Kevin Long Getting An Early Start With Youkilis

From Dan Martin:

Long already has begun working with Rodriguez’s temporary replacement at third, visiting Kevin Youkilis in San Jose, Calif., last week.

“We looked at old film and compared it to 2012,” Long said. “We saw some considerable differences, mainly in his stance and it looked like the adjustments had an impact. ... I think we can get him back to being an all-star caliber player.”

Long plans on heading to Tampa shortly before pitchers and catchers arrive next month. He’s eager to put the pain of last year’s flameout against the Tigers in the ALCS behind him.

“It took a little longer for the sting to go away,” Long said of the sweep. “I feel like I’ve had a great career and done a great job, but that was a tough week. I feel good moving forward.”

I still think Long should have been fired after the way this team hit the last couple of seasons, but at least he's trying.

WTF: Beckett is mad at Kevin Long?

From Kevin Kernan:

Boston ace Josh Beckett, who always seems to be upset about something, is ticked off at Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long for mentioning that Beckett takes too long between pitches, which can throw off the rhythm of the hitter.

That was the word from new Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine in comments made Saturday at the Red Sox “Christmas at Fenway’’ event.

...

On an ESPN telecast in August, Valentine criticized Beckett for his slow pitching pace, saying, “That’s a half hour added to this game of him standing around and us sitting around watching him do nothing.’’

Valentine was correct. The Aug. 7 game between the Yankees and Red Sox lasted 4 hours, 15 minutes. Beckett started that game and pitched six innings in Boston’s 3-2, 10-inning victory. Valentine spoke to Beckett last week and said at the winter meetings that Beckett is still quite upset. Valentine and Beckett, though, worked out their differences, Valentine said in the interview Saturday and it is Long on the receiving end of Beckett’s ire.

Basically, the pitcher who takes too long between pitches is upset with Long for mentioning that fact.

“Kevin Long started complaining about him taking too long,’’ Valentine explained at the event. “And [Beckett] felt, ‘Why don’t I take long and if [the hitters] don’t like it, then that’s exactly what I want to do? Whatever they don’t like, and what makes them uncomfortable, makes them unsuccessful.’ So he said that and we at ESPN fell into his trap ... or we bought into Kevin Long’s strategy to reverse his success. I get it. Maybe I did and there was frenzy about what Kevin said and I was reiterating it.”

As you might expect, Kevin Long didn't care:

Long, reached by The Post yesterday, said he was merely stating the obvious to Valentine and the ESPN broadcast crew at the time and that it was Valentine who ran hard with his own comments about Beckett’s pace, backing up Long’s point of view.

Long is not losing any sleep over the fact that Beckett is upset with him, telling The Post, “I kind of think this is humorous.’’

Is this really the sort of thing that upsets these losers in Boston? Get over it, freakin' crybaby.

Jeter and Long Make Some Adjustments

This was written by Ben Shpigel a few days ago, but for some stupid reason I missed it.

“That’s why we’re fixing his stride,” Long said of Jeter. “If we can get him to be more direct to the ball, this could be scary. He’s still going to have slumps and struggle here and there, but we’re both pretty excited about what’s going on.” Molitor recorded 3,319 hits in his Hall of Fame career. Jeter has 2,926, most of which have been collected with mechanics that, according to Long, are slightly flawed. All hitters have a mechanism that they use to time pitches, and Jeter has always taken a stride toward the mound with his left leg. Long figured it would need to be addressed at some point, but for more than 15 seasons Jeter has overcome it with a preternatural ability to let the pitch travel deep and then get his hands through the hitting zone.

“It would have been asinine for me to go in and try to change him before,” Long said. “He’s been so good for so long, what really needed to be done?”

But that stride grew longer and drifted toward the plate, which caused Jeter to lean over. It altered Jeter’s bat path, and his timing suffered.

“Now,” Long said, “he starts to get jammed a little more. Maybe his bat slows down just a hair, but that’s significant. We can say age all we want, but I’m not buying into that. I think if we fix this, that age factor dissipates.”

