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Coach's Corner '13:
Double-A Akron hitting coach Jim Rickon
By Tony Lastoria
December 11, 2013
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Today, I continue my offseason Coach's Corner series with an interview with Double-A Akron hitting coach Jim Rickon.
If anyone was paying attention this past season, Akron had some impressive offensive performances and had the best collection of hitting prospects in the system. Rickon had the chance to work with a lot of talent this year and some guys really took off with their performance.
I recently had a chance to sit down with Rickon and we talked about all of the major players that he worked with this season at Akron. We discussed the big step forward that Jesus Aguilar took, the strides that Carlos Moncrief has made to become a star, the impressive hitting skills that Jose Ramirez possesses, and much more on several other players named Urshela, Holt, Rodriguez, Lowery, Naquin, Lindor and so on.
Onto the Q&A…
Q: Infielder Jose Ramirez had another good season and it earned him a callup to Cleveland in September. He is pretty accomplished with the bat, so is there much at all he has to do work on as a hitter?
Jim Rickon (JR): Yeah just once in a while you have to remind him to keep his head on the ball. Simple things. His timing is really good, his swing is really low maintenance, he has a really good eye at the plate and he is one of the best two-strike hitters I have seen in a long time. His at bats were good all the way through. It is not really a mechanical thing with him, it is just sometimes approach and keeping his head on the ball and simple things like that that major leaguers work on every day.
Q: What is most impressive thing to you about Ramirez?
JR: He has a really good feel for the timing of the game as a defender and as a hitter. As a defender he has a knack for making what he has physically work. He knows the timing of the plays in terms of the speed of the runners and where the ball is at. He just has a good internal clock defensively. That translates as a hitter too as he has a good feel for timing with pitchers. It just gives him a really good look at the ball, so he has no fear with two strikes or anything like that because he is seeing the ball so well. But overall, he is just a good baseball player. He is always at the right spot at the right time whether it is hitting or defending.
Q: Everyone wants to know about first baseman Jesus Aguilar. What a year he had with you and the Akron club. He is another guy you had a few years ago at Lake County, so what was different for him this year?
JR: It was consistency from him. I had him in the past and one of the challenges with him was keeping him in a consistent spot with his swing, with his timing and with his approach mentally. Just the consistency that he has had in his daily work and taking that into his daily at bats has been the biggest difference that I have seen from him. He made some adjustments early on this year. He was in spring training and his swing and timing were pretty off, and he felt that, so he was open to making some adjustments to that. The consistent work that he put in has allowed himself to be consistent in games.
Q: What about the 105 RBIs for Aguilar? It is a tough stat to really take much away from, but does the success in clutch situations really show anything?
JR: You talk about RBI, and for me, when I look at it, that is when pitchers really start to pitch to you - especially at this level. When you are at the plate and nobody is on base, sure, you are going to see more fastballs as they are going to attack you more. But you get a guy that has 95-100 RBI walking to the plate and you have guys on base, that’s when pitchers are going to start to pitch. That is when he is at his best, so the fact that he is at his best when guys are on base and guys are really starting to lock in on him, that tells me something. The RBI stat per se is not a real valuable stat, but when you see how he gets RBIs and why and the approach he takes in those types of bats, [you can tell] he values them because they are a run for the team. That’s pretty much how you win games right? It is something that he should be proud of, and it just goes back to his consistency in those types of at bats.
Q: Infielder Roddy Rodriguez had an up and down year. He got on a roll in the middle part of the season but an injury seemed to ruin the momentum. What do you take from his year?
JR: He needs consistency with his work. He is a very young player so to speak in terms of years in professional baseball, so he is just starting to value work and a routine and he did a really nice job of it this year. When he was hot, he was really locked in with everything, and then he had a little setback with his hamstring where he had to sit for a little bit of time. That was discouraging for him and kind of sidetracked what he was doing and set him back a little bit. Then when he got back in he tried to pick up where he left off, but the timing was a little off and being such a young player the emotion of it kind of distracted him a little bit. He did a good job considering his lack of experience.
Q: Learning to handle failure is part of the game of baseball. Do you believe Rodriguez will be better off long term for some of the struggles he went through this past season?
JR: It was probably the first time he has gotten hurt, especially when he was really hot, so going through that kind of emotional struggle will help him in the future. I was telling him, the concentration that he puts into his work before batting practice and in his pregame routine, those were through the roof this year compared to years past. Regardless of what his numbers are, he has really improved considerably in that must have part of your game.
Q: You had both shortstop Francisco Lindor last year at Low-A Lake County and had him for a little over a month this year. What makes him so special?
JR: I had Lindor last year. He is way beyond his years, which everyone says and it is almost cliché now. He is just mentally right there. You can have a good conversation with him, no matter what it is. He is very mature. That translates to paying attention to the game, paying attention to the adjustments he knows he has to make, and being mature enough to actually make those adjustments. He is going to be just fine and have a great career.
