Marlins tweak strategy to help improve offense, score more runs
The Marlins have a simple goal in 2020: Score more runs. That’s easier said than done, so hitting coach Eric Duncan explained what the team is doing to improve its offensive output in a short season.
Eric Duncan, the Miami Marlins’ 35-year-old hitting coach, has two trusted people he can rely on as he maneuvers through his day-to-day duties in bench coach James Rowson and manager Don Mattingly.
Rowson helped the Minnesota Twins last season hit an MLB singleseason record 307 home runs as the team’s hitting coach. Mattingly was one of the top hitters of his time during his playing days, a six-time All-Star and career .307 hitter over 14 seasons with the
New York Yankees.
Together, the trio along with assistant hitting coach Robert Rodriguez, vice president of player development and scouting Gary Denbo, and their minor-league hitting staff, are in sync with their game plan to fortify and improve one of baseball’s worst offenses from last season.
“Simply,” Duncan said, “it’s score more runs than the other team.”
Duncan quickly admits that the mission is easier said than done. If it was as simple as score more runs, the Marlins wouldn’t have finished 29th in the league last year with an average of 3.8 runs per game and 25th with a .241 batting average.
Duncan saw progress from the group during spring training before the coronavirus pandemic put the sport on hold for three-plus months. He’s seeing it again now as the Marlins near the halfway mark of their three-week summer camp before a 60-game season begins on July 24 against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“We had a lot of guys who were feeling comfortable in spring training in terms of how they were getting their game plans together, how they were executing in games,” Duncan said. “Getting back up to game speed in the time we have during this summer camp has allowed guys to get back into lockstep with that.”
So what are some ways the Marlins plan to improve? Here’s a look.
ADDING TO THE LINEUP
The simplest and most noticeable improvement comes simply from the new faces in the clubhouse. The Marlins this offseason added a handful of position players in Corey Dickerson, Jonathan Villar, Jesus Aguilar, Matt Joyce and Francisco Cervelli.
Both Duncan and Mattingly have noted Dickerson’s track record of being a consistent hitter. He has a career .286 batting average and had at least a .263 average in all but one of his seven MLB seasons.
Villar gives the Marlins speed and power potential at the top of the lineup. He has 78 career home runs and 202 stolen bases to go along with a .261 career average at the plate.
Aguilar will be at the heart of the lineup whether he’s at first base or designated hitter. He has 63 career home runs over three full seasons, including 35 during his 2018 All-Star season.
But in Duncan’s eyes, what the newcomers bring to a youth-laden roster behind the scenes is just as important as their onfield production
“They’re pros,” Duncan said. “Not only in getting their bodies ready, but mentally how they approach and game plan for opposing pitchers. That knowledge and being able to share that ... has been and is going to continue to be beneficial.”
ELEVATING THE BALL
The Marlins last season ranked last out of 30 MLB teams with an average launch angle (the angle at which a ball leaves a player’s bat) of 8.5 degrees on balls in play. For context, a launch angle of 10 degrees or fewer is representative of ground ball, anything between 10 and 25 degrees a line drive, 25-50 degrees a fly ball and above 50 degrees a popup.
While the Marlins know the value of elevating the ball, Duncan said the coaching staff doesn’t specifically talk about launch angles or exit velocities as a focal point of workouts. Rather, he mentions them as byproducts of the work they put in, “a result of what you’re doing to get there,” in his words.
“What you’re doing before that is what’s going to allow you to be in a positive zone, essentially,” Duncan said. “How you get to that point in terms of your balance, your body control, your timing, that stuff is talked a lot about.”
MAXIMIZING STRENGTHS
Now, not every hitter on the Marlins’ roster is going to hit for 25 home runs or be a constant doubles machine. With that in mind, Duncan and the coaching staff are prioritizing maximizing players’ strengths.
For players like Jon
Berti and Mangneuris Sierra, that’s getting on base so they can use their speed to wreak havoc on the base paths. For others, that’s driving balls into the gaps for extra-base hits and being selective with the pitches they hit. Other times, the Marlins will still need to play situational baseball, utilizing hit and runs and sacrifice bunts and timely steals to manufacture runs.
“One through nine this year, I think we’re going to have guys that can beat you in many different ways,” Duncan said. “Power is just one of those many ways. We want pitchers to feel pressure . ... Regardless of who’s up, whether it’s leadoff or the nine hole, that guy has to be committed and ready to get his best swing off.”
UTILIZING NEW FIELD DIMENSIONS
Marlins Park will become slightly more hitter friendly this season after the fences in center field and right-center field were moved in. The distance from home plate to center field went from 407 feet to 400 feet, while right-center moved in from 399 feet to 387 feet.
“As a hitting guy, any time you can bring the fences in, I think most of us are going to be excited about that,” Duncan said. “But it doesn’t really change our approach.
What happens out there at the fences is a direct result of what happens before contact. Timing, tempo, positioning. It’s great when that type of stuff happens, but our guys are more concerned about how to get the contact.”
The Marlins will also have to adapt to the new synthetic grass surface that was added during the offseason. Duncan said based on what he has seen at practice that he believes the artificial grass shouldn’t have too much of an impact from a hitter’s perspective.