...

[The tipping point came] In his final at-bat, in the 12th [on Sept 10th], he failed to drive in the go-ahead run from third with one out. His average plunged to a season-low .260, and Jeter received the next night off to work in the cage with Long, who asked him to lock his stride foot in place, a method employed by Albert Pujols, and then lift it up about an inch before bringing it down in the same spot. Over his final 28 games including the playoffs, he showed progress, hitting .311, but had yet to fully adopt the technique.

“You’re not asking me to put my hands in a different spot,” Long said Jeter told him. “You’re asking me to do something with my front foot that I’ve never done before.”

“He said, ‘K-Long, I don’t know what to do with all this extra time that I didn’t have before,’ ” Long said. “He said that he doesn’t have as many parts to get going into place before he reacts to the baseball. That’s exactly what I hoped he would say. That’s exactly right.”

If he can maximize that extra time, Long says, he expects Jeter, a superb opposite-field hitter, to become more efficient and explosive, driving balls to left and left-center.

Let's hope these adjustments work, because if not, the Yanks might begin to regret that four-year deal fairly quickly.

Verducci: Is Tex heading down the same path as Giambi?

SI's Tom Verducci penned this piece on Mark Teixeira and the possibility the he may end up becoming another Jason Giambi..... Yea, I know, more Yankee-hate..... Verducci recently spoke with Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long about Teixeira, and Long told him he will be working with Teixeira on three key areas of his offensive game--his poor starts, unothodox mechanics, and a lack of opposite-field hitting--so that he doesn't have a repeat performance of his .256 2010.

Here is Verducci's take on all three:

• Poor starts. Teixeira is a career .235/.342/.411 hitter in April. He basically writes off the first month of his season. To buck this trend, Long is working with Teixeira on taking more swings before spring training begins, as well as making suggestions to tweak the intense pregame workout regimen of Teixeira, a fitness freak.

• Unorthodox mechanics. Teixeira collapses his back side as he hits, rather than driving through the ball with his back side while letting his back foot fully pivot. The style has worked for Teixeira, an accomplished slugger. But the style means that Teixeira must catch the ball out in front and leaves him prone to lifting the ball rather than driving through it. As he ages, Teixeira becomes an even more extreme fly ball and pull hitter, trends that mean he will continue to lose points off his batting average.

• Opposite-field hitting. Teixeira always has been a pull hitter from both sides of the plate, but he virtually gave up hitting the ball the other way last season. From 2003 through '09 Teixeira had between 14 and 22 opposite-field hits each season. Last year he managed only seven.

Verducci goes on to mentions that Long will use a similar approach with Tex that he used with Nick Swisher prior to the '10 season, adjustments that led to a .288 batting avg for Swish.

"[Kevin Long] believes that if Teixeira makes the adjustment to drive his back side through the ball rather than collapsing it, he will maintain his slugging but also add to his batting average because he will be able to drive the ball to all fields."

He then leaves us with this:

Without adjustments, Teixeira is likely to lose more hits into overshifted defenses and lose chunks of points off his batting average as he ages through his 30s and loses the timing and bat speed advantages of youth. If he needs further proof, he can examine the careers of hitters such as Jason Giambi and J.D. Drew. They were versatile, dangerous all-fields hitters through their 20s, but as they aged they worked the ball more and more out in front of them and defenses began overshifting more and more against them to the pull field.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that this isn't possible. It clearly is. However, I do have faith (hopefully it's not blind) that Teixeira and Kevin Long will put in the work and make the necessary adjustments to help him remain a very dangerous hitter in this league.

Tex has proven he's a hard worker, so there's no reason to believe that the he won't put in the necessary effort, and as for Long goes, he's proven time and time again that he can fix a player's swing. Why would Teixeira be any different?

If he has another down year I may begin to worry, but for now I'm pretty confident that Tex will do what he needs to do and be right back in the MVP voting next October.

