Honest question not aimed at insulting coaching staff. Some of you former players who have seen them in person could possibly comment on what you see that needs improvement overall for this team.

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[This message has been edited by TexAgs staff (edited 3/26/2005 8:35a).]

Hey maybe we can build an indoor batting facility for the players to use. Oh yea we already built one. I'm glad it's working.

Glasses?

I think a lot of it is mental. Most of it, probably. It seems like our team either scores nothing or scores a ton. When we're on, everybody seems to be on, and we'll hit a pitcher for everything we can. When we're off, we can't hit off a tee.

Maybe the team can swing at tires?

If we can get our veterans to hit even .50 under last season's average the rest of the way, we'll still win 15 conference games.

Girls win again. Maybe they could teach our baseball team the secret of how to hit a round white object coming toward you with a metal stick?? Does not hurt to try, but then again----?

[This message has been edited by cmohle (edited 3/26/2005 2:44p).]

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[This message has been edited by TexAgs staff (edited 3/28/2005 10:04a).]

NCAA softballs are yellow... maybe if MJ could paint all of our baseballs yellow we'd hit better.

Hire a batting coach.

hitting is not something that you can just teach or solve- you can instruct better the mental aspects of the game ie: what type of pitches to look for in certain situations, but most of that just depends on the guy you happen to be facing at any given time- to make a short statement very long, there isnt anything you can really do to improve hitting, players can either do it, or they cant- that being said, you can be smart on the bases, and disciplined at the plate, doing that can put pressure on the defense to make plays and pressure on the pitchers to come up with great pitches, that usually leads to mistakes, which leads to runs- sadly, our team doesnt do any of that well, its a system from mostly poor fundamental training in the state of Texas for how to play baseball- there are many exceptions to this obviously, but Texas philosophy for baseball seems to be "hit a homerun" for offense, and "strike'em out" for defense

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Hire a batting coach

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Funny thing is, many people assume we have a hitting coach simply because the vast majority of teams have them. Unfortunately, this is the one area where MJ has been too stubborn on, and it will be his downfall. He refuses to hire a hitting coach and immediately places blame on the players for becoming worse hitters during college.

Maybe that explains how many hitters start well here and then go downhill in subsequent years. If any attempts are being made to "instruct", it seems on paper they are having the opposite effect. And if they are not "instructing", opposing coaches are finding their weaknesses and delivering the right pitches to get them out.

MJ needs someone competent on his staff to do the coaching in hitting. It certainly made a difference with NU just a few years back.

[This message has been edited by Ishmael-Ag (edited 3/27/2005 7:59a).]

I thought MJ was the hitting coach? What exactly do they do over at the new covered batting cages?

I doubt seriously that our hitting is going to improve significantly over the remainder of the season. We sure aren't going to become a power hitting ball club over the next couple of months, that's out the window with the talent we have available on this team.


[This message has been edited by Artimus Gordon (edited 3/27/2005 4:38p).]

We might not have what MJ calls a hitting coach, but we used to be able to pound the ball when Bill Hickey was an assistant coach, but ever since he quit, we have not been able to hit the ball nearly as well.

The answer to this question is YES.

There are many things that a good hitting coach can help with - like spotting things in your swing to help you break out of a slump - ie. dipping back shoulder, increase-decrease stride, pulling head off of ball etc.

MJ has always won(to a certain point) when he has had good power hitting teams. We have not been able to play good "small ball" when we have not had the power hitters. IMO

Maybe this would help:

http://www.hittingvideo.com/

David Coleman is the hitting coach.