Angels to release hitting coach Jeremy Reed

After a disappointing season, somebody has to take the fall. Per multiple reports on Twitter, that person will be hitting coach Jeremy Reed.

Apparently Reed’s ineptitude led to lineups featuring such luminaries as Tyler Wade, Jack Mayfield, Squid, and a host of others from scoring runs.

We’ll keep you posted when the official announcement is made as well as when/if other coaches are axed.

50 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
matthiasstephan
Super Member
1 year ago

Clears the way for them to have Pujols as the hitting coach – since we are paying him anyway. Didn’t Trout always say he was good to have around for that kind of thing?

clover_black
Super Member
1 year ago

None of this matters.

JackFrost
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  clover_black

Disagree. It is not as important as the field manager, but that does not mean it is unimportant.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  clover_black

Let me help with that.

“None of this matters…. but if they kept Reed and Co around I’d be screaming like I just got stabbed.”

Fansince1971
Legend
1 year ago

Jeremy Reed was a fairly unsuccessful major and minor league hitter. He then became a relatively mediocre minor league hitting instructor in the Milwaukee and Angels organization. He seems to never have distinguished himself – and therefore the Angels, of course, made him their major league batting coach. So, his apparent loss is a nothing in my book.

Reed did not seem to improve or worsen hitters. It was a net zero. Guys who can hit, like Trout and Ohtani, hit. Others on the team, who are mediocre batsmen, stayed mediocre. In short, by my eye, I did not see anyone who benefited or was hurt by Reed. He was like so many other Angel coaches, a non-entity.

Do I think a great hitting coach would be capable of drastically improving crappy batsmen – no. Was the problem with this team Reed – no. The problem was a lot of awful offensive players and I don’t believe that even the most skilled batting coach can fix a bad roster.

So go ahead and fire the guy. And then replace him with someone else who will make no difference as long as the Angels continue to give roster spots to impatient, mediocre players who lack a good eye, are free swingers and don’t have an interest in working counts.

JakeTaylor
Trusted Member
1 year ago

Wasn’t entirely his fault but neither was it Maddon’s. The offense didn’t perform as expected in the 4 seasons he was the hitting coach so the blame falls on him. I don’t think a new hitting coach is going to magically make things better. Not much managers and coaches can do when they’re given mediocre players to work with. Everyone is gonna take the fall except for Perry.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  JakeTaylor

What is Maddons fault is he’s a sniveling washed up greasy assed punk bitch.

LA_Seitz
Trusted Member
1 year ago

Step in the right direction, but it starts at the bottom. The entire organizational philosophy needs to change. If you can hit like Mike Trout, strike outs don’t really matter. But it’s almost like the Angels teach the “strikeouts don’t matter” philosophy from A ball. What it produces is guys who can produce at lower level, but cannot make contact against major league pitching. They ruined Adell and Marsh.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

Everything has been fixed for 2023 and it’s not even November. PTP can take rest of the year off.

FungoAle
Legend
1 year ago

Scapegoats, plain and simple. Wake me up when Perry steps down.

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
1 year ago

from the MLB.com article:

“They also weren’t a patient offense, as they drew the sixth-fewest walks in the Majors as well”

what freaks me out is that all season long we ranted about how the Angels were first pitch swinging, how we allowed opposing pitchers to go deeper into the games because they didn’t have to work as hard and apparently Reed (or anyone else who could have mentioned it to the team) never noticed the problem.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

I’ll say it before. I’ll say it again now. There is a HUGE divide between seeing something, saying something to a player, and then GETTING THE PLAYER to actually do anything about what you have pointed out. I have never heard an MLB coach say that, but I’ve had college and semi-pro coaches both tell me that.

I mean, do you seriously, with your big boy brain and everything, think Jeremy Reed didn’t know they swing at pitch 1 too much and miss?

This is why I pissed all over the players, no the GM, not the managers, not the coaches, this year. Jeremy Reed could very well appear with some team three years from now at the head of some rip ass offense and the only thing he’ll have changed was the goons that he shows stuff to actually manage to do it.

That said, he wasn’t getting it done here, so time to get some other poor schmuck to get these momos to do what is on the video screen.

