Los Angeles Angels part ways with hitting Coach Mickey Hatcher – MLB News
With constant losing and insufficient batting offence, the Los Angeles Angels had to make a bitter decision in middle of the season in order to improve the current sluggishness of their starting batting lineup.
The Angels’, putting all the blame on hitting Coach Mickey Hatcher, fired him on Tuesday night and brought Jim Eppard for a better beginning.
The main reasons behind his firing are quite obvious and directly related to the performance of the Angels’ this Major League Baseball season.
The Angels are currently experiencing one of the worst starts of their history in which they have won only 17 games with the meager percentage of .447.
The highly paid new slugger Albert Pujols who is also off to worst start of his career with only two home run so far, the Angels’ top management felt the need of some drastic changes in order to improve their offence.
The Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto said on the situation in detail, “Mickey is a terrific guy, well-liked, very energetic and hard-working. This is about providing a different voice for our offensive players, It's a results-oriented business we're in
and we need to find a way to string together something better than what we are right now. It's a decision to find a different voice."
Dipoto added, “We've struggled with situational hitting, we've struggled to get on base in ways other than the safely hit ball, Good hitters are also patient hitters. This is not necessarily about the individual message as much as the team-wide message we
need to stress with our players."
Hatcher came in the Angels’ franchise as hitting coach in 2000 and proved his place along with manager Mike Scioscia, but now leaving the club in their better interest.
On the other hand, Eppard, his potential replacement is coming from Triple-A Salt Lake, where he has been coaching with quite confidence.
The Angels’ with the new hitting coach, are now giving the impression of doing enough to reach the objective without their veteran coach which might be a difficult task to achieve in such short time, but still their hopes are high as they are willing to
give everything in order to qualify for the post season.
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