Clines and Sarges advice to Murton

[YearofDaCubs]

its still amazing nobody from this coaching staff was fired after the debacles of the '04 and '05 seasons.

Totally agree. It's ridiculous but let's still go ahead and give everybody extensions!

Actually one coach was fired after 2004. They waved goodbye to Wavin' Wendell.

 

How could I forget that one? Wasn't Dusty supposedly a little ticked off that Hendy let Wendell go?

I would have been happy seeing Sarge and Clines go too.

[E.J.]

Heaven forbids we have a guy on the team who sees more than 2 pitches per at-bat. Here's to hoping Murton doesn't listen to his coaches.

[Andy]

Murton hasn't been in the bigs very long, but from what I've seen of him so far, the person most qualified to be giving hitting advice in the Cubs dugout is Matt Murton.

Quoted for truth

[cubweiser03]

During tonights radio broadcast Ron talked about Sarge and Clines hitting advice to Murton. They told him he needed to be more aggressive. Hes too patient. Are you kidding me?! Is this really his problem, dont they know this is one of his best assets he brings to the dish? If i was too be critical of Murton's swing its that he gets too much on top of the ball and has lot of ground balls and could finish his swing higher. Giving him advice to be more aggressive is the least of his problems and i dont think he really has any big problems. I dont know what pissed me of more during my ride, the Cubs getingt thumped or this bologne i heard about Clines and Sarge.

Did Ron go into specifics about what Gene and Gary said to Matt?

 

Because if all Ron reported is the general statement you have written above, that Murton is too patient and needs to be more aggressive, the conclusions that can be drawn from that are few and far between.

 

Were they referring to every situation? If so, then the comments you have made are somewhat justified. But if they were referring to only certain situations, then I would say you have jumped the gun with your criticism.

 

Unfortunately, without more specific information on what the coaching actually was, any comment in support of or being critical of their coaching requires a rather large assumption and becomes pointless.

 

Yea I would definately like to hear the context. Certain situations might call for a more agressive approach. I cant recall a specific time but maybe u gotta sometimes take a chance if it means a run. Right now at this point in the season if u miss o well. If you have a chance to make a difference without being TOO agressive take it. Especially for a young guy like Murt he should figure out what he can hit for when its important down the run.

 

I know this goes against what I said before what sometimes agressive might pay off. Matt should figure out now between when and when not to be agressive.

 

The comment didnt get into specific situations, it was generally natured. Ive seen Murton a couple times take pitches he probably should of taken a swing on but it doesnt happen enough to change his approach yet. I think this advice could be directed better at Angel Pagan than Murton. Pagan walks a fair amount(minors) but ks too much. When he gets behind the count he's not as consistant as Murton is in putting the ball in play by evidence of the BB/K ratio comparison. Also if you add in Pagan's speed to beat out ground balls he should be the one more aggressive earlier in the count, not Murton.

[ltb]

its still amazing nobody from this coaching staff was fired after the debacles of the '04 and '05 seasons.

Totally agree. It's ridiculous but let's still go ahead and give everybody extensions!

Actually one coach was fired after 2004. They waved goodbye to Wavin' Wendell.

 

How could I forget that one? Wasn't Dusty supposedly a little ticked off that Hendy let Wendell go?

I don't remember what Dusty's reaction was, but that wouldn't surprise me.

 

And even though Kim was the only coach fired, two other coaches (Sarge and Clines) swapped duties.

 

yeah, i think dusty was upset with losing wavin' wendell.

 

and sarge and clines technically switched duties, but doesn't sarge still do a lot of the hitting coaching?