Late Night News & Notes: Cashman, Bonderman, Soriano, Jeter

I got completely wrapped up in the Knicks-Spurs game (Nice win!) and missed a few stories, so here's a summary:

- Jon Paul Morosi reported that the Yankees are interested in Detroit's Jeremy Bonderman. The 28-year-old went 8-10 with a 5.53 ERA in 30 games for the Tigers last year.

- According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees will likely go after Rafael Soriano if Andy Pettitte retires. Why not sign Soriano anyway? Is the bullpen only important without Pettitte?

- Pete Caldera tweets that Kevin Long will work with Derek Jeter prior to Spring Training begins. Does he have a time machine? 

And finally, here are some quotes about the Yankees plans from Brain Cashman via Bryan Hoch:

"Obviously, I'm looking at what's out there," Cashman said. "There's not much. I'm monitoring what the necessary requests are, financially or player wise. If some drop, then maybe we'll get a little more serious."

"We've got a lot of time left on the clock. Who knows?" Cashman said. "The bottom line is, there's a reason we haven't done anything up to this point."

...
"I'm working at it, but in terms of getting results, that's why Plan B is patience," Cashman said. "You're seeing it."

"It's about doing what's right. I've dealt with saber-rattling before. I'll stick with what I believe in. I'm not going to jump into something stupid."

Long Signs New Deal

From George A. King III:

According to multiple industry sources, Kevin Long and the Yankees have agreed to a three-year deal that runs concurrent with the pact manager Joe Girardi recently signed.

Long, whose three-year deal worth about $1.2 million expired yesterday, will receive a raise. Next season will be Long's sixth handling the Yankees' hitters.

...It is believed third-base coach Rob Thomson, first-base coach Mick Kelleher and bench coach Tony Pena will return. All of their contracts expired yesterday.

Bullpen coach Mike Harkey is a strong candidate to take over for departed pitching coach Dave Eiland -- Single-A Staten Island manager Josh Paul would become the bullpen coach.

Harkey? Really?

Anyway, Long more than deserved a new deal, he's done a great job as hitting coach since taking over for Mattingly in 2007.

Long: No Major Changes in Store For Jeter

From Mark Hale:

The Yankees captain went into last night wallowing in one of the worst slumps, and seasons, of his career. But hitting coach Kevin Long isn’t convinced the shortstop needs the same type of special attention he gave Granderson a few weeks ago in Texas, when Long and Granderson worked together extensively, fixing the center fielder’s mechanics to get him going at the plate.

“There’s no project in store [with Jeter] and there’s nothing that at this point [where] we’re going to go into some deep waters and try to figure something out,” Long told The Post. “We’re just going to stay the course and come ready to go every day and Derek Jeter will be there.”

...

“He’s in a place where he’s not been too often,” Long said, “but his spirits are good. I’ve seen enough at-bats where I can say, ‘There’s a lineout. There’s another one that should have dropped.’ We’re just going to stay diligent with our work and keep grinding.

“It’ll be all right.”

I keep waiting for Jeter to turn things around, but then I look up and he's in the midst of a 1-for-25 slide. It's been one of those years for Jeter.

Still, with Jeter, would it really surprise you if he followed up this sub-par year by hitting .350 in October?

Granderson Tweaks His Swing

I was out of the house all day so I missed this yesterday but Curtis Granderson went to hitting coach Kevin Long and asked him to help him change his swing.

In a drastic mid-season move, the Yankees began a “total reformation” of Granderson’s swing. It’s the reason he was kept out of the lineup tonight against Cliff Lee. Long specifically asked Joe Girardi for one more day to work with his center fielder.

“To do something like this, it’s a stretch,” Long said. “But it’s a stretch that I think is not going too far and I think he feels the same way… He’s had length to his swing for a long, long time. He’s been an all-star with length to his swing, but we’ve both decided at this point we want to shorten it as much as we can.”

...

“His stance is going to be a lot more square,” Long said. “His hands have changed their position. He’s holding on with two hands. His load to where he gets to contact, we’ve eliminated a lot of movement there. This takes time to do something like this, but we’re going to have five or six complete sessions. He did get into the game yesterday and had what I would call a pretty good at-bat.”

