Yankees Lose Minor League Hitting Coordinator to Twins

Another one bites the dust. The Minnesota Twins came into the offseason needing a hitting coach and they finally found their man in the way of the New York Yankees minor league hitting coordinator, James Rowson. The Minnesota Twins fired their hitting coach Tom Brunasky on November 8^th after four seasons and the club wasted no time in finding their replacement at the Yankees expense.

Rowson has been the Yankees minor league hitting coordinator for the past three seasons after spending parts of two seasons as the MLB hitting coach for the Chicago Cubs in 2012 and 2013. Under Rowson the Yankees have seen the emergence of players like Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, Tyler Austin, Mason Williams, Ben Gamel, Aaron Judge and others not only reach the MLB level but succeed at the MLB level in spurts.

Rowson also worked with Alfonso Soriano, Starlin Castro, Darwin Barney, Wellington Castillo, Anthony Rizzo and others while with the Cubs so he comes to Minnesota with a resume of success. It’s a shame to lose him from the Yankees perspective but I am glad to see one of our own (Rowson was a minor league outfielder for the Seattle Mariners and the Yankees during his playing career) get a shot back at the MLB level.

Good luck James.

Remembering Yankees of the Past: Marcus Thames

Marcus Markley Thames, born March 6, 1977, played with four different teams including the New York Yankees three separate times during his playing career from 2002 to 2011 and has since spent his time in the minor leagues with the club as a coach. During the 2013 season Thames was the hitting coach for the High-A Tampa Yankees and was promoted to the Trenton Thunder in the same position for the 2014 season drawing rave reviews from one of the Yankees top prospects Robert Refsnyder. Now, in a bit of irony, we remember a Yankee of the past (as a player, not as a coach) and we remember Marcus Thames during his playing days.


Thames was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in the 30th round of the 1996 MLB Draft but did not make a true impact in the minor leagues until 2001. Thames was with the Double-A Norwich Navigators that season and he batted .321 with 31 home runs and 97 RBI where he was named to Baseball America’s minor league All-Star team and where he put himself on the map for the Yankees. New York was so impressed with Thames that they called him up before a June 10 game in 2002 and Thames responded immediately. Thames, facing the Arizona Diamondbacks big left-hander Randy Johnson, hit the first home run of his career on his first at bat becoming just the 80th player in MLB history to do so. Thames earned his first curtain call from the Bronx faithful, what a moment if you were fortunate enough to see it live.


Thames’ tenure with the Yankees ended on June 6, 2003 when he was traded to the Texas Rangers for Ruben Sierra. Thames went on to hit a home run in his first at bat with the Rangers as well but was back in the New York groove in 2010 when he signed a minor league deal with the club. Thames made the Opening Day roster and was set to be a platoon partner with Brett Gardner in left field before his defense forced him to accept a bench role. Thames was delegated to the bench behind Gardner, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Austin Kearns who was traded for before the trade deadline and ended up playing in just 82 games that season. In half of a season Kearns hit .288 with 12 home runs, mainly against left-handed pitching.





Thames elected free agency in November of 2010 but was right back with the team on July 22, 2011 after New York signed him to another minor league deal. Thames never played a game for the Yankees at any level that season and would retire from the game a member of the New York Yankees before pursuing his career in coaching with the ball club. Thames has continuously defied the odds and has defied the odds once again with his promotion to assistant hitting coach with the club. Congratulations to him and his family. You have to think that Thames is on the short list for hitting coach after Cockrell’s contract expires, no?

Meet a Prospect: Alan Cockrell

Alan Cockrell was named the New York Yankees assistant hitting coach prior to the 2015 season and the team responded with the second best offense in all of Major League Baseball. Jeff Pentland, the head hitting coach from 2015, was fired after the season and Cockrell has accepted a position as the team’s main hitting coach and will work side-by-side with former Triple-A hitting coach and current Yankees assistant hitting coach Marcus Thames. Not many players and fans knew much about Cockrell before the 2015 season and not many know him today, until now.


