Braves fire Seitzer and assistant hitting coach. Also Fasano.

I will give it to you in a nutshell. The Braves were playing the Red Sox in an ESPN Sunday night game way back when. It was a slugfest that the Red Sox ended up winning. It was a close game throughout and at one juncture, Francoeur hit a fastball that was low-and-away (and I mean really low-and-away) on a line that was one of the hardest balls I've ever seen hit. It cleared the left field fence and the ball looked like it was never more than 12-15 feet off the ground. It was hit that hard. But, as was often the case with Francoeur, it was the blind squirrel finding an acorn. Francoeur probably went back to the dugout thinking "I can do that every time."

Sure, it's anecdotal and Francoeur consistentlly grounding out to the second baseman on similar pitches as his career continued should have been instructive to him. My guess is Francoeur was a beast in the weight room and thought that strength was all that really mattered. Big guy with great plate coverage, he probably thought if I can reach it, I can hit it with authority. That might work the first time through the league, but the other teams do scout the opposition.

Andruw is an easy one for me. In his prime, he could turn around the best fastballs in the game. That said, if I had a nickel for every time Andruw swung over a breaking ball down and away, I'd be wadig through a waist-deep bunch of nickels in my garage. In his defense, Andruw just wasn't a guy that you wanted to mess with his swing. Like Olson now and Ron Gant before him, Andruw was what he was. The downside risk of fiddling with his swing was probably greater than any upside that might have been realized.

Andruw never learned to lay off that pitch.
 
Andruw could lay off the slider low but it would have cost him a lot of power and he wasn't willing to do that. He said himself he could have hit .300 and hit 20 homers but he rather hit .270 and hit 30+ homers.
 
So the question is, who replaces him? Chipper would be the obvious choice, but it really depends on if he wants a real job again.
 
Saw a rumor on a UGA board from a reliable poster that the Braves are going to hire Georgia native Tim Hyers... won a World Series with the Red Sox in 2018 and last year with the Rangers. Can't find anything concrete about it but we will see.
 
So the question is, who replaces him? Chipper would be the obvious choice, but it really depends on if he wants a real job again.

Really don't think Chipper is the answer for anything more than a part time role. With his personality and also being one of the greatest hitters of all time, he doesn't strike me as someone who'd have the patience to put in the work with hitters far less talented than him.
 
This guy is about to get a lot of credit for excellent hitters getting healthy and/or experiencing positive regression.

The true measure of his success should be tied to the walk rates of Albies and Harris, but it won't. He'll just be lauded for the offense being better in 2025, which it would have been with any human being as hitting coach.
 
This guy is about to get a lot of credit for excellent hitters getting healthy and/or experiencing positive regression.

The true measure of his success should be tied to the walk rates of Albies and Harris, but it won't. He'll just be lauded for the offense being better in 2025, which it would have been with any human being as hitting coach.

For sure. unless the coaches ****ed with Olsen's swing, injuries are why our offense sucked and Olsen having a down year but that's not unheard of he's a pretty streaky hitter.

But having a full season of Riley, Albies, Acuna, Murphy, Harris, etc. will mean a bounceback year for the offense.
 
This guy is about to get a lot of credit for excellent hitters getting healthy and/or experiencing positive regression.

The true measure of his success should be tied to the walk rates of Albies and Harris, but it won't. He'll just be lauded for the offense being better in 2025, which it would have been with any human being as hitting coach.

Agree but the dude has a fantastic track record. I’m excited about him.
 
This guy is about to get a lot of credit for excellent hitters getting healthy and/or experiencing positive regression.

The true measure of his success should be tied to the walk rates of Albies and Harris, but it won't. He'll just be lauded for the offense being better in 2025, which it would have been with any human being as hitting coach.

Like Seitzer, he’s coming off a down 2024 after having a league best offense in 2023. Which is pretty funny when you think about it.
 
Like Seitzer, he’s coming off a down 2024 after having a league best offense in 2023. Which is pretty funny when you think about it.

It would be funny if it wasn't so stupid.

Braves were #1 in runs scored in 2023, then #15 in 2024.

Rangers were #3 in runs scored in 2023, then #18 in 2024.

One hitting coach is a bum who got fired, while the other is being crowned the Prince of Hitting by a new organization and fanbase

Gotta love it!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It would be funny if it wasn't so stupid.

Braves were #1 in runs scored in 2023, then #15 in 2024.

Rangers were #3 in runs scored in 2023, then #18 in 2024.

One hitting coach is a bum who got fired, while the other is being crowned the Prince of Hitting by a new organization and fanbase

Gotta love it!

Who's crowning him "Prince of Hitting?" Certainly no one on this board. I guess that's what saying "this is a good hire" means now. I truly think you see whatever you want to see sometimes.
 
I like the move. I think we just needed a fresh approach. If I was another team I would hire Seitzer in a minute. Hyer has been a part of 2 championship teams in the past 10 years with 2 different teams.
 
Hyers seems to have a pretty good track record. But the Braves getting Acuna back, having Albies for most of the year, and Riley back will make the offense better than Hyer itself. But AA probably wanted a new approach since the last 3 years in the playoffs, the bats went cold.
 
Both things can be true. Shocking, I know. He can be a really good coach and Braves hitters can get back to “normal” next season.

Gotta love it
 
Back
Top