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is that the Ms coaching staff prior to this year seemed to be teaching a "corporate" approach -- one size fits all -- that meant that Saunders and Smoak had to go off the reservation for help - from Mike Bard and Hunter Bledsoe, respectively.
A willingness to let people try adjustments and then find WHATEVER exercises that help them become muscle memory is, to me, the best kind of coaching, but the hardest. Each individual has their own weaknesses to fix or make adjustments for, and it seems intuitive that one size can't fit all when you are talking about guys as physically different as Ackley and Smoak. And the corporate philosophy seemed to work worst for those two, probably for psychological reasons -- it made them doubt their abilities, where Seager, with a different personality and approach, seems to have shrugged it off.
An approach firmly grounded in kinematics and balance from the martial arts is a great place to start from a theoretical standpoint, but can it truly help Smoak deal with keeping his head still enough to recognize a slider, while he also generates the rotational power Wedge wanted to see from him? Smoak is probably more willing to listen (and trust his livelihood) to someone who has had baseball success, even if what that source is telling him is actually wrong for him. The things Jemanji sees from his experience are fantastic "tells" as to what is going wrong, but to groove the swing to be able to have a round bat meet a round ball in a millimeter spatial domain and a millisecond time domain ... well, that's a bit tricky!
Well, here's to McClendon and HoJo, and an approach that lets each guy work it out how to be successful on his own terms. If this season sees Saunders, Ackley, Smoak, and Morrison (adding Montero, five of the top 30 prospects in baseball for 2010 per Baseball America) all rediscover their strengths and learn to deploy them in the constant round of exploitation and adjustment, well, it's going to be fun to watch!
And, truly, if Cano is a part of the encouragement of this environment, especially given the criticism of his style not being Jeter's, he truly will be leveraging his value, and that'll be great to see.
I REALLY like OBF's suggestion of attaching Montero firmly within Cano's sphere of influence. I've said before, based on things I'd read and heard, that I thought Montero had been part of A-Rod's circle, to his eventual dismay. Well, it seems like we may have a healthy alternative.
And, by the way, I find that the dynamic of the current Yankees-in-transition is really interesting. Jeter is the paragon, but seems distant and aloof -- a guy that doesn't really have close buddies. A-Rod wants to be everybody's friend and help them -- but screws over Cervelli and Montero, at least. And meanwhile Cano has stayed out of the center of things and tried to do his thing the best he knows how. The way he acted with the Dominican team in the WBC was different than we saw with the Yankees. Maybe, just maybe, his leaving the Yankees wasn't a crass reach for a better monetary deal alone, but also a liberation. Now he can be the paragon -- and it might be he's quite suited for it.