Atlee Alan Cockrell was born on December 5, 1962 into a Christian household. Cockrell spent his High School days at Joplin, Missouri’s Parkwood High School where he represented the Parkwood High School Bears. The Bears were the team’s football team, not the school’s baseball team as you would expect, and Cockrell was the team’s starting quarterback. During his tenure there, three seasons as the starting QB, Cockrell led the team to a 31-3 record with 3,499 yards, 44 touchdown passes, 1,541 rushing yards and 36 rushing touchdowns and even kicked 154 PAT’s with eight field goals. Cockrell did it all including the year when he led the Bears to a perfect 14-0 season outscoring their opponents 653-33 and a Missouri State Class 4A High School Championship in 1980. Cockrell’s efforts there led him to take a scholarship at the University of Tennessee to be the team’s starting quarterback.


Cockrell was the first ever true freshman to start for the Volunteers when he did so in 1981 but five games into his Tennessee football career he suffered a major knee injury that threatened his college and professional career. Cockrell led the Vols to a 6-5-1 record in 1982 and a 9-3 season in 1983 including a Florida Citrus Bowl win over Boomer Esiason and the Maryland Terrapins in his final game with the school. The San Francisco Giants drafted Cockrell in the first round of the 1984 Draft, 9th overall, and his love for baseball drowned out any aspirations to be a starting quarterback in the National Football League.


Cockrell played nine seasons in the minor leagues for five different organizations before finally making his Major League debut in 1996 with the Colorado Rockies. Cockrell had a strikeout against Billy Wagner and a double off future Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine in Atlanta before playing in his final MLB game on September 29, 1996. Cockrell bounced around various minor league affiliates inside the Rockies organization as a manager and hitting coach before returning to the Majors as the Rockies hitting coach in 2007. Under Cockrell the Rockies slugged their way to a National League Championship and a trip to the World Series before running into the red hot Boston Red Sox. Under Cockrell the Rockies led the league in on-base percentage, batting average and total hits although it was not enough to keep Cockrell in a job after the team fired him before the 2009 season.


Cockrell was named the Seattle Mariners hitting coach in 2010 replacing Alonzo Powell but unfortunately for him he was the first out four coaches who were relieved of their duties alongside then manager Don Wakamatsu. Cockrell was out of the game completely until the New York Yankees came calling in January of 2015.


Cockrell and his SwingPath Coach training device he invented will now bring his talents to New York to be their hitting coach. How will the Yankees offense respond? I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned, either way congrats to Cockrell. After the career, the setbacks and the life in the game that you’ve had you have definitely earned your stay here in the Bronx.

The End of #TooManyDamnHrs Part II

The New York Yankees put an end to the #TooManyDamnHrs "problem" after the 2012 season and ultimately finished both the 2013 and 2014 seasons on the outside looking in when it came to the postseason. The Bronx Bombers returned in 2015 with the resurgence of Mark Teixeira and the return of Alex Rodriguez and the team finished with the second highest scoring offense and finished fourth in home runs in the league under new hitting coach Jeff Pentland and assistant hitting coach Alan Cockrell. Pentland is gone and Cockrell is in charge and he's already discussing potentially ending #TooManyDamnHrs again... kind of.

Cockrell, like many of the frustrated fans from 2015, wants the offense to be more multi-dimensional. New York hit 212 home runs in 2015 with 47 of them coming with runners on base. According to the YES Network a whopping 20% of the team's RBI came on the home run in 2015 but the problem was the situational hitting in 2015, not the home run ball. How many times did we see the Yankees needing to come up with the big hit or a the two-out hit and fail? I don't have a number but I can say with confidence that it was #TooDamnMany and Cockrell wants to fix that.

Cockrell wants to put an emphasis on getting on base, moving the runner from second to third base, giving yourself up with a groundball out for an RBI or to move a runner, etc. Good ole manufacturing runs when necessary. Cockrell doesn't want to ditch hitting home runs all together, especially during the 81 games the Yankees play inside Yankee Stadium every season, but Cockrell doesn't want to sit back and rely on in game in and game out... and I agree with him.

Meet a Prospect: Alan Cockrell

Alan Cockrell was named the New York Yankees assistant hitting coach prior to the 2015 season and the team responded with the second best offense in all of Major League Baseball. Jeff Pentland, the head hitting coach from 2015, was fired after the season and Cockrell has accepted a position as the team’s main hitting coach and will work side-by-side with former Triple-A hitting coach and current Yankees assistant hitting coach Marcus Thames. Not many players and fans knew much about Cockrell before the 2015 season and not many know him today, until now.

