Jack McKeon Returns as Interim Manager

[Bobbob1313]

Maybe Loria prefers Eduardo's thought process on coaching to Mallee's, even if the outcome isn't terribly different.
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Not sure I understand your question.

He is wondering whether the difference has manifested itself in performance.

[CrimsonCane]

What's the difference in approach?

Loria was arguing that it's a change in focus.

According to Loria, when a player was not performing, Mallee was more likely to think it was mechanical and suggest tweaks in the swing. With Eduardo, he's more likely to suggest keeping the same mechanics and being more focused on the mental aspect (getting a better grasp of the scouting reports, making them think more at the plate, etc.) As far as Loria is concerned, problems with mechanics are things that ought to be tweaked in the minor leagues, not when you're already an established MLB player. It can also explain why Mallee may have been more suited in the eyes of the FO as a minor league hitting coach.

He's not condemning the thought process, he's just saying there's a time and place for it and that time and place is not in the big leagues.

[Erick]

Not sure I understand your question.

If there's a noticeable change in approach, shouldn't there be a more noticeable change in numbers? What's this change in approach? Are hitters being more patient?

Also, I don't really understand the whole thing.
The one major change since the coaching move has been Hanley Ramirez. I'd say the major change in Hanley has been a change in technique, not approach. The whole "follow through" thing is a technique, no?

I don't see much of a change.

Infante is still Infante.
Morrison is actually not doing well.
Buck seems like the same guy.
Etc., etc.

Even Bonifacio...this change in recent weeks isn't really all that surprising. His patience had been improved since the beginning of the year. It's just more noticeable now because his speed is allowing him to get more base hits, and Jack has him stealing bases now. It's not as if he's been a much different hitter from the beginning of the year when Mallee was here, though.

[Bobbob1313]

So if the results are essentially the same, what's the problem? Loria prefers Perez's approach to coaching. Why fight that?

[Erick]

So if the results are essentially the same, what's the problem? Loris prefers Perez's approach to coaching. Why fight that?

No problem.
It's just stupid to pretend one is better than the other.

He seems a little too excited over the last six games.

He's also contradicting himself with some of his comments, for what it's worth.

[Bobbob1313]

If he prefers one to the other, that's his prerogative. He didn't really say Eduardo's offense is lighting it up, he just said he didn't like Mallee's approach.

[Erick]

If he prefers one to the other, that's his prerogative. He didn't really say Eduardo's offense is lighting it up, he just said he didn't like Mallee's approach.

And if someone on this board were to say that instead of the owner of the team, you'd be arguing it with numbers.

I'm happy for him that he's enjoying this change of approach, but it's literally not made a difference, at all.

It's also stupid to call Mallee a minor league coach and praise experience in coaching when the new hitting coach has done nothing and has no experience, whatsoever, as a hitting coach.

[Bobbob1313]

If someone made a totally innocuous, non-judgment comment saying they prefer one type of approach to another, I don't think I would be angry. The results are essentially the same, who gives a shit whether Loria prefers ones style to the other. I don't understand why this would be anything at all. It's such a non-statement.

[Erick]

Ok.

[Ramp]

NEW YORK — The cigar was one of those cheap Cuban knockoffs, the kind with a cheesy gold band that the black marketers use, and flame out after you ignore it for a minute. Jack McKeon cursed it, then wandered off into a lecture about his beloved Padrons, those fat deadly beasts he imports from Florida and Nicaragua.

“Look at this, the damn thing doesn’t even stay lit,” he sneered, looking down at it as if it smelled like a week-old mackerel.

A fake cheroot for one of the last authentic baseball men? Is there no sense of decency anymore? Never mind, he’s down to two per day anyway, he says. But there are certain vices you allow 80-year-old men, especially the ones who attend church every day, and the need to make a pregame dugout smell like a fraternity carpet is still on the list — even if he wasn’t enjoying it at this particular moment.

Just don’t ask him to tolerate bad baseball, or try to convince the Marlins manager that this is different from any other job he’s had, because that age business doesn’t change a thing.

