San Diego Padres dismiss hitting coach Phil Plantier
By Joel Burdeos
San Diego, CA- The San Diego Padres have dismissed hitting coach Phil Plantier following arguably the worst offensive season in franchise history. Phil Plantier was the Padres hitting coach for the past three seasons and was the Padres sixth different hitting coach since moving into Petco Park since 2004.
Phil Plantier joins Dave Magadan, Merv Rettenmund, Wally Joyner, Jim Lefebvre and Randy Ready as former hitting coaches that have tried to turn the Padres offense around during the past decade.
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The Padres ranked last in almost all of the offensive categories in Major League baseball. The Padres were last in runs, hits, RBI, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
According to Corey Brock of MLB.com, Phil Plantier could remain in the organization in a different position and Padres bench coach Dave Roberts, pitching coach Darren Balsley, third-base coach Glenn Hoffman, first-base coach Jose Valentin, bullpen coach Willie Blair and assistant hitting coach Alonzo Powell will return next season.
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Why the Padres are changing their hitting coach again I have no idea. You’ve had now six different hitting coaches in the past decade and as perfectly stated by Bernie Wilson of the Associated Press everyone in baseball knows the Padres plain and simple don’t have offensive talent.
"“Many in baseball know the Padres have a lot of LOFT hitters … Lack Of (expletive) Talent hitters.” –Wilson"
I don’t wanna hear the nonsense that it’s Petco Park’s fault for the Padres lack of offense, the problem is the Padres lack players who have offensive talent.
The Padres have refused to spend money on offensive talent the past decade and have tasked their hitting coaches with turning fringe major league talent into all-stars. Just look at the Padres lineup Yonder Alonso, Will Venable, Carlos Quentin, Cameron Maybin, Everth Cabrera, Jedd Gyorko and Yasmani Grandal. Maybe two or three of these players would be starters on the other 29 teams in baseball.
If the Padres want to improve their offense forget the hitting coach, go out their and sign legitimate major league offensive talent and you won’t need to change hitting coaches every two years.