Atlee Alan Cockrell was born on December 5, 1962 into a Christian household. Cockrell spent his High School days at Joplin, Missouri’s Parkwood High School where he represented the Parkwood High School Bears. The Bears were the team’s football team, not the school’s baseball team as you would expect, and Cockrell was the team’s starting quarterback. During his tenure there, three seasons as the starting QB, Cockrell led the team to a 31-3 record with 3,499 yards, 44 touchdown passes, 1,541 rushing yards and 36 rushing touchdowns and even kicked 154 PAT’s with eight field goals. Cockrell did it all including the year when he led the Bears to a perfect 14-0 season outscoring their opponents 653-33 and a Missouri State Class 4A High School Championship in 1980. Cockrell’s efforts there led him to take a scholarship at the University of Tennessee to be the team’s starting quarterback.

Cockrell was the first ever true freshman to start for the Volunteers when he did so in 1981 but five games into his Tennessee football career he suffered a major knee injury that threatened his college and professional career. Cockrell led the Vols to a 6-5-1 record in 1982 and a 9-3 season in 1983 including a Florida Citrus Bowl win over Boomer Esiason and the Maryland Terrapins in his final game with the school. The San Francisco Giants drafted Cockrell in the first round of the 1984 Draft, 9^th overall, and his love for baseball drowned out any aspirations to be a starting quarterback in the National Football League.

Cockrell played nine seasons in the minor leagues for five different organizations before finally making his Major League debut in 1996 with the Colorado Rockies. Cockrell had a strikeout against Billy Wagner and a double off future Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine in Atlanta before playing in his final MLB game on September 29, 1996. Cockrell bounced around various minor league affiliates inside the Rockies organization as a manager and hitting coach before returning to the Majors as the Rockies hitting coach in 2007. Under Cockrell the Rockies slugged their way to a National League Championship and a trip to the World Series before running into the red hot Boston Red Sox. Under Cockrell the Rockies led the league in on-base percentage, batting average and total hits although it was not enough to keep Cockrell in a job after the team fired him before the 2009 season.

Cockrell was named the Seattle Mariners hitting coach in 2010 replacing Alonzo Powell but unfortunately for him he was the first out four coaches who were relieved of their duties alongside then manager Don Wakamatsu. Cockrell was out of the game completely until the New York Yankees came calling in January of 2015.

Cockrell and his SwingPath Coach training device he invented will now bring his talents to New York to be their hitting coach. How will the Yankees offense respond? I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned, either way congrats to Cockrell. After the career, the setbacks and the life in the game that you’ve had you have definitely earned your stay here in the Bronx.

Remembering Yankees of the Past: Marcus Thames

As we’ve all surely heard by now Jeff Pentland is out as hitting coach of the New York Yankees and Alan Cockrell is in after spending the 2015 season as the assistant hitting coach to Pentland. The Yankees needed someone to fill the vacancy left behind by Cockrell and that man was former Triple-A hitting coach Marcus Thames. Marcus Markley Thames, born March 6, 1977, played with four different teams including the New York Yankees three separate times during his playing career from 2002 to 2011 and has since spent his time in the minor leagues with the club as a coach. During the 2013 season Thames was the hitting coach for the High-A Tampa Yankees and was promoted to the Trenton Thunder in the same position for the 2014 season drawing rave reviews from one of the Yankees top prospects Robert Refsnyder. Now, in a bit of irony, we remember a Yankee of the past (as a player, not as a coach) and we remember Marcus Thames during his playing days.

Thames was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in the 30^th round of the 1996 MLB Draft but did not make a true impact in the minor leagues until 2001. Thames was with the Double-A Norwich Navigators that season and he batted .321 with 31 home runs and 97 RBI where he was named to Baseball America’s minor league All-Star team and where he put himself on the map for the Yankees. New York was so impressed with Thames that they called him up before a June 10 game in 2002 and Thames responded immediately. Thames, facing the Arizona Diamondbacks big left-hander Randy Johnson, hit the first home run of his career on his first at bat becoming just the 80^th player in MLB history to do so. Thames earned his first curtain call from the Bronx faithful, what a moment if you were fortunate enough to see it live.

Thames’ tenure with the Yankees ended on June 6, 2003 when he was traded to the Texas Rangers for Ruben Sierra. Thames went on to hit a home run in his first at bat with the Rangers as well but was back in the New York groove in 2010 when he signed a minor league deal with the club. Thames made the Opening Day roster and was set to be a platoon partner with Brett Gardner in left field before his defense forced him to accept a bench role. Thames was delegated to the bench behind Gardner, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Austin Kearns who was traded for before the trade deadline and ended up playing in just 82 games that season. In half of a season Kearns hit .288 with 12 home runs, mainly against left-handed pitching.