“Everyone’s saying, ‘Ah, an 80 guy here, how’s he deal with 20-year-olds?’ It’s a bunch of crap,” McKeon said Monday night, exactly four weeks after he replaced Edwin Rodriguez at the helm. “Don’t forget, I managed 17 years in the minor leagues. I had all those young guys. They’re no different than my grandkids. They want to learn, they need discipline, some need direction, that’s all.”

Nobody doubts his vitality or brain or ability to motivate — most of us celebrate the game’s first octogenarian manager since Connie Mack, and McKeon himself loves it when people “thank me for showing the world that 80 isn’t the end of the world.”

Did we happen to mention he can still turn a phrase?

Actually, the appealing thing about McKeon is that even though he left South Amboy back in 1953, the Jersey never left him. He’s still the cigar-sucking growler out of central casting, a guy you might run into on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant and think, “somewhere, an Elks Lodge is missing its night bartender.”

Quick Jack Trivia: He actually returned to Jersey in ’65 to run his dad’s taxi/garage/wrecker business while scouting for the Twins, before leaving for good in ’67.

“But I drove a cab. I drove a wrecker. I changed tires. I didn’t have all these gimmicks they have today — push a button and the job is done,” he said. “No, we had a sledgehammer. It was good.”

On this job, he still wields a sledgehammer, and it is good. The Marlins are in last place, but McKeon has rescued them from that 3-22 crash in June. He moved Emilio Bonifacio to the top of the order, and he has 12 steals in the last 15 games. He put Hanley Ramirez at cleanup and he’s hitting nearly .400 this month. The Marlins have won nine of 10 after beating the Mets, 4-1, in a makeup game Monday night. And they’re still doing all this without Josh Johnson.

People still regard the manager as the curmudgeon, but we’ll always regard him as something very different because of his previous stint with Florida. Think back: The 2003 championship came down to an old man’s confidence in a young man. It was the day before Game 6 of the World Series, when the then 72-year-old McKeon said he was going to throw a 23-year-old Josh Beckett on three days’ rest against the Yankees.

“If I had Bobby Gibson out there on three days’ rest, would anyone be telling me how I pitch Bobby Gibson?” he asked. “No. That’s the way we feel about Beckett.”

There are two things that we always found striking about that vignette. One, very few people would actually refer to the great Gibson as “Bobby,” unless they have mastered the casual baseball badinage that would probably inspire them to greet Her Majesty The Queen with, “What’s shakin’, Liz?”

Second, Beckett delivered precisely what his manager said he would, throwing nothing but zeroes at the Yankees while scattering five hits to win the clincher. After that game, Beckett said he was motivated to succeed because he feared the old man would stop talking to him. They didn’t always like each other.

But this is just McKeon’s way. Another example: He’s making noise now about how Mike Stanton has the potential to be a 30-30 man. No one really believes this 6-5, 235-pound sculpture can go 30-30 (40-20, maybe), but the kid has taken off five times (three steals) since McKeon arrived.

“He challenges you,” said Logan Morrison, the left fielder. “He’ll be in your face, let you know when you mess up, and afterwards he’ll say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on.’ There’s nothing to apologize for, because he always comes back later and wants to see what you’re thinking.

“Now, would I recommend (Steve) Cishek saying something back to Jack on the mound? Uh, no way. But he’ll let Cishek talk after the game, and take it from there.”

Anyway, they’re winning. McKeon, being McKeon, takes zero credit. He gives daily sermons on the small stuff — moving runners, patience, sacrifice, throwing strikes — and delights in how his guys have had three bases-loaded walks in the last seven games. If they want to think his bark is as bad as his bite, so be it.

“You want guys to like you. You need them on your side, so you overlook some things. And what happens? It gets you fired,” he said.

“If I’m gonna get fired, I’m gonna get fired my way. And I’m not gonna get fired. I might walk away, but I’m not getting fired.”

Meanwhile, his team follows the lessons of a good cigar.

Stay lit.

Keep burning.

And keep the boss happy.

http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/201...on_80-yea.html

[Miamarlin21]

Good shit. I love Jack.