Florida Marlins unceremoniously fire hitting coach John Mallee – MLB News
The Florida Marlins’ hitting coach John Mallee was shown the door after the team failed to live up to expectations. Eduardo Perez is now said to have been tasked with revitalising the deteriorated offence.
The Marlins, which have lost 31 out 61 games they have played, had to embrace another embarrassment on Thursday when the Atlanta Braves overpowered them 3-2, making it the Marlins’ eighth straight loss.
Having .508 PCT, the team has humiliatingly borne 19 defeats at home against only 14 wins. The team has scored 258 runs and allowed 280 runs which also point to their inability to put up a strong defensive line.
The eighth consecutive defeat on Thursday came at a time when Mallee was already fired, with the hopes propping up that Eduardo Perez will prove a timely replacement. Much depends on how the Marlins play under the guardianship of Perez.
The deep frustration not only ran through the tremendously disappointed fans of the team, but the management as a whole which felt the heat and rapidly rising pressure on the Marlins.
While Mallee had joined the team only last June, he could not organise anything powerful in the supposedly strong Marlins’ offence. If nothing else, the team’s hitting standing at just .248 with a .321 on-base percentage speaks volume of where things stood.
"It's been very frustrating," Marlins’ President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest told the team's website. “I know the guys are frustrated. We're frustrated. We need to find a way to execute and score runs when we have that opportunity."
However, much as it was unexpected, there seems to be dissenting voices in the team that scathingly criticise the decision. Left-fielder Logan Morrison was not only surprised by it but also resented the news.
"I don't think it's right. I don't think it's just," Morrison said. "He had us prepared. It's not his fault we're not scoring runs. We let him down, and it's disappointing."
Whatever the end result of the bickering that is likely to be heard, the Marlins’ president tried to calm it down and said, “I don't want to put it all on John, and I don't want to put it all on Eduardo," Beinfest said. "We just need to find a way to score
some runs."
Perez, the new hitting coach, on the other hand has embellished his training career with impressive statistics. While it remains to be seen as to how the team moves forward once he takes the charge of the team, chances are that he would inspire something
great.
41-year-old Perez, the son of famous baseball Hall of Famer Tony Perez, has 13-years experience to his credit. Having led six teams, he is hoping to be a defining factor for the team’s upcoming tasks.
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