http://blog.mlive.com/cutoffman/2008/09/freep_tigers_to_fire_chuck_her.html


The Tigers announced Sunday that they have fired pitching coach Chuck Hernandez and bullpen coach Jeff Jones, the first moves in what could be a turbulent winter for the team.

Club officials had indicated for several days that changes were imminent, following one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history. Manager Jim Leyland acknowledged the dismissals following Detroit’s 8-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

“Situations like this, you know somebody’s going to pay,” Leyland said. “If it was next year at this time, it would be me.

“I feel very bad for both guys. I’ve never fired coaches. I don’t fire coaches. As people and baseball people, they’re both very good. It just didn’t work out.”

As recently as Friday afternoon, Hernandez said he had not been told of his status for 2009, an ominous sign. Many fans blamed Hernandez him for the underperformance of a pitching staff that has the American League’s third-worst ERA (4.88). Leyland called the pitching staff “probably the most glaring part, along with our defense, that struggled.”

Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson and Dontrelle Willis — who earned nearly $20 million among them — combined to win 10 games. The bullpen blew 27 save opportunities, including one Sunday afternoon.

“It’s tough, because I know I’m partially to blame for this,” said Justin Verlander, 11-17 with a 4.84 ERA this season. “I really learned a lot from him (Hernandez). What he’s taught me these three years will have a lasting influence on my career.”

When asked what kind of coach would be needed to connect with the team’s current pitchers, Leyland replied, “I would have to say at least one of the apostles.”

Leyland said he has no particular candidates in mind for either job, since the final decision was made less than a week ago. Leyland said the firings were a “mutual agreement” between him and club president/general manager Dave Dombrowski.

Leyland has previously said that he would prefer for his coaching hires to come from within the organization. On Sunday, he made an addendum to that statement: “Not at the expense of my job.”

It appears, then, that Leyland is inclined to seek an experienced pitching coach. Leo Mazzone and Rick Peterson, well-known for their work in Atlanta and Oakland, respectively, were fired from their latest jobs and are available this off-season.

Oakland’s Curt Young, a Saginaw native, and Florida’s Mark Wiley, who had prior success with Willis, would be attractive candidates, but there is no evidence to suggest that either is inclined to leave his current club.

Leyland said he has autonomy to pick his coaches but added that Dombrowski has veto power over the selections. Leyland said his next bullpen coach will probably not have a pitching background, as Jones does. (“I think it makes people uncomfortable from time to time,” Leyland said.)

Hernandez and Jones said through a team spokesman that they will address the media today in Chicago, where the Tigers will conclude their season with a makeup game against the White Sox. Both will be in uniform during the game, Leyland said.

Hernandez, 47, has been with the team for three seasons. He was the pitching coach in 2006, when Detroit led the majors with a 3.84 ERA.

Jones, 52, is a Detroit native and longtime Michigan resident who has coached in the Tigers organization at various levels since 1989.

Both coaches were signed through 2009, so the team will continue to pay their salaries. Leyland said there is a “strong possibility” that Jones will remain with the organization in another capacity.

The only previous staff change during Leyland’s tenure in Detroit came after the 2006 season, when Don Slaught resigned as the hitting coach.

“Believe me: I’ve had a real tough week,” Leyland said. “I’ve had a knot in my stomach, because I’ve known it for a few days. To walk around the clubhouse, look at them, talk to them, sit next to them on the bench, it’s not a good feeling.

“They’re both outstanding. They’re going to be missed. I feel terrible about it.”



Well, the fans got what they wanted. Personally, I think he was the least of our problems this year. But somebody has to pay for it...

Leo Mazzone would be an A+ hire. I hope we look into that.

Definately doesn't sound like a youth movement going forward though.

Matt Sheppard this morning was saying that Leyland should be the one taking the blame, along with Dumbrowski. I think everyone needs to share the blame, and Hernandez didn't need to get fired, but I'm not surprised he did. The most glaring hole was pitching this year, and you start at the top.

If the Tigers fail next year, then you can fire Leyland. He's just 2 years removed from taking a bunch of nobodies to the World Series.

