The other day one of the Royals' hitting coaches said some pretty ridiculous things. Essentially, No. 1 hitting coach Jack Maloof said the Royals have completely stopped hitting home runs because of Kauffman Stadium. According to Maloof, it's not just that hitting home runs there is difficult (which is true), but also that Royal hitters simply shouldn't even get into the habit of trying for homers, since it won't work in Kansas City and would only mess up everybody's swing on the road.
Desperate Royals get George Brett back into uniform
Christian Petersen
Actually, Maloof almost seemed proud of his hitters’ inability to hit home runs:
That’s why I’m not overly concerned because I think we’ll lead the league in fewest home runs again this year.
LEAD THE LEAGUE. Almost sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? The way he says it?
Actually, no. It doesn’t sound good at all. Except maybe in Maloof’s mind.
Anyway, I wrote about all this, and Steve Goldman wrote about it.
Here’s another good bit from that article, by the way:
Ultimately, though, Maloof knows fans are looking for scapegoats. And when an offense is riding a season-long slump, it’s easy to find one – the hitting coach.
“I understand what fans’ frustrations are,” he said. “But we’re doing the best we can. If I get too caught up with what fans are saying, I wouldn’t sleep at night. I know the history of this team losing 90 games. But we have to keep the players from getting down and pressing. Don’t get caught up in all that.
“We have to stay positive, and there’s a lot of baseball left.”
There’s not a lot of baseball left for Jack Maloof. Or the No. 2 hitting coach, either.
#Royals re-assign Jack Maloof and Andre David to minor-league duties.
— Bob Dutton (@Royals_Report) May 30, 2013
Hey, look! Scapegoats!!!!!!
But surely the fans aren’t foolish enough to blame the Royals’ hitting coaches, right? Firing a couple of anonymous (until yesterday anyway) coaches and replacing them with a couple of anonymous coaches ... that can’t possibly mollify the fans, can it?
#Royals announce George Brett and Pedro Grifo will now serve as hitting coaches.
— Bob Dutton (@Royals_Report) May 30, 2013
Oh. Wow. Gosh. Did. Not. See. That. Coming.
Yes, one of those guys is anonymous. Beyond anonymous. Pedro Grifo doesn’t even sound like a real person. But George Brett is very real, and his return to the dugout actually will mollify the fans. Some of them, anyway. For a while. If nothing else, everybody will be talking about something other than a eight-game losing streak and last place.
Seems like a funny way to run an organization. But who knows? Nobody else could get Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas going. Why not give Mr. Royal a shot? And hey, on the off-chance that doesn't work out, maybe George can fill in at first base against right-handed pitchers.
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