5/23: Tom Brunansky on the Twins Hitting Woes

Tom Brunansky, the Minnesota Twins hitting coach and former player, addressed the media before Monday’s game against the Kansas City Royals. Aside from a few players, notably Eduardo Nunez and recently-acquired Robbie Grossman, most of the lineup has been floundering lately.

“It’s not just series — [it’s] the whole season,” said Brunansky when asked about the inconsistency at the plate. “The inconsistency of being able to put bats together is certainly frustrating. I feel bad everybody that’s in the lineup; I feel bad for our pitchers — we’re not able to score enough runs for them, we’re not able to add some points on the board.”

He said that there is not much to say to the entire group, the players know what is going wrong. Of course he is offering individual instruction.

“It’s already there,” he said. “You know that everybody in here feels that pressure and that heat. So what you have to do … we can’t control the results, we know that, so we have to make sure we go with what we can control, and we’re can control our work, our approach and try to carry out what we’re doing in the cages and in batting practice and apply that in the game.”

Dozier in the dumps

Brian Dozier is hitting below the Mendoza line and has struggled since making the All-Star Game last season.

“There were some changes that we made, as far as to where he was in relationship to the batter’s box. Kinda freed him up a little bit to where he was better at the plate,” said Brunansky.

“And this last series it was more of him trying to do everything — trying to pull pitches that he shouldn’t probably pull,” he added. “And we know he’s a pull hitter, everybody in the league knows that. But we talked about some of the pitches that he’s getting, especially in big situations, they’re not gonna make mistakes in; they’re gonna go away.

“And basically what we talked about is you’re gonna have to walk before you start to run, so he’s gonna have to take those pitches and be able to show the league that he’s gonna take those pitches and try to do something with them rather than pull them.”

Asked if Dozier was being defiant, Brunansky dismissed the notion.

“I wouldn’t say he won’t go the other way, I just think that in his mind, he likes to get the head out, he likes to do damage,” he said. “And what I mean by that is that he senses that a home run is a base hit, as opposed to sometimes we have to get the base hit to get the home run.

“Sometimes he wants to take it in the other direction, where he’ll get into a situation just like the other night. He’s up there in a big-time situation, it’s a 3-1 pitch and they’re not gonna give into him, and he wants to be the guy to take that pitch and drive in some big runs.”

Scrambling the lineup

Brunansky says that Molitor’s constant tinkering with the lineup is not negatively affecting his hitters. It’s typical, and often advised, that a manager change up the lineup when players aren’t hitting, even if it might mess up their routine.

“Well, we wouldn’t do that if we got into a routine, and that’s part of it. You try to get guys into a flow, and if it was going well, then you probably would see a consistent lineup,” he said.

“I mean, there’s probably not a manager out there that doesn’t love writing the same guys into the lineup in the same positions all the time,” he added. “When things aren’t going well, you try to change the karma, you try to change the feel, so that certain guys would feel a little bit less inclined to have to swing early in the count.

“Maybe we can work some walks, where they start seeing some more pitches, get a little bit more comfortable at the plate, and then you can insert them back into their normal spots.”

A return to small ball?

There are people in the fanbase that would like to see the Twins play more small ball. It makes some sense — scratching across runs is an alternative when the power hitters aren’t knocking it out of the park.

“I don’t think that’s our approach as far as playing singles, I mean we’ve got guys that can drive the ball. And that’s simply the approach: We want to get good pitches to drive the ball,” he said.

“I mean, we’re certainly not going up there trying to put the ball in play and hit line drives and hit singles. Sometimes that’s what it takes; sometimes a walk is what it takes. But when we’ve got guys that are taking pitches that are in off the plate, that aren’t pitches we really want to hit in that position, and trying to swing, and next thing you know, they’re in a bad count.”

Even while they are struggling, Brunansky has asked his players to stay aggressive at the plate.

“It’s certainly not … we don’t want to not be aggressive, and we want to attack,” he said. “It’s just that when we get up in there, you see a certain couple of guys will do it. And then all of a sudden we’ll have a couple at-bats where we don’t, and you see the pitcher take a little breather.

“Our whole mantra is to make that guy work every pitch. We don’t want him to sit up there and have a breather in him. But you’ll notice, when we get something going, it always seems to be with two outs, and then the next thing you’ll have an inning where it’s kind of an easy inning for them and he gets himself right back on the ship. We gotta keep the pressure on the pitcher.”

It’s a bit of a surprise to him too

“I think the biggest shock to me is how we were the offense that we were, and how things were flowing into Spring Training — I felt really comfortable where we were at,” he said.

“And then the bell goes on, and then a few guys that have never really experienced an Opening Day, and those things can have a little bit of an edge to them,” he added. “Guys just got off to a rough start, and from that point it kinda spiraled down to where you look for guys — ‘okay boys, we gotta stable the ship here and go.’

“And again, the more that they tried that, the worse they got.”

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