Gotta get Mazzone.

The bullpen blew 27 saves this year. 27! Lets say they convert 15 of those 27 blown saves into holds: The Detroit Tigers are heading to the playoffs tomorrow while the rest of the Central Division stays home. Yes there were some defensive problems this year, and the starting pitching had its rough patches. But 27 blown saves would doom any team.

Go get a closer not named K-Rod, go get another bullpen guy, and the Detroit Tigers will be back in 2009.

After firing pitching coach Chuck Hernandez, the Detroit Free Press reports the Tigers will likely look for a replacement with experience who will be able to come in and help turn around a very disappointing pitching staff.

September 29, Detroit Free Press: Leyland said he has no particular candidates in mind for either job, since the final decision was made less than a week ago. Leyland said the firings were a "mutual agreement" between him and club president/general manager Dave Dombrowski.

Leyland has previously said that he would prefer for his coaching hires to come from within the organization. On Sunday, he made an addendum to that statement: "Not at the expense of my job."

It appears, then, that Leyland is inclined to seek an experienced pitching coach. Leo Mazzone and Rick Peterson, well-known for their work in Atlanta and Oakland, respectively, were fired from their latest jobs and are available this off-season.

Oakland's Curt Young, a Saginaw native, and Florida's Mark Wiley, who had prior success with Willis, are established big-league pitching coaches, but there is no evidence to suggest that either is inclined to leave his current club.

Leo Mazzone's agent said he would absolutely LOVE to have the Tigers job and thinks it's a great opportunity, and Leo also said he has a ton of respect for Jim Leyland.

However, the Tigs don't seem to be interested in even giving him an interview...

C'mon DD.

DETROIT -- The Tigers, 27th out of 30 teams in the majors in ERA (4.90) last season, hired Rick Knapp as their pitching coach.


Knapp, who spent the past 12 seasons as the minor league pitching coordinator for the Twins, replaces Chuck Hernandez.


"Rick is a quality baseball person and he will be a solid addition to our staff," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said in a statement released by the team. "He brings an excellent track record of developing major league caliber pitchers.
"

Knapp began his coaching career in the Rangers organization before joining the Twins in 1996.


"I'm extremely excited to join the Tigers organization," Knapp said. "I look forward to working with Jim, the rest of the coaching staff and the talented pitchers throughout the system.
"

Knapp, who earned a degree in sociology from Virginia Tech, was drafted in the 41st round in 1983 by the Rangers. He pitched five seasons in the minors with the Rangers.


Knapp and his wife, Sharon, live in Port Charlotte, Fla., with and their daughter, Leah and son, Ricky.

<<<<Insert generic, unfunny Bill Knapp's joke here, because I can't think of one.

http://www.chatcentral.net/img/restaurants/bill_k.gif

budget hire

Shit...

Really? Can't think of a better organization that we could pick off their coaching talent. If he had ANYTHING to do with the Twins pitchers over the last few years....than I think it's a good hire, not a big name, who cares, new names come along. I'm cool with it.

Yeah, that was my reaction. I wouldn't have hated Mazzone, but he didn't do shit in Baltimore. Most anyone we snagged from another Major League team (Curt Young) would have had to have some flaw, or else they wouldn't let him go so easy.

Yeah, that was my reaction. I wouldn't have hated Mazzone, but he didn't do shit in Baltimore.

NOBODY has done shit in Baltimore.

Can't blame Mazzone for that.

LOL. I don't blame him, but everyone acts like he'd be some kind of miracle worker. To be honest, nobody's done shit in Detroit either.

