Washington Nationals Name Randy Knorr Davey Johnson's Bench Coach.

by Patrick Reddington on Nov 17, 2011 7:59 PM EST

The Washington Nationals announced tonight that Randy Knorr would be Davey Johnson's bench coach in 2012. Pat Corrales served as Johnson's bench coach in 2011, but will return to his role as a roving instructor. Knorr, 43, who retired in 2001 after an 11-season MLB career with the Blue Jays, Astros, Marlins, Rangers and Expos, "... has spent the last seven seasons as either a big league coach or minor league manager in the Nationals organization," as the Nats noted in a press release announcing Knorr's promotion...

" Knorr has posted a 384-380 (.503) minor league managerial mark with winning records in three of his five full seasons as skipper. He began his career on the bench in 2005 with Savannah of the Single-A South Atlantic League.

"In 2008, his final of three seasons with Single-A Potomac, Knorr skippered the Nationals to their first-ever Carolina League Championship and the first domestic title won by a Nationals affiliate since the team relocated to The District in 2005. He also managed the Scottsdale Scorpions to a 2010 Arizona Fall League Championship.

"Knorr managed at Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Syracuse in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

"Knorr joins Washington’s big league coaching staff for the third time. He served as Nationals bullpen coach for the final three months of the 2006 season and the entire ’09 campaign."

The rest of Johnson's staff remains the same.

Rick Eckstein returns as the Nats' hitting coach. Steve McCatty's back as the pitching coach. Jim Lett's back as the bullpen coach, Bo Porter as the third base coach and Trent Jewett as the first base coach. Johnson's return to the bench was announced last month, and Johnson told ESPN980's Thom Loverro and Kevin Sheehan a few weeks back that he thought there were some, "... really good baseball people in our system and I think the best thing in a system is ideally you develop some future managers and future big league coaches from within the system, because they know the talent and they kind of continue the way you play the game of baseball."

Over his seven years in the Nationals' organization, Knorr, as the Nats' pointed out in the press release tonight, "... has worked with 75 percent of the players on Washington’s current 40-man roster, including: Ian Desmond, Danny Espinosa, John Lannan, Drew Storen, Stephen Strasburg, Chien-Ming Wang, Ryan Zimmerman and Jordan Zimmermann." Recent reports said that it wasn't likely that next bench coach would come from outside the organization, but the Nats' apparently decided to promote from within. Johnson's stated clearly that he thinks he's the right man for the job in 2012. Who'll take over after that remains to be seen, but as the Nats and Johnson have stated the next manager is likely going to be on the major league coaching staff this season.

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"Rick Eckstein returns as hitting coach..."

This should be the lead story. Isn’t “getting results” part of the evaluation process for retaining coaches?

Rob

-- In baseball we trust.

by RobBobS on Nov 17, 2011 9:23 PM EST reply actions

I don't think the results for the Nats offense were really below what should have been expected.

Given the players that were there and the injuries.

Aim for the head baby Jesus

by Doncosmic on Nov 17, 2011 9:31 PM EST up reply actions

No slight against you...

But I thought everyone on here usually defended Eckstein? I’m not on Eckstein’s side though, in the majors every player usually knows how to hit by now so fundamentals aren’t the first thing on a coach’s itinerary. But I think approach is, and in my opinion the whole team up and down looked at too many fat first pitch fastballs all year. Anyone disagree?

by RossingtonCollins on Nov 17, 2011 9:54 PM EST up reply actions

Davey Johnson and most likely everyone here will agree with that last two sentences...

Eckstein did reportedly help Morse, of course.

Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."

by Patrick Reddington on Nov 17, 2011 9:56 PM EST up reply actions

I'm not a big defender of Eckstein

But I tend to defend him from the worst of the criticism. To me his biggest problem is not being a miracle worker. Stock a lineup with high strikeout players and then criticize him when they all … strike out a lot? Jayson Werth took a lot of first pitch strikes, yes – but he’s been doing that his entire career.

Teams fire hitting coaches all the time. The Padres just fired their hitting coach. That makes six hitting coaches since 2006 and you know what? Their hitters still mostly stink. Sooner or later they will bring up guys who don’t stink, and that hitting coach will be a genius.

by d_c_guy on Nov 17, 2011 10:08 PM EST up reply actions

You mean geenyus, right?

Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."

by Patrick Reddington on Nov 17, 2011 10:17 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

Quite so

by d_c_guy on Nov 18, 2011 12:38 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

My one question for RE is:

How many hitters performed above, and how many performed below, expectations under your tutelage? And, doesn’t the answer to that question embarrass you?

Rob

-- In baseball we trust.

by RobBobS on Nov 18, 2011 3:16 AM EST up reply actions

Actually, if you look at the top 11 batters and compare their career OPS+ against their 2011 OPS+, the record is much more mixed than you'd think

Six batters improved their batting, Morse (who sings praises of Eckstein, although we all really know Morse only hit because he moved to 1b) and Nix most dramatically. Hairston enjoyed a renaissance in DC (it was his best season since 2008, and only his second OPS of 100 or more since 2004). Five slipped, although it can be strongly argued that two of those (Zimmerman and especially LaRoche) were due to injury. Given the fact that he was rounding into shape during the season after abdominal surgery it’s actually pretty encouraging that Zimmerman’s OPS+ was only down two points. It’s not clear at all that Jayson Werth listened much to Eckstein, being a veteran with his own approach and frequently crediting Stares as his hitting coach). The numbers, from baseball reference:

Laynce Nix 18 (OPS career 85, OPS+ 2011 103)
Michael Morse 17 (OPS career 130, OPS+ 2011 147)
Jerry Hairston Jr. 14 (OPS career 86, OPS+ 2011 100 with DC, 99 overall)
Wilson Ramos 4 (OPS career 109, OPS+ 2011 113)
Danny Espinosa 2 (OPS career 100, OPS+ 2011 102)
Roger Bernadina 1 (OPS career 81, OPS+ 2011 82)

Ryan Zimmerman -2 (OPS+ career 120, OPS+ 2011 118*)
Ian Desmond -7 (OPS+ career 87, OPS+ 2011 80)
Rick Ankiel -8 (OPS+ career 93, OPS+ 2011 81)
Jayson Werth -20 (OPS+ career 117, OPS+ 2011 97)
Adam LaRoche -70 (OPS+ career 112, OPS+ 2011 52*)

I don’t think that Eckstein is a genius, but I don’t think he’s a geenyus either.

by d_c_guy on Nov 18, 2011 11:27 AM EST up reply actions

I'm not sure why the "+" signs didn't convey in parts of the post

All of the numbers above are OPS+ numbers.

by d_c_guy on Nov 18, 2011 11:29 AM EST up reply actions

Not really fair to compare a rookie's numbers against his career...

is it?

And, more to the point, guys like Bernadina are supposed to be getting better.
As to Werth’s numbers, The Idea Man may not have come in seeking help, but nevertheless Rickstein didn’t help him out of his season-long slump very much, either. I might give you MM though.

Rob

-- In baseball we trust.

by RobBobS on Nov 18, 2011 5:07 PM EST up reply actions