Q: What was your impression of outfielder Tyler Naquin who you had for a brief amount of time at the end of the year?
JR: I get pretty much the same thing from Naquin [as I do with Lindor]. He is really eager to learn and he has no ego about what he is doing. He is willing to listen to any adjustments you see he should make and he is willing to make them. He has good bat speed and plays defense in center field as good as anyone at this level, if not better. He is impressive to watch when he goes back on balls, so the defense is there. It is just a matter of experience, putting at bats together, and kind of building a body of work in professional baseball where he can learn some of the things that he has done or some of the things he has to do. Once he starts recognizing those things from experience, he is going to be great. It is not going to be anything we tell him, it is going to be things he experiences. We might kind of hint to him what is going on, but he is going to figure it out either way. One way or the other he will get it.
Q: Outfielder Carlos Moncrief had a breakthrough season as his offense really took off this past season. You had him two years ago at Lake County, so what aligned for him to finally put it all together?
JR: That third full season for guys they start to settle in. Now, he has been in longer than that, but he was a pitcher, so he was a little behind on that and has really caught up in terms of where he should be with his mental approach and things like that. The biggest adjustment for him was getting that sense of timing and consistency at the plate with an approach that works for him and just bringing that to the park everyday consistently.
Q: The tools with Moncrief are certainly exciting though, yes?
JR: He works really hard and he has in the past. The tools were always there, the hard work has always been there, and now it is starting to take shape. He is seeing some results he has not seen in the past and he is excited about it, and it only fuels that work ethic even more. All the tools are there with the strength, the bat speed, foot speed and arm strength. Now he is really starting to figure this game out and put things together for himself and what he brings to the table. The sky is the limit, you never know. Who knows what this guy can do, and if he puts it together he can be pretty good.
Q: You had third baseman Giovanny Urshela at Low-A Lake County in 2011. Has anything noticeable change with his bat from then to now?
JR: He still has some things to work on, but he has definitely gotten better with getting to certain points in his swing where in the past he would really cheat. He saw a lot of fastballs at [Lake County] and [at Akron] they started to pitch to him a little bit more, and as a result he had to make some adjustments to his athleticism in the box and his timing and rhythm and things like that. He is not as far along as a guy like Jose Ramirez is as far as his consistency, but he has made some good adjustments.
Q: Urshela makes consistent contact, so is the primary area of focus about getting him to make more hard contact by being more selective about the pitches he is swinging at?
JR: You kind of led into it right there. He needs to be more consistent with what pitches he is putting swings on. He just needs a little more consistency with staying on the ball with his eyes and recognizing pitches he can and cannot handle. He gets himself in trouble when he swings at pitches out of the zone. He has done a better job of that, but that is one thing he really needs to improve to put himself over the edge.
Q: Catcher Jake Lowery had a very nice season. He really committed to his offseason workouts and came into the season in great shape. Did it really make that much of a difference?
JR: Like you said about being in shape, he asked last year what he can he work on in the offseason and we were pretty upfront with him and told him that he needs to get in shape so that he can play every day and a full season – especially at that position. So he did that. He took ownership of that and he came in in great shape and it helped him out defensively. It has helped him out mentally as well as he is just a happier guy.
Q: Lowery looked more relaxed and confident at the plate this year. What changed?
JR: He has done a good job mentally at letting at bats go in not dwelling on the negative or even the positive hitting a home run. The at bat is over and he has another at bat to concentrate on, so he was kind of letting the past go easier this year. His swing has improved so he is using the other side of the field better, so he is not giving the pitcher the outside half to work with. If they throw it out there he can take that away, and it forces them to come in sometimes which he can really take advantage of. So he has opened up the plate some as a hitter and things are working out.
Q: Outfielder Tyler Holt really seems to be coming into his own as a legit major league outfield option in the near future. The bat is the one thing that has held him back, but he made some strides with his swing and approach over the past year. What have you worked on?
JR: Just thinking back, I never had him in a season until this year, but I have seen him in spring training of course and in Instructional League. When he signed he was lower and did have a lot more uphill action to his swing. It just gave him a limited zone to hit into. So he worked really hard on that. This year it was mainly mental. Similar to Lowery, he is letting at bats go and is kind of accepting how the game works. He is not going to hit 1.000 and they are going to get you out once in a while. So just put yourself in the best position possible to have the best chance. That is all you can really do.
Q: So with Holt it really is less about mechanical adjustments at the plate, but more about mental adjustments?
JR: He has done a really good job of making adjustments mentally and emotionally from at bat to at bat, which in the past – even at the beginning of this year. I was recognizing he was bringing the past into the batter’s box with him and it was just clouding his vision of the ball and he just was not having any fun. Once he had some clarity to how he was just making the game more difficult by doing that, then he started to improve physically and fundamentally in the box. He was more open to adjustments. He doesn’t see them as a distraction versus something that is going to help him, so he can really focus on that. So mental adjustments for him were a big key and he is making some strides.
Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2013 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.
“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.”
-- Bob Feller