Twebur
Legend
1 year ago

I’m sure their is a ton of truth to what you’re saying…..but, other coaches get players to buy in, or at least more than not. It seems to me he is reaching them. Because our AB’s 1 thru 9 most nights looked the same 4 or 5 times through the order…So then it goes up the food chain. Get your manger to get them to buy in…..or up higher the chain, get your GM to find players that will listen.. Again, as usual, it’s a complete organizational failure and our owner is Arte Moreno… I know it’s overly simplistic, but when you’re down in the bottom for the entire year offensively, regardless of injuries, and you see the same AB over and over,
a larger percentage of blame needs to be the guy in charge of the bats.

Reed sucks. Up the grittyness with new hitting coach…free Mickey Hatcher.
Free the PLUMBER for 2023!!!!!

Last edited 1 year ago by Twebur
gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Twebur

I have been under the impression that we were by far the worst hitting team in the MLB… maybe Oakland was more by far worser. So I was shocked to find we were #22 in team OPS at .687.

Looks like, if we want to be in the top 7 in the AL (thus above average) we need to be around .699 to .705.

I know this will drive all the sad donkeys to start braying about how hope is not jet fuel and they won’t be fooled into optimism until we’ve won everything there is to optimist about, but that’s not a huge jump.

In fact, that looks like the size of boost we’d get if Fletcher, Rendon, and Trout actually play to a semi-full season and Walsh actually has blood in his whole body.

Things would be even better if we had a hitting coach who can talk Adell and Stassi into not closing their eyes when they swing. Even better better if we get Walsh a platoon partner.

Hopefully, having kept Nevin and cut Reed they can hire a new hitting coach or two, watch some video with Perry, target a couple guys to bring in on the roster, and get those results up a bit.

FungoAle
Legend
1 year ago

Yup. Hitting coaches are often ignored. They will always take the blame for slumps.

Maybe Reed was to blame for not making Squid into a .300 hitter.. Off with his head!

Last edited 1 year ago by FungoAle
Twebur
Legend
1 year ago
Reply to  FungoAle

Doesn’t need to make Squidmen into a .300 hitter, just not be an auto-out 5 times most nights. Less shock when he makes solid contact.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  FungoAle

It’s pretty obvious Reed couldn’t help hitters break slumps… pretty much all the hitters… even hitters on year long slumps like Stassi. So yah, cut him loose.

I’m just saying that I won’t be totally shocked if, some day, he ends up with a bunch of players that actually do what he tells them to in the film room and he suddenly has a team that hits and is a “good” hitting coach.

Crcnme20
Member
1 year ago

This is one million percent correct. I played baseball through junior college and every year coaches told me I needed to see more pitches. I was a contact hitter, did not strike out much, but I also loved swinging at the first pitch. I know that can be a terrible strategy if pitchers know a batter has that tendency, but the point here is that I was often told to change my approach. I never did because I couldn’t. It is what I felt comfortable doing.

I am not saying I was right for the way I did things but I do agree that although a batter is taught an approach, that in no way means he will take to it. These guys are major leaguers and I doubt they look for any direction unless they are mired in a horrific slump.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

It was probably his lack of a grasp and embrace of the dynamics of the dianetics of hitting and watching Twich.

Or just low grit.

That’s why he has to go.

DMAGZ13
Trusted Member
1 year ago

F***Jon Heyman (.. how can someone continue to be a clown over and over. Oh wait. It happens. But seriously why does this clown still have a job. What’s his shit with the Angels 4,000 miles away? People on twitter going “ why would the angels give up a hitting coach who created two MVPs, Ward and Walsh”?

Last edited 1 year ago by DMAGZ13
Charles Sutton
Editor
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  DMAGZ13

Boras is paying somebody off.

red floyd
Legend
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Sutton

So… This Is All Boras?

Mia
Legend
Mia
1 year ago

Thank the fucking gods. (Oct)

RexFregosi
Super Member
1 year ago

the thing that got me was looking at Baseball Reference and seeing we hadn’t had been this inept in Runs Scored for a season since 1992. Long time ago.

Cowboy26
Legend
1 year ago

Its about damn time.

JackFrost
Super Member
1 year ago

One word :

Hallelujah !!!

LanaBanana
Super Member
1 year ago

Bless his heart 🤣

Mia
Legend
Mia
1 year ago
Reply to  LanaBanana

Nothing cuts deeper than this 😂

PedroCerrano
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  LanaBanana

Thanks for the laugh. You must spent time in the south 🙂

Twebur
Legend
1 year ago

I assume Wise has earned another year?

Reed is easily replaced. Consistently bad offense with a ton o Ks…got the feeling that most opposing pitchers enjoyed facing us. My guess is they followed the scouting report and found success against us. A new voice/philosophy can’t hurt boost a stale offense.