Thames elected free agency in November of 2010 but was right back with the team on July 22, 2011 after New York signed him to another minor league deal. Thames never played a game for the Yankees at any level that season and would retire from the game a member of the New York Yankees before pursuing his career in coaching with the ball club. Thames has continuously defied the odds and has defied the odds once again with his promotion to assistant hitting coach with the club. Congratulations to him and his family. You have to think that Thames is on the short list for hitting coach after Cockrell’s contract expires, no?

Yankees Promote Alan Cockrell and Marcus Thames

The New York Yankees found themselves searching for their third hitting coach in as many years this offseason but the team wasted no time filling the position. Taking over for the recently fired Jeff Pentland will be his assistant hitting coach from last season Alan Cockrell. In a similar promotion Marcus Thames, the Triple-A hitting coach for the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders, will be promoted to assistant hitting coach for the club.

I'm pretty indifferent about Cockrell but to see Thames come up to the next level is something I am personally excited about. Congrats to both men!

Meet Alan Cockrell

If you’re looking for the latest and greatest in New York Yankees trivia rest assured that this question will be asked eventually. Who was the first assistant hitting coach to be hired by the New York Yankees? The answer is Alan Cockrell as he was hired for the 2015 season to back up Jeff Pentland. Let’s meet the man and see just what he has to bring to the table in the Bronx.

Cockrell is a former major league outfielder that dabbled in both football and baseball as a player before jumping into coaching. Cockrell attended the University of Tennessee where he was an All-American outfielder for the baseball team and the starting quarterback for the football team. Cockrell suffered a significant knee injury as a QB and was never the same for the Volunteers football team and ultimately left the school before his senior season to enter the MLB First Year Player’s Draft.

The San Francisco Giants made Cockrell the ninth pick overall in the 1984 draft but unfortunately Cockrell never met the high expectations that seemingly followed him around. Cockrell spent nine seasons in the minor leagues with five different organizations, the longest coming when he spent five seasons with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, before making his major league debut with the Colorado Rockies on September 7, 1996. Billy Wagner struck him out in his first at bat but three days later Cockrell would extract his revenge when he roped a pinch hit double off Tom Glavine for his first major league hit. Nine games later Cockrell’s major league career was over for good.

Cockrell spent the next few seasons in various positions in the Rockies organization before being named the hitting coach for the Rockies before the 2007 season. During that 2007 season the Rockies slugged their way to a national League Championship and a World Series appearance against the Boston Red Sox. That season Colorado led the NL in batting average, OBP and total hits. The Rockies could not follow up that success in 2008 which resulted in Cockrell’s firing. Cockrell latched on with the Seattle Mariners for the 2009 season as their hitting coach but lasted just a year and a half before being fired once again. Now Cockrell is the assistant hitting coach to the Yankees and we welcome him to the family with open arms. 

Meet Jeff Pentland

Jeff Pentland was recently hired to be the hitting coach for the New York Yankees replacing long-time hitting coach Kevin Long. Pentland comes with a lot of experience in the job and should command a lot of respect from the veterans and young guys alike on the team and the more and more I read about the signing the more I think the team is going to be okay. Let’s meet the newest Yankees hitting coach, Jeff Pentland.

Pentland has coached not only at the major league level but was a college coach as well in his 69 years of living. Pentland also played college baseball for the Arizona State University as a pitcher compiling a 32-12 win/loss record and a career 2.25 ERA. During his tenure with the Sun Devils pentland made the 1967 College World Series baseball team before spending three seasons in the San Diego Padres organization as a pitcher. Pentland quickly learned he wasn’t destined to make the majors and signed on as an assistant coach at the University of California, Riverside from 1975 through 1982 before coaching for Arizona State from 1983 to 1992. Pentland finally got his opportunity to manage and coach a major league team in 1993 when he joined the Florida Marlins coaching staff.