Today, Chad Jennings has these quotes from Granderson:

“I wouldn’t necessarily call it big changes,” Granderson said. “It’s just trying to simply things. Everything I’ve done up to this point is just trying to get to the point I want (to make contact)… and there’s always some moving parts before it. We’re just trying to eliminate some of those moving parts.”
...

“I’ve made changes throughout my whole career,” he said. “I’ve been an unorthodox hitter. I’ve been a very routine and picture-perfect hitter as far as what everyone else is doing. And everything in between. Whenever someone says to make a change, I’ve always been a very adaptive player.”

Give Granderson credit for noticing a problem and trying to fix it on the fly. Most players would probably wait until the offseason. Now, let's just hope it works.

Long Not a Fan of Cano Taking Part in the Derby

From Mark Feinsand:

"I would prefer he's not involved in it, but that's not my decision," Kevin Long said. "History suggests that guys that do the home run hitting contest get fatigued and exhausted from the process. I'm happy for the fact that he's maybe getting the opportunity, but in the same breath we have to be careful in how he goes about this."

...

"When you're trying to hit the ball far and long," Long said, "you're putting everything you have into your swing."

but...

"If anybody could overcome this and it not wear them down, this guy's a horse," Long said. "He plays every day, every inning; he might be the one guy I could say he could get through this with flying colors and be okay. But again, it's tough not to go to the history part of it and say what's happened to this guy, this guy, this guy and this guy and think it wouldn't happen to Cano."

Joe Girardi also isn't too pleased:

"I think it's a lot of swings for a player; physically, I think it's somewhat of a grind, but it's an honor to be involved," Girardi said. "The biggest thing is that we keep Robinson Cano healthy and strong the whole year. If that in any way would fatigue him, then I would prefer that he didn't get fatigued."

Here's Cano's take:

"I'm just going to go out there and have fun, always have it in my mind that it's Yankees first before anything else," Cano said. "I'll go out there like I swing in BP, a regular swing, not try to do too much and mess up my swing."

I'm not too concerned about Cano's swing. Hopefully he does what he says, and just goes out there and has fun. The more seriously he takes this the worse it could be. Are you concerned?

Teixeira at Minor League Complex

Mark Teixeira's slow starts have been well documented. After going hit-less in the opening series in Boston (0-12). Mark and ever working Kevin Long decided to spend the off day at the minor league complex in Tampa, before beginning a three game set with the Rays. Here are some quotes from Tex via Andrew Marchand over at espnnewyork.com:

"Days off for me as a switch-hitter -- getting off to a slow start -- aren't very good," Teixeira said.

"My left-handed swing isn't where it needs to be right now,"

Not that I didn't expect this from Tex. He is a very hard worker and given what we know about Kevin Long's work ethic I'd be surprised if he ever even sleeps. Good to see Tex isn't getting complacent after a dynamite first season and world series victory.

Long: Gardner can be another Lofton

I was going to post this yesterday afternoon, but with my previous post being about who the Yankees should sign next year to play left, it's only fitting that my next one be about Brett Gardner. I mention in the Crawford/Werth post that "Barring a breakout season by Brett Gardner, the Yankees will likely be in the market for an outfielder next off-season."

If Gardner can play everyday, I think that Gardner could surprise a lot of people, and as we find out from Mark Hale, so does Kevin Long.

“If I seem overly excited about him, I am,” said Long, who compared Gardner to Lofton, who was a star speedster for nearly two decades.

“Kenny was a bigger, more physical player, or [physical] looking player. But Gardy could do what Kenny Lofton did. I wouldn’t see why he couldn’t,” Long told The Post. “That would be a good comparison.”

“I think he’s a great player,” Long said. “I’m a big, big Brett Gardner fan. I think he’s going to do terrific. I’m excited for the fact that he’s going to get to start a ton of games. I don’t feel like there’s pressure, like he has to go out and perform in the first two weeks, otherwise he’s out.

