The Red Sox will break camp with 25 players heading north to Boston. We begin a daily look at each position on the club, from the projected starters to their backups, as well as every member of the coaching staff. Our latest installment examines hitting coach Dave Magadan.
Work with what you got: Somewhat lost in the revolving door that was the Red Sox clubhouse last season was the fact that the offense, in the face of constant lineup changes, almost never wavered.
Dustin Pedroia missed half a year, Kevin Youkilis about one-third and the ignition man at the top of the order, Jacoby Ellsbury, sat out 90 percent of the season. That comprises three of the top four hitters in the lineup, one a former MVP, one an OPS machine and one of the best base stealers in franchise history.
Still, only one team, the New York Yankees, scored more runs in 2010 than the Red Sox, who led the majors in doubles and OPS despite playing much of their year with replacements at key positions. Throw in the fact that the “run prevention” theme of 2010 was supposed to drag the bats down in the first place, and you have what could be hitting coach Dave Magadan’s masterpiece.
Magadan, now in his fifth year with the Red Sox, patiently worked with the many new imports, from Daniel Nava to Darnell McDonald to Ryan Kalish along with several others on a roster that at one time or another had 55 different names on it.
A true professional who hit .288 in a 16-year major league career, Magadan ensured that every replacement was ready for the task at hand from a hitting standpoint.
“I got to see a lot of the young player probably a little ahead of schedule, but we get to the park and we’re going to prepare ourselves for the 25 guys, the 13 position players that we have available to us that day,” Magadan told NESN.
“It’s unfortunate, because you see the season that Pedroia was going to have and Youkilis was going to have, and Ells never got a chance to get started. On the bright side you got a chance to see the young players and see what they could do at the big league level. A little bit ahead of schedule, but they seemed to rise to the occasion.”
Magadan preaches preparation as a way of having his hitters aggressive from the first pitch, even though the organizational philosophy is one of patience and working the pitcher. It’s not as if Magadan does not want deep counts, in fact he specifically likes his hitters to be accustomed to hitting with no fear when behind in the count or with a two-strike count, for that will drive up pitch counts on its own. However, nobody should ever step in a box still feeling themselves, or the pitcher, out.
Case in point was McDonald, whose first two at-bats in a Red Sox uniform saw him tie a game in the eighth inning with a home run and then win it with a walk-off single in the ninth. We all remember Nava’s first-pitch grand slam in a rout of the Philadelphia Phillies. Kalish singled in his first major league at-bat and had an RBI base hit in his third.
None of them ever seemed overmatched, a testament to Magadan’s immediate assistance upon their arrival.
Magadan has also had many stars with which to work, but they are not simple wind-up toys that will produce no matter what. It has been Magadan’s work with David Ortiz that has helped the slugger overcome some slow starts in recent years.
The position of hitting coach is such that when a player goes into a sudden or prolonged slump, guys like Magadan can become targets, even if the issue is 100 percent with the player. When those hitters come out of the slump, Magadan can receive praise, whether it was an alteration he made or not. However, there is no grey area when it comes to adjusting on the fly, like Magadan did with several new hitters last year, and keeping the offense as one of the best in baseball.