Halfway through the 1996 season Pentland was moved to the Marlins hitting coach which landed him a job in the same position with the Chicago Cubs. Pentland was the hitting coach from 1997-2002 including the time that Joe Girardi was there as a player. Pentland moved on in 2003 to take the hitting coach job for the Kansas City Royals where he managed a younger Carlos Beltran to one of his best hitting seasons of his career and stayed there until leaving for Seattle in 2005. Pentland stayed in Seattle as their hitting coach until the 2008 season when the Los Angeles Dodgers hired him as their secondary hitting instructor before promoting him to hitting coach in 2010. Pentland was fired in 2011 and has been out of the game until the Yankees came calling in 2015.

Now you know the man and what he has to bring to the table, now it’s time to get to work. Good luck Jeff and welcome to the family. 

New York Finally Has a Hitting Coach!

Source: Yanks are expected to hire Jeff Pentland as hitting coach and Alan Cockrell as assistant. 1st time team will have 2 hitting coaches.
— Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) January 11, 2015

The New York Yankees have finally hired a hitting coach and even hired an assistant hitting coach to go with it. The Yankees hitting coach in 2015 will be Jeff Pentland while Alan Cockrell will be the assistant hitting coach. This marks the first time that the Yankees have had an assistant hitting coach in their storied history.

Pentland was the hitting coach with the Marlins and the Cubs while Joe Girardi was there while also being the hitting coach for the Royals, the Mariners and the Dodgers. Cockrell was the hitting coach for that Rockies team that went to the World Series in 2007.

Next up, a first base coach.

Thames the RailRider's Hitting Coach, Not the Yankees

Press Release from the Scranton RailRiders:

Moosic, Pa. – A slew of familiar faces and two noteworthy additions will make up the 2015 field staff for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Triple-A/New York Yankees). Manager Dave Miley, pitching coach Scott Aldred, athletic trainer Darren London and strength & conditioning coach Lee Tressel will again mentor, mend and develop the players that call NEPA their summer home. The additions come from within the organization with hitting coach Marcus Thames and defensive coach Justin Tordi.

Miley, who was named Manager of the Year for all of minor league baseball in 2012 by Baseball America, enters his ninth season as the skipper in SWB and 10th with the Bombers’ Triple-A unit. The 2014 inductee into the IL Hall of Fame also called the shots during the Yankees’ final campaign in Columbus (2006). This marks year six with the squad for Aldred, who pitched in the bigs for nine seasons. London, the International League’s Athletic Trainer of the Year in 2006 and 2012, has spent more than two decades as the Yankees’ Triple-A athletic trainer with this season marking his 23rd at the level and 27th in a row with the organization. Tressel enters his 12th year in pinstripes and his seventh with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Thames, 37, was a 30th-round pick by the Yankees in 1996 before spending a decade in the big leagues with the Yankees (2002, 2010), Texas Rangers (2003), Detroit Tigers (2004-09) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2011). The corner outfielder belted the first of his 115 homers in his first MLB at-bat against 2015 Hall-of-Fame inductee Randy Johnson. Thames assembled a career line of .246/.309/.485/.794. He still owns Detroit’s franchise record for best at-bat/HR ratio on a career at 14.8. He spent the 2014 season as the hitting coach with Double-A Trenton and served in the same role with Advanced-A Tampa in 2013. He played 314 games in the International League including a four-game SWB stint in 2010.

Tordi, 30, was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 41st round of the 2005 draft out of the University of Florida. He spent last season as a first-base/bench coach with Low-A Charleston. The Rochester Hills, Mich. native played first, second, third, short, caught and pitched over his four seasons in the minors with the Reds. He reached Double-A both in 2008 and 2009 with Chattanooga and Carolina respectively. He earned second-team All-SEC honors in 2005 for the national runner-up Florida Gators as the team’s shortstop.

The RailRiders open their 2015 season at home on April 9 against the Syracuse Chiefs (Washington Nationals). For more information please call (570) 969-BALL (2255) or visit swbrailriders.com.

TGP Daily Poll: It's Time for a Yankees Hitting Coach

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Yankees Hire Marcus Thames to be Assistant Hitting Coach

The New York Yankees may be one step closer to catching up with the rest of the league and one step closer to actually having a hitting coach in place for the 2015 season. The Yankees signed Double-A Trenton Thunder hitting coach and former Yankees player Marcus Thames to be their assistant hitting coach. New York does not have a hitting coach in place but Bill Madden and Anthony McCarron of the NY Daily News predict that the team will sign minor league hitting coordinator James Rowson to fill the position.