“I think this is a kid you just throw in there every day, pencil him in the lineup, hit him down ninth and see at the end of the year if he’s at .270, .280, if he doesn’t steal 65-70 bases, if he doesn’t score 100 runs hitting in the nine-hole.”

And does Long think Gardner can do all that?

“Yes. I do,” said the hitting coach. “I think if you put Brett Gardner on the free market right now and said, ‘Anybody want him?’ I think every team in baseball would want him and probably have him leading off for you. That’s how good he is.”

“What he gets lost in is all the talent we have in this room. So you go, ‘Oh, he’s Brett Gardner,’ “ Long said. “I just think that he’s a really, really good player and someone who can really help us. And if you give him the at-bats day in and day out, he’ll have numbers to prove it.”

Those are some high expectations.

I was interested to see what the experts were expecting to see from Gardner, so I went over to Fangraphs and checked out their projections page. Before looking at the numbers, you should know that none of these systems believe Gardner will play everyday.

• Bill James: In 370 plate appearances: .277/.368/.375, 36 stolen bases, 63 runs.
• CHONE: In 404 PA: .266/.351/.375, 29 SB, 60 R.
• Marcel: In 356 PA: .265/.337/.383, 23 SB, 52 R.
• ZiPS: In 431 PA: .253/.328/.344, 32 SB, 66 R.
  

If you extrapolate the numbers to a full season's worth of PA he falls short of Long's predictions in the last three, but with Bill James' numbers the totals are pretty close. Assuming a full season from the bottom of the order will get him around 540 plate appearances--Melky's total from last year--that would bring his stolen base total to 53, and run to 92 (if my math is correct). Had Gardner played everyday last year, those numbers wouldn't have been too far behind Long's either. In 284 PA, Gardner hit .270/.345/.379 with 26 stolen bases and 48 runs scored. That turns into 50 stolen bases and 91 runs for 540 PA. I think most Yankees fans would be dancing in the streets if we got a season like that from Gardner this year.

You also have to wonder what all the work on his bunting will add to his game. I've mentioned before on this blog how important I feel improving his bunting is to his game. So that's another thing to pay attention to.

The toughest thing for him will be to stay in the lineup. Because with guys like Randy Winn and Marcus Thames waiting on the bench, the Yankees aren't going to be too patient with Gardner if he starts the season hitting .150. But if he can get off to a hot start and stay in the lineup, I wouldn't be surprised if his numbers do come close to those predicted by Long and James. Would you?

Long Talks About Trying To Fix Granderson

We are all aware of Curtis Granderson's struggles against lefties last year. Turning that around will be one of Kevin Long's biggest challenges this season. Luckily for him, Granderson, and the Yanks, Kevin Long likes a challenge. Here's more from Mark Feinsand:

"It does give me some satisfaction that people believe in me," Long said. "I like challenges."

...

"They're all going to hit some bumps in the road, and when they do, they'll need some positive reinforcement. There's a trust built between myself and each individual player. I'm the go-to-guy. When something is a little bit off, they feel comfortable coming to me. That's been built over the past four years."

Long also received praise from his manager and Jorge Posada:

"You almost have to be like a psychologist," Girardi said. "You have to figure out how each person learns and what their trigger points are. Kevin is good at that."

...

"K-Long is going to find a way," Jorge Posada said. "He's not going to sleep until he makes Granderson a better hitter against lefthanded pitchers. That's just who he is - and we're lucky to have him."

He's already worked with Granderson once prior to spring training and now comes the hard part. If Long can work some magic, I'm sure we'll see some early signs during the spring, but the real proof will be down the road in the regular season. Like I said a few weeks ago, I never was a fan of Long, but he's shown what he can do so now I'm pretty confident that he'll get Granderson at least back to respectability against lefties.

Nick Johnson Looking For A Power Boost

No, not the illegal steroid kind. He's looking to improve his swing on inside pitches. Here's more from George King:

Instead, the hitting coach is focused on Johnson using the lower half of his body to keep from getting beat on inside pitches.

