Those of you that are long-time baseball fans, even before the Marlins' existence, don't you notice something about the Marlins hitting and base running errors in relation to Bill Robinson? Do you remember why he was fired from the Mets under the Davey Johnson Regime? It was for the same reasons that he may be fired here in Florida. They had a lineup that was somewhat similar to the Marlins in capabilities and Davey was often criticized for waiting around for the 3 run homer too much as well, which was blamed for some of their hitting problems in certain seasons.

 

Compare lineups:

 

Dykstra - Pierre

Backman - Castillo

K. Hernandez - M. Cabrera

G. Carter - C. Delgado

Strawberry - Lowell

K. McReynolds/M. Wilson - Conine/Encarnacion

H. Johnson/R. Knight - LoDuca

R. Santana/K. Elster - A. Gonzalez

 

Essentially, both teams had 2 excellent table setters at the top of the line up. They had somewhat the same type of combined power output and RBI production from their 3rd to 7th hitter and somewhat weak hitting SS based on the standards of their eras (mid/late 1980s vs 2005). Yet, Bill Robinson has failed with both.

 

I'm not necessarily criticizing Bill Robinson (even though he should be out), but trying to provoke a thought.

 

What are your thoughts?

My thought is I miss those Mets. That was my team growing up because a lot of them started A ball here in Lynchburg. The break-up of that team is a large reason why I was ready to start following the Marlins when they were announced as an expansion team.

That is the chronic story of the Mets though. Extreme talent, terrible production. To be fair though I have no idea what you're talking about as I am way too young. I only really know Strawberry from his coke habits :thumbup

So essentially Robinson was a good hitting coach in 1986 and 2003...and in the other years he forget what he was doing. The guy has won two rings...a lot more than a lot of other coaches and managers. I understand "fans" and ownership need to blame someone for their team's faults...unfortunately it's the hitting coach that often bears the brunt of this criticism. In all honesty, do you really think a hitting coach makes that big a difference...one way or the other?

 

:confused

So essentially Robinson was a good hitting coach in 1986 and 2003...and in the other years he forget what he was doing. The guy has won two rings...a lot more than a lot of other coaches and managers. I understand "fans" and ownership need to blame someone for their team's faults...unfortunately it's the hitting coach that often bears the brunt of this criticism. In all honesty, do you really think a hitting coach makes that big a difference...one way or the other?

 

:confused

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Ask the Indians :whistle

So essentially Robinson was a good hitting coach in 1986 and 2003...and in the other years he forget what he was doing. The guy has won two rings...a lot more than a lot of other coaches and managers. I understand "fans" and ownership need to blame someone for their team's faults...unfortunately it's the hitting coach that often bears the brunt of this criticism. In all honesty, do you really think a hitting coach makes that big a difference...one way or the other?

 

:confused

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If they don't make a difference, they why have one? If Robinson isn't making a difference then why are we paying him?

As far as Robinson as a hitting coach in 2003, I personally think that alot of the coaching staffs deficiencies were covered by Ozzie Guillen. Certainly the base running mistakes were. Ozzie controlled 3B and there were hardly any base running mistakes with the exception of a few. Now Robinson is on his own and look at the total number of base running blunders this season. As for 1986, the fact that his teams are incosistent year in year out indicates that it is the players doing the job as a whole. Obviously, when they struggle, he hasn't figured out what is wrong, but when they are in a good groove, he takes the credit and the rings. Tim McCarver was a very knowledgable baseball catcher in his time and he often criticized Bill Robinson's mistakes, even in the championship season, before Robinson was fired in New York.