Thames is just 37 years old and has been retired as a player for just three seasons and spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons as the hitting coach for the High-A Tampa Yankees and the Double-A Trenton Thunder respectively so the job would not be relatively new to the former Yankee.

Raul Ibanez Not Interested In Yankees Hitting Coach Job

Kansas City Royals outfielder and DH Raul Ibanez has been linked to be the next manager of the Tampa Bay Rays and the vacant hitting coach position for the New York Yankees. Ibanez was named as one of three finalists for the Rays job and came out today and said he was not interested in the Yankees job whether he got the Rays job or not.

Remembering Yankees of the Past: Kevin Long

Kevin Long was let go as the hitting coach for the New York Yankees a couple weeks back and has since landed across town with the New York Mets in the same position. Let’s take a look back at Long’s tenure as a member of the New York Yankees and see if he warrants the nickname “The Hitting Guru.”

Kevin Richard Long was born on December 30, 1966 and played minor league baseball in the Kansas City Royals organization. Long was drafted in the 31^st round of the 1989 MLB First Year Player’s Draft by the Royals out of the University of Arizona. Long never amounted to much in the minor league and officially retired at the end of spring training in 1997 after being assigned to Triple-A Omaha still in the Royals organization. Long was named the Class-A Wilmington Blue Rocks manager that season and stayed in A-Ball through the 1999 season. Long was promoted to hitting coach for the Double-A team from 2000-2001 and Triple-A for the 2002-2003 seasons before heading to the Yankees Triple-A team, the Columbus Clippers for the 2004 season.

Long spent the 2004 through 2006 seasons in Triple-A with the Yankees before being promoted to major league hitting coach for New York before the 2007 season. During that 2007 season Alex Rodriguez won the MVP Award, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Rodriguez won Silver Slugger Awards, the team led the majors in runs (968), hits (1,656), home runs (201), RBI (929), team batting average (.290), slugging percentage (.463), on-base percentage (.366), and total bases (2,649). The Yankees claimed four of the American League’s top 15 spots in batting average that season.

The Yankees had a down year offensively in 2008 under Long before bouncing back in 2009 to win the team’s 27 World Series championship in their franchise’s history. Long led impressive offensive teams in 2010-2012 before having a drastic fall off in both the 2013 and 2014 seasons which ultimately cost him his job in New York with the Yankees. No worries though you can still see the hitting guru in New York as he coaches the New York Mets through at least the 2015 season. 

Quick Hit: Should New York Be Concerned?

Should the New York Yankees be concerned that seemingly nobody wants to be their hitting coach? Eric Hinske turned down the job, Dave Magadan will not be hired although we haven't heard a reason why, Chili Davis took an extra year to coach the worst offense in the league from the season before, and Greg Colbrunn would seemingly rather be the Low-A Charleston Riverdogs coach than the MLB hitting coach. 

New York stated they expected to have a hitting coach in place before the World Series started, now you have to wonder if the team will have one by the time the World Series ends.... Cause for concern?

Red Sox Keep Chili Davis From Yankees

I was reading about some of the coaching moves and non-moves going on with the Yankees, and I came across a very interesting quote regarding Chili Davis agreeing to be the Boston Red Sox new hitting coach.

Davis was one of the guys the Yankees were looking at for their vacant hitting coach position, after he held the same position with the Oakland Athletics since November of 2011. However, on Sunday, Boston swooped in and signed Chili to a three year deal.

While a three year contract for a hitting coach isn't unprecedented (Kevin Long was signed to a three year deal with the Yankees when he was fired), it is a bit long. It turns out the Sox gave Davis a three year deal because it "was the only way Davis could be kept from signing with the Yankees."

One thing that struck me was the desperation. While Oakland went from 8th in the American League in runs scored in 2012 (the season after Davis was hired), to 3rd in 2013, and 3rd again in 2014, it's not like Davis, or any hitting coach for that matter, would turn the Yankees from the 11th ranked offense in the AL to an offensive juggernaut. But maybe my ignorance is shining through in this case.

But there's another thing...

There was a time in which I thought the Yankees cared too much about what went on in Boston. My feeling has always been that the Yankees should simply do what's best for them without caring what the other guys do. You should be trying to lift yourself up, not trying to bring others down.

But that's what Boston apparently did. Instead of simply doing what's best for their team, they made a quick decision to try and hurt the Yankees. It's that type of move that helps erase any fear I had of the Red Sox.