Long believes even if the left-handed hitting Johnson doesn't attempt to become a dead-pull hitter -- something Johnson says won't happen intentionally -- the jet stream that flows to right field and Yankee Stadium's short porch will result in Johnson's home run totals rising.

Johnson went to Arizona last week for a two-day session with Long and the batting cage rat immediately went to work on Johnson's feet.

"We worked on trying to keep his back foot [left] in place, trying to keep it from flying back," Long said of Johnson's approach. "When it moves he collapses the inside right away. That takes away the inside of the plate. We talked about Yankee Stadium and figured we might want to address that."
...

"I never used my legs in the past," the career .273 hitter with a .402 on-base percentage said. "It felt good to work on that."

Known for a keen eye and the ability to lay off pitches, Johnson and Long also talked about the patient Johnson attacking a bit more.

"Being ready to hit from pitch one and staying more aggressive," Johnson said of Long's message.

Remember when I used to complain about Kevin Long? Well, that's not going to happen again any time soon. He has consistently shown that he is a very hard worker, something that paid off big time last year with several guys in the Yankees lineup. I'm hoping, and somewhat expecting him to do the same for Johnson as well as Curtis Granderson.

Kevin Long Gets An Early Start

From Bryan Hoch (hat-tip to TYU):

While the rest of baseball clings to its last weeks of Hot Stove hibernation, Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long has already rolled into the new season, logging frequent-flyer miles to put in batting cage hours with several players.

Long is spending this week overseeing Alex Rodriguez's first swings of 2010 and has already spent a good chunk of the winter helping Nick Swisher. A visit with Curtis Granderson is also ahead, as Long sacrifices his down time in the hopes that New York's offense will be a dominant force as they defend the World Series title.

"Last year, I set out to bring guys together and get a real pulse of guys to see where they were," Long said. "I wanted to see if we could make this a more team-oriented group. [Manager] Joe Girardi did a terrific job, obviously, and it seemed like those efforts were well-spent. I don't have a problem doing it if guys come together. The team chemistry that I saw last year was a lot of fun."

Long mentions in the article that Swisher got a steady diet of off-speed stuff during the playoffs and struggled, so that's been one of the main thing's he's focused on with Swish:

"We've got his hands closer to his body, and we've got to get him consistent with his lower half. If we do all of those things, you might see a guy who's able to react better to an offspeed pitch."

Next week Long will be meeting with one of the newest Yankees, Curtis Granderson, and as you might expect he'll be trying to help him figure out how to hit lefties.

"He's obviously more productive against right-handed pitching, but he's had productive years against left-handed pitching -- and a lot of non-productive years," Long said. "My job is to try to get him to feel as comfortable as possible, without forcing it. I don't know what he's done in the past, but I'd really like to get a sense of his mentality against left-handed pitching."

Gotta give Long credit for being as dedicated as he is. Keep up the good work, Kevin.

Swisher's New Stance Leads To Results

From Ken Rosenthal:

Swisher, benched in Game 2, completely overhauled his stance for Game 3, spreading his legs far apart in the batter's box.

So much for his 4-for-35 slump in the postseason.

Swisher went 2-for-4 in the Yankees' 8-5 victory, hitting a double to start a three-run rally in the fifth inning and a solo home run in the sixth.

Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said that Swisher's new stance is the first step of a major overhaul that will continue in the offseason.

Swisher, a switch-hitter, had tried the stance in the batting cage and in batting practice in recent days, taking approximately 300 swings from each side.

When asked about the new stance, Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said "Everyone knows he is a great fastball hitter. They've been trying to off-speed him to death. When you have a lot of motion — he has a toe tap and also a long stride — pitches are tough to see, tough to react to."

I've gotten on Kevin Long's case a lot over the last two years, but as this year has gone on he's showing his value more and more. To alter someone's stance in the middle of a World Series is pretty damn bold, or as Rosenthal put it "stunning". Considering it worked, pretty damn smart too.

