And the Reds should hire him to do so.
One of the 3 best pure hitters in baseball, spanning two decades.
Would immediately help this team and inject knowledge and guidance to all hitters. Marte and EDLC would also benefit tremendously.
Do it…Valaika is a total failure.
Francona has to be interested…Manny won him 2 WS Rings
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The issue is that raw hitting skills don’t always translate to coaching skills. Manny was an incredible hitter, but he was also a notorious headcase with attitude problems. Maybe that’s changed for him in retirement, maybe he’d be a lightning rod, I don’t know. I am not a Chris Valaika fan by any stretch, but I wouldn’t jump at Manny just based on the back of his baseball card.
I would be on board with that. The two best hitting instructors the Reds had were former All Star players… Ted Kluszewski and Tony Perez.
I like to draw and am pretty good at it. I am not a teacher and my skills would be limited to “no, like this.”
That said, if he has the chops that’s what matters!
One of my favorite stories about Barry Bonds is that he wasn’t a good hitting coach, because his advice boiled down to just don’t swing at sliders.
But whatever, can’t be much worse we had no one over 110 wrc+
Why can’t we do Votto? (I know nothing)
no MLB hitting coach is a guy you’d think of as a great hitter
hell, Chad Mottola is a hitting coach and the dude couldn’t hit major league pitching
For those saying Votto….I dont disagree he might be a great HC…but he has not expressed the desire to do so. Also, there is something to be said for an outside hire. Votto falls into the Reds troupe of familiarity and legacy and reds background, etc (Like Belle and Valaika etc). I think for a team that is trying to be BETTER, getting uncomfortable with some of your hires is a good thing. That is why I liked Francona hire
Man Ram as Jim Rome used to call him. I wonder what kinda coach he would be actually. He had some wild moments in the league.