After three straight trips to the NLCS that included winning the 2016 World Series, Joe Maddon revamped his coaching staff following the 2017. Chili Davis is one of the new Cubs coaches and earlier this week Boston Red Sox owner John Henry took a shot at the hitting coach.
Boston failed to meet expectations in 2017, losing to the Houston Astros in the ALDS. The Red Sox fired manager John Farrell and Davis was quickly scooped up by the Cubs after being in Boston for three seasons. Fast forward to Monday, when the Red Sox’s owner had what’s being described as a testy session with the media, that included a not so subtle jab at Davis and his job as the team’s hitting coach.
Henry wasn’t shy about calling out the team’s offense, but pointed the finger at the coaches.
Via MassLive.com.
“We’ve made a lot of changes other than just the manager. You haven’t noticed?” Henry said when asked about the lack of turnover on the roster. “I’m just saying from my perspective at least, we’ve made a lot of changes. I think our approach last year was lacking offensively and we had issues that the players have already talked about.”
Henry mentioned the Red Sox’s offensive approach several times throughout a 17-minute session with the media on Monday.
“I think we would’ve had significant power last year if we had a different approach,” he said.
“I didn’t think we were nearly aggressive enough and I think our approach was lacking for a good part of the season,” he added.
So, the owner believes the offensive approach wasn’t good enough, seemingly blaming Davis for the team’s lack of power and hitters not being aggressive.
This is a good time to remind you that Chili Davis was the hitting coach for the Red Sox in 2016 as well and that season the team led the American League in doubles, average and OPS. They also ranked eighth in the AL with 208 home runs.
In 2017, the Red Sox finished dead last in the AL with 168 homers, 11th in OPS and scored 785 runs, compared to 878 runs scored in 2016. Kind of alarming, so should Cubs fans be worried? Ugh….no.
See, what Henry failed to mention while criticizing the loss of power from the Red Sox is that their home run leader in 2016, David Ortiz, retired! Oh, sp the team had fewer dingers in 2017 after Ortiz, who hit 38 the year before, was all of a sudden no longer on the team? Shocker.
But that’s not even the point. The so called approach that was lacking, did Chili Davis suddenly see the success the Red Sox had in 2016 and then completely change it? Did he tell the Red Sox to hit fewer home runs? More than any position in sports being a hitting coach sucks because rarely do they get any credit and once the team starts to struggle the hitting coach is first to blame.
By the way, in 2016 the Red Sox had 558 walks and in 2017 that went up to 571. The approach seems just fine and the problem might have to do more with the players who were no longer on the team and injuries from Red Sox players in 2017 that led to crappier numbers.
So, get the hell out of here with this Chili Davis slander, John Henry.
