up.

It was pretty telling that when the Coleman brothers joined the Bombers, the entire Bombers team was driving pitches into gaps (barreling them up, as you say) in the outfield and the two Colemans hit tons of popups on the infield

That said, Hunter has settled in and driven the ball well the last week or two. He's hit several doubles and homers (for a wood bat league, anyway) but Ty is still struggling.