Jim Presley - 1989 Topps

And You Want To Be My Hitting Coach?

I always find it interesting about players that become coaches. For instance, guys like Juan Samuel and Garry Templeton stayed in the game as coaches and managers, when as players they had stormy, tempestuous relationships with management, other players, fans, etc.

Sometimes, pitching coaches are quite interesting. Guys like Joe Kerrigan and Dan Warthen couldn’t get anyone out in the majors, but they were long-time pitching coaches.

Jim Presley is a well-respected hitting coach. He was a long-time coach in Florida (where players like Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera sing his praises) and is now on Buck Showalter’s staff in Baltimore.

As a player, though, you’d never thought of Presley as a coach-in-waiting.

His offensive WAR for his career was only 4.4, and that was due to one thing.

Strike zone judgment.

In his career, he walked 210 times and struck out 859 times. His All-Star year, 1986, was Mark Reynolds-esque. 27 home runs, 107 RBI, 172 whiffs.

And he’s a hitting coach? Well, it is true that Baltimore does whiff a lot, and whiffing isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. But now I’m wondering about Presley’s lessons to Mark Reynolds.

“Do as I say, not as I do?”

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