Quote:
Originally Posted by VERVE
In terms of his coaching, if my memory serves me right, I remembered he wanted his players to make the pitchers throw alot of pitches and they did it well later on while being patient at the plate. It was similar to the Yankees's approach. As well, he did not encouraged aggressiveness at the bases much(such as stealing bases) and not pressuring the oppositions pitchers often. Not sure however, if it was Gibbons or Gaston that a few suicide squeeze plays... (recalling one against Pettitte).
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JP brought in a batting coach that tried to duplicate the "see too many pitches" pitches approach of Yanks/Sox; Gibbon's opinion on the matter wasn't clear to me.
Led to a lot of two-hit inning with no runs.
I think that was part of the reason Cito and his "swing away" approach was so successful in the following seasons - guys had been held back from swinging in...say....every 1-1 count for three seasons and a) were raring to go b) had a keen eye on common opponents and c) other team's had a detrimental scouting report on it.
(plenty of idle speculation in there, and the situation if just an example)
DJF has a podcast up stroking their bats about the return of Gibby.