Good article on Knapp before the playoffs:


Playoff Pulse: Control freaks

By Jeff Passan (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/expertsarchive;_ylt=Ak2vrNRMtdHlNWPtnlpo9G4HU84F?a uthor=Jeff+Passan), Yahoo! Sports Aug 25, 1:15 am



Walks are unacceptable. That is the first tenet of pitching for the Minnesota Twins (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/min/;_ylt=AmFgd2BZo3u5UjNSKhdrVM8HU84F). They are not frowned upon, not discouraged, not tisk-tisked. They are unacceptable, and punishable by heavy decibels to the ear drum.
Rick Knapp’s voice, when raised, is a rather unpleasant mess of cacophony with which nearly every Twins pitcher is familiar. He is the team’s minor-league pitching coordinator, and for the past dozen years, he has been the man most responsible for the Twins’ allergy to walks. In case pitchers do not understand, Knapp is there with a swift kick to the base on balls.
And so it is that the Twins are peerless when it comes to control, continuing the trend this season. None of their starting pitchers – Kevin Slowey (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7968/;_ylt=AhxmogiTfPWeRLnvYhWW_60HU84F), Scott Baker (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7533/;_ylt=Aie0UQ5_ylyt4O4Tbh2nknsHU84F), Nick Blackburn (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8120/;_ylt=AgGZeeDtpl8ThkfLG3b1ZBcHU84F), Glen Perkins (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7711/;_ylt=AmIjYHHJ1KrYnNK_FPcgeuYHU84F) and Francisco Liriano (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7504/;_ylt=ArR6l2hxxUL1DB59cklbu1UHU84F), all homegrown, none older than 26 – has more than 31 walks. And the first four rank in the top 10 at throwing strikes among all major-league starters, a figure that registers nearly as incredible as the Twins batting .315 with runners in scoring position this season, and one equally important as they jostle with Chicago for supremacy in the American League Central.

