October 6th, 2012 at 6:08 am 
by Harold Uhlman This must be a nervous time for the coaching staffs on major league baseball teams. The regular season has ended with only five teams in each league now having a shot at winning it all. Already heads are starting to roll. Chris Chambliss has been fired as the Mariners hitting coach as has Kevin Seitzer, the Royals’ hitting coach. The Phillies have fired Greg Gross and the Twins have reassigned hitting coach Joe Vavre.
It seems that coaches get fired either when new ownership has been established and is looking to make their own mark on the baseball world, a change in direction if you wish; or coaches take the blame for a failing offense or pitching staff. On other occasions coaches get fired when there is internal conflict with the manager or strained relationships with players.
In an interview yesterday, Don Mattingly gave the following answer in reply to a question regarding possible coaching changes for 2013. “We started with meetings today and it’s something that we’re discussing and talking about. It seems every year somebody changes something. Very seldom do you see it stay totally status quo, but it’s something that we’re talking about.”
Mattingly’s comments suggests that a change or changes in the Dodger coaching staff will be made for the 2013 season. If the possibility of change did not exist, Don would have stated that the coaching staff will remain intact. So which coach or coaches might be at risk? Dave Hansen Batting Coach, Rick Honeycutt Pitching Coach, Davey Lopes First Base Coach, Tim Wallach Third Base Coach, Trey Hillman Bench Coach, Ken Howell Bullpen Coach, Rob Flippo Bullpen Catcher, Manny Mota Coach, Steve Yeager Catching Coach, Mickey Hatcher Special Assistant.
Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt is very well respected by the players. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
I don’t think he will be fired, but Ken Howell’s health might be an issue that forces him out of the game. Is Dave Hansen at risk with the team hitting so poorly with runners in scoring position? Will Manny Mota retire? On the other hand, whose job is most secure? Davey Lopes, a running guru, would seem to be one that is firmly entrenched, although the Dodgers did not run the bases as well as we might have expected. I would suggest that Rick Honeycutt would be a lock to keep his job.
Coaches are retained, surely, on the basis of success, just as they are fired for lack of success. In 2012 there have been very few pitching staffs that have performed better than the Dodger staff. Keep in mind that this staff was riddled with injuries, some of them season ending: Ted Lilly, Chad Billingsley, Scott Elbert, Matt Guerrier, Todd Coffey, Blake Hawksworth, Javy Guerra, Kenley Jansen, even Clayton Kershaw for two starts. The staff also featured a number of young arms: Shawn Tolleson, Stephen Fife, Paco Rodriguez, and Josh Wall.
During a season when the offense tanked far too much and the pitching staff was not thought to be all that strong going into the season, the Dodger staff achieved what seemed to be impossible. The Dodger ERA was the third lowest in MLB at 3.34, just behind the Nats at 3.33. Tampa Bay’s major league best was 3.19. The Dodger staff yielded the second fewest earned runs in MLB with 538, behind only Tampa Bay with 518. The Dodger BAA, at .238, ranked only behind the Nats at .237 and Tampa’s .228.
The Dodgers allowed 1277 hits, the second fewest in MLB, again only behind Tampa Bay with 1233. The staff ranked sixth in quality starts, allowed the fewest home runs with 122, and ranked second in fewest total bases.
Rick Honeycutt is in some pretty good company here. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
This is the second consecutive year that the Dodger pitching staff has had the third lowest ERA in MLB. Rick Honeycutt has to receive considerable credit for those achievements. Brandon League was messed up when he came to the Dodgers, but “…with the counsel of pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and bullpen coach Ken Howell, a mechanical flaw was spotted” and Brandon became lights out. Perhaps Honeycutt is major league baseball’s MVP pitching coach this year.
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Great article, Harold!
One of the most surprising things that I learned by being blessed to be able to spend time in the Dodgers clubhouse was that I was dead wrong about the players not liking Rick Honeycutt. Not only do like him, they have tremendous respect for him.
That said, having gotten to know Ken Howell over the years, he is the guy who I give most of the credit to for the tweaks made by the pitching staff. Whereas the players like Honeycutt, they absolutely love Kenny Howell.
Regardless, I hope that neither of these two excellent coaches are on the chopping block.
I knew our pitching was good as well as our offense was not good, thus the reason we came so close but didn’t make it to the postseason. I also felt that Honeycut was always a good pitching coach and did a whirl of a job this year.
When Hansen took over as hitting coach last year, the offense improved and it led to a good second half but unfortunate the problems of hitting out of synce and trouble hitting with RISP apparently reserviced, this year. Whether this was mostly his fault or not, I guess the team has to decide.
I thought that I’d see more baserunning and stolen bases with Lopes coaching first and we had a lot of guys thrown out at home and third recently and I’m wondering if that would be on Wallach’s resume.
Overall,I think it was an improvement, from last year.
Good article on Rick Honeycutt on Dodgers.com – Since 2006, the Dodgers have had seven hitting coaches, but the club has had only one pitching coach. In that time, the pitching coach’s staff has the best cumulative team ERA in the Major Leagues.