Old Time Family Baseball

noncromulant: How much do you think Blue Jays hitting coach Dwayne Murphy has to do with Bautista's surreal turn around? It seems a little too coincidental that the Jays started bombing balls out of the park when Gene Tenace retired and Murphy took over the job.

Murphy himself wasn't all that great a player until a few years into his career and then he started hitting the long ball more frequently.

Could Dwayne Murphy be the legal steroid that MLB needs?

This one has me stumped. I’m always a little wary of assigning too much credit or blame to a hitting coach—after all, he can only do so much with the talent he is given. These players have also been playing the game their entire lives at an elite level, how much tweaking can he really do?

Though he has been accused of asking his hitters to be overly aggressive at the plate, just as a hitting coach cannot teach someone plate discipline, can one really make patient hitters less so?

I think hitting coaches work on a player-by-player basis. In Bautista’s case, I think we absolutely must credit Murphy with an adjustment that unlocked Bautista’s power. But just as that helped Bautista, his approach hasn’t helped Adam Lind or Travis Snider much.

So, to answer your question, I’m not really sure. Any people who watch the Blue Jays more regularly than me want to weigh in?

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