“I feel very comfortable with what I see and taking that to the player and saying, ‘here’s what I’m seeing, here’s the adjustment I think needs to be made, here’s the drill I think can fix that, and let’s go to work.’
“Part of it is listening to their feedback too and creating a trust with the player. My philosophy is that I work within a guy’s individual scheme. I don’t have a cookie-cutter approach. Remember Walt Hriniak (a Charley Lau disciple who worked with the Red Sox and White Sox in the ’80s), where everybody did it one way? That’s not my style.
“My style is more to work within what an Ichiro does, or a Jeter did, or a Cano. Or take a Swisher and kind of put him back together again. I’ve been given a lot of credit for being able to do that. And I feel comfortable doing that, where some hitting coaches, they can’t do it. It’s not their forte.”
Source: New York Daily News
This was an interesting piece and Long went on to discuss some of the players he’s already gotten a chance to start analyzing. It’s definitely worth reading.
If this is any indication, Long will be a quotable presence, a marked change from Dave Hudgens.
Long loves the spotlight almost as much as he loves himself. Best of all, he loves patting himself on the back when he’s in the spotlight, which he actively seeks.
All that aside, he might be a good hitting coach.
I personally believe that the best coaches are not out to make themselves the story, or ti steal praise from a player. The Mets suffered, I think, by making too much of an emphasis on “the approach” and beginning to believe that talent was secondary.
Anyway, Long is not my kind of guy.
“This guy. This is not my kinda guy.” Frank Costanza
As long as he isn’t Lloyd Braun….serenity now…
Thanks for the link, Brian. Enjoyed the Daily News piece, even as I knew while reading it that it was working a tried and true angle. It’s a really appealing fantasy, that a guy comes to the team and through some kind of coaching magic turns a ragtag collection of mediocrity into a dynamic and powerful unit. I hope it happens that way!
Much of the Job of a Hitting coach is sitting next to guys who are talking to themselves, providing them cover and the appearance that they are not fully crazy.
I’m hopeful that Long can work with all of the players, and avoid burying the younger guys with statistical, in-game penalties that the past coach employed.
The biggest part of coaching is to be quiet alot!….and to talk “enough”.