“If you buy into it and trust it and believe it, it’ll work for you,” Knapp said. “No question about it. You can latch on to different philosophies, but I can guarantee that if you throw the ball over the plate, you’re going to be successful. If velocity is third or fourth on the list for elements of success for a pitcher, you’ll be way better off.
“And if you’re walking more guys than the recommended daily allowance, you will hear from me.”
Walks, Knapp figures, are baseball’s bon-bons, seemingly innocuous but teeming with fat. The Twins have held such a philosophy for nearly two decades, and it has manifested itself from Brad Radke (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/5337/;_ylt=AqGDQz.GMondwuebcFJ3DL0HU84F), one of the great control pitchers of this era, to the otherwise decidedly average Carlos Silva (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6880/;_ylt=AvcfQQI3.Fs4iHDRyMmSmYgHU84F), who three years ago put up the mother of all walk numbers: nine in 188 1/3 innings.
This group may be Minnesota’s finest yet, not only because it emerged so quickly but because it has helped offset the loss of Johan Santana (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6441/;_ylt=AsefrMDUwiPITRukm7MnPVoHU84F), Torii Hunter (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/5884/;_ylt=Av8IIfjXvA4yqKwBo9z.vuIHU84F) and Silva – combined price tag: $275 million – and reinvigorated a Twins team destined for rebuilding.
All have exhibited phenomenal control throughout their careers, from amateur to minor leagues to the majors. In three years at Winthrop, Slowey walked 41 batters. Blackburn, a 29th-round steal out of junior college in 2001, hasn’t walked more than 37 in a professional season. Baker didn’t reach the 30-walk mark at Oklahoma State and was equally adept in the minors. Perkins is the wild thing, relatively, his 50-walk season in 2006 earning some special attention from Knapp. He’s calmed down to 31 in 124 innings this season. Liriano, the staff asterisk, throws a hard fastball and slider, and before he underwent Tommy John surgery, even he was a voracious strike thrower.
Knowing that helps simplify the chicken-and-egg debate: The Twins do target pitchers in the amateur draft that command the plate well. At the same time, their continued insistence on not walking batters from Knapp does carry the property of a power tool.
“He just drills it into our brain,” Blackburn said. “Walks are not a good thing. So now it’s kind of a challenge not to walk anybody, and it’s frustrating when you do.”
Blackburn, along with Perkins a rookie, has been the rotation’s unlikeliest success. He gives up a disproportionate amount of hits (180 in 157 1/3 innings) and yet has maintained a 3.78 earned-run average because, in part, of only 28 walks.
“Control begets control, and command begets command,” said Slowey, who, with 17 walks in 127 2/3 innings – and 11 of 21 starts with no walks – is positioning himself as the heir to Radke, if not Greg Maddux (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/3933/;_ylt=AgBqaivP_GIy1V_O6t5DSEAHU84F). “We feel like it’s contagious. When Nick goes out there and doesn’t walk anybody, I think, ‘Well, I don’t need to walk anybody, either.’ “
Radke, who retired two years ago, is somewhat of a patron saint to the pitchers. Every spring, Knapp would bring all of his young pitchers to a practice field and simply watch Radke throw a 20-minute bullpen session. He could hit a Petri dish with his fastball and threw it to every spot in the strike zone – inside and outside, up and down. Watching Radke in the bullpen was like watching a surgeon.
The Twins also forced pitchers to watch infield practice. If the team was preaching strike-throwing, by proxy it was encouraging hitters to make contact. And for that to be a successful endeavor, fielding is imperative.
“Throughout our organization, our people stress fundamentals and good defense,” said Bill Smith, the Twins’ first-year general manager. “This isn’t a new phenomenon. Over the last 20 years, we have had to turn over some rosters. We’ve had some very good players leave. So the system has to stay the same. The key is to have the minor-league and scouting departments contribute players who can step in and replace them.”
And that starts with Knapp. He works with major-league pitching coach Rick Anderson to mold the pitchers into major-league ready. The scare tactics work. Knapp simply tells the truth: If a pitcher doesn’t throw the ball over the plate, the major-league team won’t be interested. The time in big-league camp will be shorter. The light will dim.
So throw the damn ball over the damn plate.
Every night, when Knapp receives reports on how the Twins’ affiliates fared, his eyes gravitate toward two numbers: walks and first-pitch strikes. With those two numbers, he can usually figure out how the pitcher fared.
Over the past few years, it’s been quite well.
“More times than not, you’re not going to out-talent your competition,” Knapp said. “We’re not going to get the real big fastball or the real big breaking ball or real big changeup. We’ve had it in Santana, but we’re basically not going to.
“I can’t say that’s where the premise (of not walking batters) came from, but the bottom line is, you look at our starters at the major-league level, and the separator is their ability to throw the ball over the plate.”
And that makes Knapp proud. He’s graduated pitcher after pitcher from the Twins minor-league system, and it’s incredible that another major-league team hasn’t handed Knapp its broken pitching staff and told him to have at it. Maybe they think it’s too difficult to teach pitchers not to walk guys, just as it’s tough for players to learn to take walks.
Either way, the philosophy sticks with the Twins, from the five pitchers in their rotation to Santana and Silva and even Matt Garza (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7823/;_ylt=AvltcU9nrCaoRT.O8UUpLDkHU84F), the 24-year-old they traded to the Tampa Bay Rays (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/tam/;_ylt=ApwwDFWtXVNyEmEWgSQijBUHU84F) this offseason for outfielder Delmon Young (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7467/;_ylt=AjV2MEcTahOtcjQqSPKwbVIHU84F). Knapp’s fingerprints are all over baseball, and even though the phone calls to the major leaguers have ceased, they can still hear that voice.
“Unacceptable,” Slowey said.
“That’s something I’ll never forget.”


If he could teach Rodney, Zoom and Willis some control...

I think this Knapp guy was a very intelligent pick. I mean the Minnesota Twins, since the 2000's have been the model franchise of how to pitch in the American League.

Now yeah, this guy has never been an MLB pitching coach, but I think he's a low risk/high reward, really. Tigers fans know first hand how impressive the Twins pitching staffs have been. They're able to extract every single bit of talent out of no-name players like Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey.

For me, this hire get's an A. And props to Leyland & Dombrowski for thinking outside the box.

Ok, looking at the 6 Twins starters who started 12 or more games this year:
Slowey = 24 walks in 160 innings
Blackburn = 39 walks in 193 innings
Perkins = 39 walks in 151 innings
Bonsor = 36 walks in 118 innings
Baker = 42 walks in 172 innings
Liriano = 32 walks in 76 innings

You take the averages of those 6 pitchers and you get 35 walks over 145 innings.

Willis walked 35 in 24 innings. Yikes.