Lynn Henning

Change in hitting coaches won't fix Tigers' problems hitting

A year ago the Tigers had pitching problems. A year ago the Tigers fired their pitching coach.

After a season when Tigers hitters on too many days had a strained relationship with the scoreboard, shouldn't the Tigers consider a change in batting coaches? Why not fire or reassign Lloyd McClendon and give someone else with a fresh eye and perspective a chance to figure out, for example, Curtis Granderson's problems against left-handers?

"That's a legitimate question because we changed Chuck Hernandez," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said during a Tuesday morning phone conversation. "But Lloyd McClendon was the same guy when Placido Polanco got 200 hits, and when Magglio Ordonez led the league in hitting and Miguel Cabrera led the league in home runs, and when Curtis Granderson hit .300.

"And I think you've got to be careful with that. You start putting blame on people and making all kinds of changes, and I think it's unstable for the team. It's easy to say, 'Someone isn't doing good,' but it's not that simple.'

"Fans are upset. And with fans being upset, I don't disagree," Leyland added. "That's the normal reaction from people. They think that (firing a coach) is a cure-all. But if I thought Lloyd McClendon was the problem, I'd change hitting coaches."

Leyland was asked about a common refrain from Tigers fans: That he retains McClendon because "he's Leyland's buddy."

In fact, most coaches for most managers have some degree of friendship, which helps explain why they end up on a particular skipper's staff. You don't tackle an eight-month baseball season with guys you don't like.

Not sound reasoning

But the buddy stuff is one of those conspiracy theories fans love to embrace. Fans play a game of deductive reasoning here, which is irresistible: The hitting coach is a team's problem; the hitting coach is friends with the manager; therefore nepotism explains why the Tigers acted as if home plate in 2009 was something you approached rather than crossed.

It doesn't wash, anymore than believing a change in hitting coaches is the answer to big-league hitters who don't bash the baseball.

Consider that the Tigers in 2005 changed batting coaches, moving Kirk Gibson from manager Alan Trammell's bench co-pilot into Bruce Fields' slot supervising hitters.

Nothing changed. In fact, not often does much change when a team swaps batting instructors, as the Chicago Cubs are likely to find out in 2010 when Rudy Jaramillo arrives after a long career in Texas (which thought so much of him the Rangers wouldn't offer more than a one-year contract).

Pitchers are somewhat different. Justin Verlander's problems in 2008 single-handedly sabotaged Hernandez. Verlander had a big comeback in 2009 after getting some insight from new pitching coach Rick Knapp. My thought, not to slight Knapp, is that Verlander was too good of a pitcher not to have come back with a big year in 2009.

'We're in business'

But, in any event, hitters tend to respond less dramatically to coaches than pitchers do to pitching coaches, mostly because pitching is much more mechanical.

It is why I've never felt that switching batting coaches would do much to improve the Tigers' offense. It is, in this view, more of a need to add good hitters. McClendon, for example, did a nice job in 2009 of re-tooling Brandon Inge, who was headed for a monster season until his knees gave out in June.

Granderson? He hit left-handers a year ago, dramatically better than he had in 2007. So why didn't he practice the same preaching he got from McClendon in 2008?

McClendon isn't being retained because of friendship, or because he's a good golf partner. He sticks as the Tigers hitting coach for other reasons. Beginning with the fact nothing is likely to change if you bring on a different tutor.

"Friendship has nothing to do with it," Leyland said Tuesday. "Chuck Hernandez and I are friends. The only thing friendship means is that it's a little more fun. But we're in business. That's the way you have to look at it. You do what you feel gives your team the best shot.

"I think our hitting will be fine next season. Guys have up-and-down years. I don't think this is time to get involved with diversionary tactics."

lynn.henning@detnews.com