JackFrost
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Twebur

Can’t lead the league in K’s. Just unacceptable.

That was a big part of the problem getting runners in from 3rd with less than two outs…

YOUknowulovetheIE
Trusted Member
1 year ago

No idea how bum hitters/pitchers even get these jobs.

Jim Atkins
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Joiner

Iconic example, Charlie Lau and George Brett.

Cowboy26
Legend
1 year ago
Reply to  Jim Atkins

Rod Carew was pretty damn good.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Cowboy26

As a hitting coach?

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Carew as hitting coach….

1992: Last. Even worse than this last year.
1993: 23 in a 28 team MLB
1994: 19th
1995: 4th
1996: 11th
1997: 8th
1998: 15th
1999: 28th

So Carew averaged finishing 17th… that’s not exactly worth lubing up the old nostalgia pump for.

Cowboy26
Legend
1 year ago

Ya but he was Better than Jeremy Reed

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Cowboy26

Meh. If you look at the team OPSs, and the players they both had… not by much.

2002heaven
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Cowboy26

Maybe someday you’ll get a prediction right for once.
JJ just said you learn a lot from failure, even with 3 yrs worth of data keep trying to kick that football like Charlie Brown.

2002heaven
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Jim Atkins

Walt Hriniak

Cowboy26
Legend
1 year ago
Reply to  2002heaven

King George III

YOUknowulovetheIE
Trusted Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeff Joiner

Same can be said for any major leaguer, or even someone drafted. My guess is the better career players avoid these jobs because they made more money in their career and have no desire to grind it out.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Want to answer your own question? Look up the hitting coaches for the top 5 offenses each year for how ever many years it takes before you get the point. You’ll get the point.

Cowboy26
Legend
1 year ago

Not sure it matters who the hitting coach is . The best hitting coach we’ve had more recently was Don Baylor and wasn’t with the team for most of the season

BTW that wasn’t a question . That was a blind response to the long overdue Arte Jr dismissal .

Last edited 1 year ago by Cowboy26
JackFrost
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Cowboy26

Obviously, there are several aspects to being a good hitting coach. First, that person needs to be able to command the respect of the players. If that guy doesn’t command respect, any of the great insights he might have will fall on deaf ears when he attempts to communicate said insights. So, this guy has to be able to identify problems and glitches in the swings, and to a larger extent problems in thinking and approach.

That of course is part one. Part two is being able to communicate what he finds and sees. So, I guy needs to have good people skills and intuition about how to get things across as well as the knowledge. Sometiimes the knowledge doesn’t even have to be earth-shattering. A simple philosophy that is easy to get across can sometimes work wonders. For example, Charlie Lau preached an approach that was fairly simple to comprehend, and it could be implemented be guys from AAA as easily as a 10 year vet. He always said it you gave him a guy with average to slightly above average hitting skills that he could turn him into a good major league hitter in one season. The thing was that the dude had to be disciplined and follow the approach every AB and really buy in.

A guy who is much less well know but had good success was Chili Davis when he was the A’s hitting coach. He basically said, look, don’t worry about the K’s. Look for your pitch.. stick with it and try to drive the ball in the air. He was emphasizing power over consistent contact. For whatever reason it worked with that A’s roster he had. The shot way up in HR percentage per AB with him as coach.

So, there are different ways to do the job. You have to know your personell and know your team. And it helps to have a unified philosophy with the manager and GM etc. But in short, I don’t agree at all with the people here saying that the hitting coach doesn’t matter. Sure guys like Ohtani and Trout will hit whoever their hitting coach is, but that is at least as much the result of the fact that most guys would be smart enouth to leave them alone, and also those guys are much less likely to make drastic changes to what they’re doing.

And really, why should they. If it’s not broken don’t fix it. The value of the hitting coach or batting instructor is most often manifested in helping fringe guys make it at the MLB level or readjusting a midling player who is slumping due to a bad habit or such…To have value the hitting coach does need to help or change everyone, but yeah, he should have several “success stories” to his resume in any given season or stretch of time.

Last edited 1 year ago by JackFrost
angelslogic
Super Member
1 year ago

Fuck yes!!!!!! He was worthless!

WallyChuckChili
Legend
1 year ago

New Blitz lyrics coming soon!

MarineLayer
Super Member
1 year ago

So, this may be the highlight of the 2022 off-season!

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  MarineLayer

It seriously might be. Unless we trade Ohtani for like 7 top 100 prospects.