Posted October 28, 200519 yr Meacham new coach BY CLARK SPENCER [email protected] New Marlins manager Joe Girardi isn't wasting time in picking a coaching staff. Girardi hired Bobby Meacham to be his third-base coach, with more positions expected to be filled next week. Meacham, 45, was plucked from the Colorado Rockies' organization, where he was their minor-league fielding instructor last season. A veteran of six seasons as an infielder with the New York Yankees, Meacham replaces Jeff Cox as the Marlins' third-base coach. Meacham had worked previously in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Girardi, whom the Marlins hired last week to take over from Jack McKeon, has contacted Marlins first-base coach Perry Hill about returning next season. Pitching coach Mark Wiley also could be retained. ''He said I was his guy,'' Hill said. But the rookie manager will probably look to hire new hitting, bench and bullpen coaches. Bill Robinson, who served as the Marlins' hitting coach the past three seasons, said Girardi has not returned a phone message left with him last week and doesn't expect to return. Robinson said he was ''disappointed'' and might go into scouting if nothing opens for him on a major-league coaching staff. Girardi is also thought to be interested in adding former major-league pitcher Mike Harkey to his staff, most likely as the Marlins' bullpen coach. Harkey, a teammate of Girardi's on the Chicago Cubs and Rockies, spent the past season as the pitching coach for the Padres' Double A team in Mobile. Harkey, 39, went 36-36 in his eight major-league seasons. Who Girardi and his staff will be coaching is still up in the air. Link Girardi calls Perry Hill, but does not return a call from Bill Robinson. So far it looks like Girardi has his priorities in order.
October 28, 200519 yr Bill Robinson, who served as the Marlins' hitting coach the past three seasons, said Girardi has not returned a phone message left with him last week and doesn't expect to return. :lol :lol :lol Pwned. [i LiVE FOR BiLL ROBiNSON'S FiRiNG] :mischief
October 28, 200519 yr How can one be "disappointed" when one didn't do his job? Gee Bill, Marlins made crappy pitchers look like Cy Young candidates, I wonder why...
October 29, 200519 yr what's even more curious is that the Marlins led the NL in BA, second in NL in OBP, eighth in runs scored in a hitters ballpark... Is there such thing as another hitting coach that could make them do, even better???... the problem was clutchness and situational hitting, which in my opinion is more of a focus and concentration issue, which should be instilled from the manager, again imo.
October 29, 200519 yr what's even more curious is that the Marlins led the NL in BA, second in NL in OBP, eighth in runs scored in a hitters ballpark... Is there such thing as another hitting coach that could make them do, even better???... the problem was clutchness and situational hitting, which in my opinion is more of a focus and concentration issue, which should be instilled from the manager, again imo. Give any major league hitting coach a team that features (potentially, and assuming no drug-related decline with Lowell) a potential all-star at every single position except for SS and center-field (and if you want to get technical, a past all-star at every position except center-field and right field), and not getting above average production is more startling than what Robinson did this season. The hitting coach has one job, making sure that slumps don't become extended problems, and he sure didn't do much with LoDuca or Lowell or Pierre this season.
October 29, 200519 yr For two years i've been saying FIRE BILL ROBINSON..... and that time has finally come. MARLINS FANS REJOICE!!!
October 29, 200519 yr Mike Lowell and Juan Pierre did not have bad years because of Bill Robinson. He is a coach and it is his job to coach/instruct. How the players execute with his instruction was the issue for these two. And if you're giving his role that much importance then you have to say that Miguel Cabrera, Juan Encarnacion and Carlos Delgado had the years they had because of Bill Robinson also. According to you, any hitting coach who has bad hitters on his team is a bad hitting coach. And I do not buy that the Marlins leading the league in batting average was just a given and that a better hitting coach should have done even more.
October 29, 200519 yr Mike Lowell and Juan Pierre did not have bad years because of Bill Robinson. He is a coach and it is his job to coach/instruct. How the players execute with his instruction was the issue for these two. And if you're giving his role that much importance then you have to say that Miguel Cabrera, Juan Encarnacion and Carlos Delgado had the years they had because of Bill Robinson also. According to you, any hitting coach who has bad hitters on his team is a bad hitting coach. And I do not buy that the Marlins leading the league in batting average was just a given and that a better hitting coach should have done even more. Now you're putting words in my mouth. I said that a hitting coach that inherits a team that features 4 players who could start the all-star game at their respective position year in and year out (Delgado, Cabrera, Castillo, LoDuca), and if not for this year, it would have been 5 with Lowell included, better have the team in the top 10 in most hitting categories...so those statistics really should be more expected than celebrated. My contention is that the job of a hitting coach is to make sure that a player doesn't experience prolonged slumps...I mean, what the hell does a hitting coach do other than throwing BP? The fact that Lowell and Pierre had years substantially off their career norms indicates a failure on the part of the hitting coach. To say that Robinson is a good coach because he got good years out of Cabrera and Delgado is like saying that a person is a good parent because he takes care of his kids...
October 29, 200519 yr Oh and before someone brings Alex Gonzalez up. It wasn't actually Bill who discovered what was wrong with AGon's swing........it was his wife . :plain
October 29, 200519 yr Oh and before someone brings Alex Gonzalez up. It wasn't actually Bill who discovered what was wrong with AGon's swing........it was his wife . :plain Really? I had no clue. :lol
October 29, 200519 yr I want to see the Marlins hire a former All-Star or HOFer to take over as hitting coach, basically just someone who has actual experience.
October 29, 200519 yr Someone who hit for high average like Wade Boggs? Yeah, if Mike Schmidt doesn't get hired by Tampa Bay, why not sign him? He has prior coaching experience in the minors, and he was probably the best offensive 3Bman of all time.
October 29, 200519 yr How can one be "disappointed" when one didn't do his job? Robinson has denied responsibility all year. Taking swipes at people in the media who hinted he may be fired. I want to see the Marlins hire a former All-Star or HOFer to take over as hitting coach, basically just someone who has actual experience. Yeah, if Mike Schmidt doesn't get hired by Tampa Bay, why not sign him? He has prior coaching experience in the minors, and he was probably the best offensive 3Bman of all time. Uhhh... playing and coaching are too entirely different things. Ask Frank Robinson and Bobby Cox.
October 30, 200519 yr Uhhh... playing and coaching are too entirely different things. Ask Frank Robinson and Bobby Cox. On this one we can agree. Just because someone can hit, or field or understands the game, doesn't mean they have the communication skills or the ability to work with others as a mentor and teacher. For every Ted Williams, who wrote what many believe is the greatest book ever on hitting, "The Science of Hitting", but was as a person difficult and short of patience with others, there's a Charlie Lau, who for a while could teach a chimp to hit .285. Lau's "How to Hit .300" became the bible of hitting coaches around the world and his theories were mimiced from LL to the majors for nearly a decade.
October 30, 200519 yr There talking about Andres Galaraga for a hitting coach... Don Zimmer for a bench coach? I think that is some good playing and good coaching experience
November 3, 200519 yr Don Zimmer for a bench coach? I think that is some good playing and good coaching experience We're f***ed if we get into a brawl. :lol
November 3, 200519 yr OMG the big cat !!!! that would be such a lovely dream ... sign him on an eternal contract. is there an actual source to this? or just a made up rumor to make me happy?
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