Royals Hitting Coach Kevin Seitzer

Keith, a regular reader of the blog who lives in the Kansas City area, posted the following on a previous entry's comment section: "It is fun to read all of your Royals comments. For a guy who is half a country from KC you are right on the money most of the time. I hope you give a critical look into the hitting of the club. As you know Kevin Seitzer is the new Royals hitting coach and we all know how he did in Arizona. He sucked! After they canned him at the All Star Break the Diamondbacks went on a tear and made the playoffs. He is my biggest concern when it comes to the Royals this year. I can't wait to see your comments on this topic."

Thanks for taking time to comment Keith and I appreciate you reading my blog.

Before I discuss Kevin Seitzer there are a few items that need to be clarified. First, on the day Kevin Seitzer was fired, the Diamondbacks were leading the NL west by 1 game. Their record was below .500 at 46-47, but there were leading the division. Second, the Diamondbacks did not "go on a tear" and make the playoffs in 2008. Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers won the NL West and the Diamondbacks were left out of the post-season.

The prevailing thought about Kevin Seitzer is that his strength will be in mentoring and helping in the development of young players like Alex Gordon and Billy Butler. But is this an accurate assumption? Will Seitzer be able to coach the Royals young players to be more productive at the plate? Although it is a small sample size, Seitzer does have a track record working with young hitters. The 2008 Diamondbacks had three young players with star potential, Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, and Chris Young. It should scare Royals fans to compare the production of these hitters during the first half of the season when Seitzer was the hitting coach with the second half of the season when he was not.

Time frame	Player	AVG	OBP	SLG
Pre All-Star game	Stephen Drew	.264	.302	.460
Post All-Star game	Stephen Drew	.326	.372	.556
Pre All-Star game	Chris Young	.228	.296	.401
Post All-Star game	Chris Young	.278	.343	.508
Pre All-Star game	Justin Upton	.242	.353	.433
Post All-Star game	Justin Upton	.278	.352	.570

These differences in production all three of these players showed between the first and second half of the 2008 season cannot be written off as normal, in season fluctuations. The improvement was significant and the biggest variable between the two halves of the season is that Kevin Seitzer was no longer hitting coach. This is something that cannot be overstated. Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, and Chris Young, all under the age of 25 , showed tremendous improvement after Kevin Seitzer fire. It is clear the Arizona Diamondbacks front office realized they made a mistake in hiring Seitzer and quickly moved to correct it.

Several Royals fans have shared with me that they are excited to have Kevin Seitzer on the coaching staff because he was part of the Royals glory days. I laugh when I hear this because Kevin Seitzer never appeared in a post-season game for the Royals and his only connection to the "glory days" was being in the team picture with George Brett. Royals fans should not be celebrating Seitzer's return to the Royals. Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Mike Aviles, Alberto Callaspo, and Mark Teahen are all young, developing hitters. As early as 2010, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer could be in the Major Leagues. It cannot be minimized how important it is for the Kansas City Royals to have a hitting coach that can aid in the development of these young players. Hiring a hitting coach was a huge responsibility for GM Dayton Moore and, just as he did when he went to Japan to hire Trey Hillmen, he registered a huge failure by hiring Kevin Seitzer.