Tino Helped Tex Out of His Slump

From Mark Hale:

Martinez, a special assistant to Brian Cashman, revealed it was the first time he'd spoken to Teixeira since spring training. But it was certainly experienced advice -- when Martinez came from Seattle in 1996, the first baseman initially struggled badly. Teixeira, the Yankees' newest star first baseman, has as well.

"It's just about his mental approach. I just told him to be more in attack mode at the plate as opposed to a passive mode where you let the pitcher dictate the at-bat a little bit," Martinez told The Post. "So I just told him, just make sure when you're up at the plate you're in control. Oh-and-oh [in the count], you're ready to go. You're in attack mode, and if you swing at a bad pitch, it's not a big deal. It's only strike one."

Martinez believes Teixeira has "been trying to be so selective and swing at the perfect pitch that I think he's lost a little bit of his aggressiveness.

"That when you're going well, you just see the ball and you hit it," Martinez said. "And when you're going bad, you try to make sure you swing at the perfect pitch and you become a little passive. So I just told him, stay aggressive and you're going to swing your way out of it."

Great to see Tino still helping the Yankees. Teixeira has been more aggressive lately, that could also have to do with seeing some better pitches with A-Rod back, but I'm sure Tino's words helped a little too. But this does make me wonder what the heck Kevin Long is doing. Why wasn't he the guy to tell Teixeira to be a little more aggressive? Maybe he was and we're just not hearing about it, but as of now it looks like Tino did more to help Teixeira than Long did.

Kevin Long and His Hard-Hit Ball Chart

Apparently Kevin Long isn't too concerned with Cody Ransom's awful start to the '09 season. Why? Because of his hard-hit ball chart, which Long uses as a tool to keep players' confidence up. Here's some more from Marc Carig:

Long keeps his own tally during games and frequently shares the data with players, especially those who need to hear it, like Ransom. From the chart: Robinson Cano, who has been on fire to start the season, leads the Yankees with nine hard-hit balls. Derek Jeter is second with eight. Not surprising.

But guess who's also tied with Cano for the team lead? Cody Ransom.

"When you look at that, it doesn't concern me at all," Long said. "I thought he was swinging the bat better than his numbers. He probably pressed a little bit because he wants to get a hit the last couple games. Before that, I thought he was doing fine and thought he had a little hard luck."

Long admits he's not the most subjective in his count. Sometimes, he rewards effort just as much as the results. The point, he said, is to keep positive thoughts flowing for players even when the hits aren't falling.

"If it's a soft lineout, I'll give them a hard hit," Long said. "I'm a little more lenient obviously. I'm looking at how did he handle a certain pitch. Maybe it was a tough pitch and he was able to stay on it and through it long enough to line it to right. Not scorched, but hit good. I like to pound that quite a bit."

I think this chart is good idea and it has probably has helped many players, but at the same time I think Long should be a little more subjective with what he determines is a hard-hit ball. I've watched every at-bat Ransom has had this year, and there's no way he's hitting the ball well. He's 2-for-24 and he's struck out 8 times in 24 at-bats. He's also not doing the little things, last night in a game that was already over, he failed to drive in a runner from third with less than two outs. Really, I can't see how it's possible that he is near the team leaders in hard hit balls.

As Carig points out in the article "Much of success as a major league coach hinges on mastering the art of reassurance," and there's no doubt about that. But isn't another major job of a hitting coach to find and fix problems with a players' swing?

What do you guys think?

Some More Spring Training Quick Cuts

I mentioned the other day that YES was relaunching their website. Well, the new page is up and it looks pretty good.

They also have a bunch of new Spring Training Quick Cut videos up, although they did not post them on YouTube so I cannot embed them in site. They have new editions from Kevin Long, Dave Eiland, Jose Molina, Phil Coke and Brian Bruney, and you can check them all out by going here.

Also, Bob Lorenz has a new blog on YES, it's call The Blog. Check it out.