Kevin From Heaven
When the Dbacks hired ex-Royal Kevin Seitzer back in October, we took note that he was a private hitting instructor and not then employed in an MLB dugout. With a pool of forty or fifty rotating MLB batting coaches from which to choose, it's not every day a big league club hires a hacker who "worked mostly with kids".
That's not necessarily a bad thing. Josh Byrnes eschewed the usual suspects and went somewhat out of his way to hire Seitzer. The question is why.
Is it because Seitzer's a genuinely terrific hitting coach or because he markets himself well? Perhaps both?
Today's piece in the Republic fills us in, with a vignette about Seitzer flabbergasting youthful Dave Krynzel, by allegedly identifying 'relaxed stomach muscles' as the source of Krynzel's slightly wanting BP stroke. Oh, and Seitzer determined this solely by the off pitch sound of ball on bat, without actually watching Krynzel.
What's funny is that one has to be less gullible than a couple players to buy into this nonsense - but that's not nearly as revealing as is Seitzer's reaction to the story, when it's relayed back to him by the reporter:
Seitzer laughed when reminded of the story.
"That kind of freaked him [Krynzel] out a little bit," he said.
Notice how Seitzer didnt downplay the incident by explaining that he often preaches about maintaining a tight core, or that he just got lucky by "blindly" chastising Krynzel at the right time. No. Seitzer, in a disarmingly smooth way, seems to be confirming this rather amazing ability of his.
This doesnt illuminate whether Seitzer is a good hitting coach or not, but it suggests that he markets himself exceedingly well. At least a few players seem convinced.
Later in the article, he lays an indirect quote on Piecoro from Seitzer's prized protege, Raul Ibanez - and it's a doozy:
"I don't know what was said," Seitzer said, "but I know 'Bo-Mel' told me: 'I know you have strong feelings toward Raul, but it doesn't come close to how he feels about you.' That was pretty cool."
Apart from Melvin's well documented preoccupation with relationships, again 
note Seitzer's disarming qualifiers wrapped around the main thrust: Ibanez thinks I'm God's gift.
Picture a 45 year old man slinging this to a beat writer - about himself! We've all run across people like this, whether we work in an office, church or a garage. For the club's sake, let's hope this diamond is half as good a hitting coach as he is a self promoter.
I don't find the Krnyzel story outlandish, nonsense or even amazing. I have studied music for years. A ball striking a bat makes different sounds depending on where and how well it is hit. Seitzer heard the sound and has an idea as to why Krnyzel produced that sould. His saying it the way he did was probably a shorthand. Like when you see a student do a complicated math problem and he doesn't show you all the work, so you don't know if the answer was a guess or arrived at using the best method of solving the problem or some other way that was correct but less elegant.
But the idea that you can tell the type of swing from the sound of the bat on the ball is not weird at all, except perhaps to a guy like Krynzel, if he never studied music and never thought to consider what sound would say about his swing.
But what Seitzer was saying isn't really all that different from what a music teacher might say to a woodwind student or a singer about what is physically missing in the technique, based on the tone produced.
ByrnesBlogger1
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Good rebuttal. I agree that an experienced ear can audibly BEGIN to troubleshoot around the batting cage, but allow me to elaborate on two points.
Regarding the piano, no doubt a teacher can "hear" when a student's fingers are hitting the keys differently. And it seems reasonable for a teacher to say something like, "I cant hear your wrists" or "You're putting too much elbow into it". I dont doubt that having a strong core is conducive to hitting, but when you start trying to pinpoint root cause farther away from the point of contact, audibly no less, it seems to me you're grasping. Maybe it's an educated guess, but without watching the hitter, that's all it is: a guess.
I mean, what's the musical equivalent for a batting instructor who claims he can "hear" that your stomach isnt tight enough? Gee, that sonata sounds like you had your left foot off the floor in the fourth movement? Your stomach muscles are too tense for this etude? Possible cause - sure. Definitive diagnosis - I dont think so.
Second, the way I read the vignette, Krynzel's astonishment is implicitly confirming the "correctness" of Seitzer's diagnosis. IOW, Krynzel felt his own stomach wasnt properly tensed and thought, "Geez, this Seitzer's a genius." When the story's retold, Seitzer has a choice. He can chalk up his "correct" possible cause to luck in a self deprecating way, or he can promote the myth that his was some kind of definitive diagnosis. I think he chose the latter route.
Maybe he really is a hitting Svengali - I dont know. All I'm trying to say here is that's the image he's trying pretty hard to cultivate.
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Actually, if you read my rebuttal again, you will see that the two musical examples I gave were woodwind and voice. And as a former voice student, I can tell you that if I didn't have my diaphagm properly engaged, the teacher knew it.
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Ooopps! Dont shoot me, I'm only the piano player!
Your college of musical knowledge is beyond dispute - I just wonder how relevant those examples are to hitting a baseball? Diaphram / voice. Check. Diaphram / oboe tone. Check. Diaphram / striking piano keys or a baseball. mmmm??? - I'm not saying it's irrelevant, but it sounds like a secondary or even tertiary type thing regarding the swing/resulting sound.
I'm open to the idea that I'm totally wrong on this, btw. Maybe Seitzer really is a superlative troubleshooter, but my initial reaction was this is just another spring fluff piece about how everyone loves the new hitting coach.
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I don't know how the stomach muscles are involved in hitting a baseball. I do know that more and more these days, core conditioning and core strength are talked about. Barry Zito mentioned it when he did an interview on KNBR the day he was introduced as a Giant.
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Hitting coaches, for the most part, are overrated anyway. Unless one was dealing with Ted Williams or someone who has a resume that the players know about like Charlie Lau had, I don't think that they put too much stock in what hitting coaches have to say most of the time. The only thing that can be hoped for is that the coaches don't put things into a batter's head that hinder his hitting. It only takes one stupid comment to make a hitter think about where his hands are; or where his foot is landing to put them into a slump for three weeks. Pitching coaches are more hands on; you don't see hitting coaches visiting hitters in the middle of at bats. Most players just want to be left alone until there's a real problem to solve.
As for Seitzer, he was a good player and a fine hitter. I don't see a problem if he injects some transcendental stuff into his coaching if it works and doesn't clog up the hitter's head with too much mechanical crud.
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