Carrasco quiets Pirates, wins third straight
June 19, 2011WFNY Tribe Night
June 19, 2011The Cleveland Indians’ struggling offense has finally caught up to someone, and that man was hitting coach Jon Nunnally. The Tribe informed the 39-year old former Indians’ draft pick that he was relieved of his duties yesterday afternoon. Minor League Hitting Instructor Bruce Fields will take over for the rest of the year.
Nunnally has held the position since Acta took over as manager at the start of the 2010 season. Jon played parts of six seasons in the majors with Kansas City, Cincinnati, Boston, and the Mets and had a career .246 batting average with 42 homers. Nunnally also spent time as a hitting coach in the Tribe system at Kinston and Columbus.
To be completely honest, it had crossed my mind a couple of times during Cleveland’s offensive skid if Nunnally’s job was in jeopardy, but I figured he had a little longer leash than he apparently did. Then again, with the offensive struggles of Carlos Santana, Shin-Soo Choo, and Grady Sizemore, a third of the Tribe’s young core and everyday lineup isn’t currently producing the way they should, and they haven’t for a while. The timing seems a bit off to me, but perhaps Acta’s outspoken callout of Santana may have been meant just as much for Nunnally.
The players reportedly liked Nunnally quite a bit. Acta said before today’s game that he likes Jon too, but he’s doing what’s best for the team and Bruce Fields can help this team now. The Indians currently rank 7th in offense in the American League, averaging 4.4 runs per game. They are, however 10th in batting average at .251 and rank just 9th in homers (62). They have been shutout six times this season and have the 3rd most strikeouts in the AL as a team.
Fields, 50, has been the Indians’ minor league hitting coordinator for the past four seasons. He also served as the Toledo Mud Hens’ manager from 2001-2002 and the Tigers’ hitting coach from 2003-2005. He is originally from Cleveland.
(Photo: Indians.com)
3 Comments
there’s more to this story than this announcement. back in mid-may i thought nunnally deserved as much credit for the hitting and belcher did for the pitching.
since BOTH pitching and hitting fell off the cliff since then (is the choo/santana suck that much worse than the carmona suck?), if they’re whacking nunnally based on performance.. belcher shoud be whacked too?
of course not. so nunnally must have pissed someone off. looking forward to the next shoe dropping.
@Jim: agree the timing is a little weird, given how guys like Hannahan were hitting just a month ago. A wild guess: maybe a Santana, Choo or Sizemore were complaining and Acta now feels secure enough to flex a little organizational muscle to get a guy he wants, not someone Antonetti foisted on him.
on a side note i didnt realize the tribe drafted nunnally
i just looked this over, we drafted him in 92, then in 94 he went to kc in the rule 5 draft
94 was his last year with the tribe, he had 22 jacks and hit .267 in a+ ball, he wasnt protected in the rule 5 draft cuz he was in a+ ball
in order for kc to keep him, he had to be on the major league roster the entire 95 year, which he did, he hit 14 jacks, .244 average in 119 games, and finished 8th in rookie of the year voting
seems a bit unusual for that to happen