Is This Guy a Phillies Problem?

I’m starting to worry about that this guy might be a problem for the Phillies. Could the team be watching too much Mr. Nanny, Hulk Hogan’s greatest acting achievement? It is a classic. Is there a better physical comedic actor?

Seriously, though. The guy on the left in the photo above is Phillies Hitting Coach John Mallee. Position coaches can unfairly be easy scapegoats in professional sports, but stats like this require a bit of analysis into the job John Mallee is doing with the Phillies young roster.

Last night's loss marked the fifth time time this season the Phillies' offense has tallied three hits or fewer and double-digit strikeouts. Only the White Sox (6) and the Mets (7) have more such games this season. @M_Montemurro on the search for a spark: https://t.co/uVvTEtubBm

— The Athletic Philadelphia (@TheAthleticPHI) August 15, 2018

John Mallee, on the surface, seemed like a good hire when it was announced back in the winter. They guy was the Cubs hitting coach from 2015-2017 and the Astros hitting coach from 2013-2014. Both franchises are offensive powerhouses. So, it seemed like a no-brainer.

However, under Mallee’s instruction the Astros ranked 29th in OBP in 2013 and 21st in 2014. The year after Mallee left Houston, the Astros OBP improved to 6th in MLB under the tutelage of Dave Hudgens. Not so great for Mallee.

In Chicago, Mallee had much better success. The Cubs ranked 26th in OBP before Mallee’s arrival and then jumped to 12th, 3rd, and 4th under Mallee’s tutelage. The Cubs went to three straight NLCS with Mallee as their hitting coach. He seemed to valuable asset to manager Joe Maddon’s staff, winning a World Series in 2016.

Joe Maddon may be a jerk. He whines all the time. He often ignores autograph seekers. However, he’s a solid baseball guy. Maddon has managed two teams to the World Series, winning one with the Cubs. He’s a 3-time Manager of the Year. So, why would Joe Maddon be okay with Theo Epstein relieving Mallee of his duties after a year where the Cubs ranked 4th in OBP and only a year removed from winning a World Series? Theo Epstein is also a sharp baseball guy, having built the Red Sox and Cubs into World Series champions. Why was he down on Mallee?

Some in Chicago have proposed the question, Is Mallee’s style of coaching more suitable for sluggers as the Cubs Home Run numbers seemed to decline after Mallee’s departure? That could explain some of the issues with the Phillies as they simply don’t have any real sluggers outside of Hoskins.

Mallee has been reported to be launch-angle-theory obsessed, which creates more strikeouts. A Chicago Sun Times article went into this and how his replacement hitting coach with the Cubs, Chili Davis, is more about putting the ball in play:

“John Mallee did a great job here,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said over the weekend in St. Louis, where the Cubs lost the series to their longtime rivals. “It’s all philosophically based.”

As part of his overall method, Mallee is a proponent of the neo-popular launch-angle theory of hitting against the game’s increases in velocity and defensive shifts, which stresses driving the ball in the air. It tends to increase strikeouts.

Davis is more about putting the ball in play where the pitcher gives you the best chance to do it – a change in Cub philosophy this year evident in recent weeks just in Maddon’s mocking of launch angle and “exit velocity.”

“Certainly, Chili came in with the kind of mandate of getting guys to consider using the whole field a little bit more and working on situational hitting,” Epstein said, “working on two-strike approach, working on line drives, through the gaps, instead of sort of an all-or-nothing approach that we can fall victim to at times.”

Under Mallee’s tutelage, all of the younger Phillies, with the exception of Franco, have seen their production decrease. Some more than others. And, some have a smaller sampling size. However…

And then there is Scott Kingery. The kid hit .313 and .294 past two years in the minors and looks totally lost in the big leagues. Maybe the theory that Mallee’s instruction works better with sluggers and that is why Franco is excelling, or it was the talk with Santana, which Franco says changed everything for him.

Franco credits a conversation with Santana for helping to turn around his season. (Philly.com)

Is John Mallee’s theory of instruction the sole reason this Phillies offense looks so pathetic at times? It’s definitely something to think about. No one really knows aside from the people inside the franchise. Many say a hitting coach is only as good as his hitters. He certainly doesn’t appear to be helping the younger players develop.

This paragraph could be the most telling when Maddon was asked about new Cubs hitting coach Chili Davis:

Maddon believes Davis will help the Cubs’ young hitters develop more, particularly situationally, an area the Cubs struggled through all of 2017 and particularly in the postseason against the elite pitching of the Nationals and Dodgers. (NBC Sports Chicago)

One last thought. Would it kill John Mallee to change his twitter avatar from one with him wearing a Cubs hat to a Phillies hat?