John Royal's article for the Houston Press today points out that the Mariners, whose team OPS was almost 40 points higher than the Astros, fired their pitching coach yesterday morning. So what kind of dirt does Sean Berry have on everybody?
The job of Astros hitting coach Sean Berry appears to be safe, even though no team in the majors has a worse on-base percentage. The Berry defenders, and there suddenly appear to be a lot of them in the media, claim that he's not the one responsible for building a club so lacking in offensive talent.
...But at some point, Berry has to work with these guys and get them to start working at actually getting on base, and making a pitcher have to earn a win. And that's something that's just not happening. It's something that's never happened under Berry's watch...Somebody on the team has to get the batters to not swing at everything that comes their way, and the person who should be working with the players on their offensive approach is the hitting coach.
It's a totally valid argument, and I'm not sure how Berry was the only coach retained from 2009, but he was. And the Astros are bad. It's been pointed out - here, and elsewhere - that Berry can do all the BP and video work in the world, but ultimately it's up to the hitters.
Royal notes that Ed Wade should get some heat for signing Feliz and Matsui, instead of Cabrera or Hudson, who traditionally have a high OBP, but Berry is the hitting coach, and ain't nobody hitting.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
