Yanks plan to overhaul Cano's swing

From Bryan Hoch:

Playing through the final month of a frustrating season, Cano has been stung by criticism labeling his on-field effort as nonchalant. Yet those adjectives have been meaningless compared to the cold splash of reality Cano feels each time sees a batting average hovering in the .260s, wondering why it belongs to him.

"I don't want to say this is a bad year, but it's at least a year that I'm going to learn from and not be back in this situation again," Cano said. "This is a year that you can just say, 'OK, this is not happening again.'"

The Yankees hope so, and they are preparing steps to move in that direction. Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long plans to travel to the Dominican Republic to work with Cano in November. The work there will be extensive and represents a complete overhaul of the infielder's swing.

The promise is of a completely revamped player in advance of Spring Training. Long outlined pieces of his blueprint for Cano by eliminating excess action, while putting him in a better position to hit, squaring up more with the pitcher. Addressing Cano's strike-zone discipline is also high on the to-do list.

"You're going to see a huge difference visually," Long said. "You'll see less movement, an explosive, compact swing, and you'll probably see more home runs. I think his average will go way up and I think his walks will go way up."

I have a couple problems with this; if Kevin Long is going to be working with Robinson Cano in the off-season this must mean that the Yankees are not going to fire him. This bothers me. Someone needs to be held accountable for the way this team has been hitting this season, and after all, Long is the hitting coach. I know, I know, the team drove in 968 runs last season with Long as the hitting coach. But remember, Don Mattingly was still on that bench, and I'm sure he was helping certain players with their swings. He was a good hitting coach.

Also, why haven't the Yankees attempted to tweak Cano's swing during this current season? I hate to keep bringing up Donnie Baseball, but he changed his swing every two weeks during certain stretches of his career. The Yankees could have at least tried to do this during the season. How long has Kevin Long seen these flaws in Cano's swing and not tried to fix them?

The Yankees were aware of the storm clouds brewing with Cano, even when New York placed a four-year, $30 million wager that the 25-year-old would continue to improve. Even if Cano wasn't going by the book mechanically, Long said, he was still able to achieve great results in the batter's box, leaving no options to do but watch and wait.

"You can't [overhaul] a guy that's had that much success," Long said. "I think he's still going to be a real good player. He's got to make some changes with the mechanics of his swing, but coming in with all the success that he'd had doing it that way, there's really not much anyone could do other than just let him go with it."

This is complete bulls***. If the Yankees and Kevin Long knew Cano had major flaws in his swing last off-season they should have tried to fix them then, and not wait until after a bad season.

Coaches can always tell a player; "you're good, but you can be great" and help them improve their game. Isn't that part of their job? If for some reason Cano didn't want to get better and listen to his coaches the Yankees should have traded him while his stock was high last year, because a player like that doesn't deserve to wear the pinstripes.

Take A-Rod for example; the guy may not be hitting in the clutch, but nobody can deny how hard he works to improve his game. He may be the most talented player in the sport and he still tries to improve. Cano should be more than willing to do the same. I don't need to hear (or read in this case) Kevin Long say "you can't fix a guy that had that much success," because that's utter nonsense.