New Cubs hitting coach embraces space-age approach

October 29, 2014 wordpressadmin

By John Burbridge NWI Times

Schererville resident John Mallee, second from the right, was named the new hitting coach for the Chicago Cubs after serving two seasons at the Houston Astros hitting coach. Mallee is shown here with members of the 2013 Astros coaching staff who previously worked in the Cubs organization. They include, from left, Dan Radison, who is a former Cubs first base coach; Dave Clark, who had two tours of duty as a Cubs outfielder; and Dave Trembley, who managed in the Cubs’ farm system from 1994 to 2002.

SCHERERVILLE | If you don’t think baseball has become more like rocket science, then you never heard new Cubs hitting coach John Mallee talk about the game.

When he gets rolling about optimum swing-angle planes, two-strike probability axioms, ball-in-play uncertainty principles, fluctuating ballpark figures contingent on seasonal aeronautics, multi-dimensional real-time computer analysis and that lane-changing sliders that appear to act like chaos-theory quarks are merely illusions, you wonder if Mallee’s time in Houston was spent more at NASA’s Mission Control Center than with its neighboring Astros, where Mallee served as hitting coach for the past two seasons.

It wouldn’t be the first time the two entities traded employees.

“Those guys were geniuses,” Mallee said of the Astros’ analytics department — also known as the “Nerd Cave” — headed by Sig Mejdal, who incidentally worked for NASA.

“It was just more than sabermetrics,” Mallee said. “These guys measured and analyzed everything. I learned so much being around brilliant people like that.”

It sure helped the 45-year-old coach stay on the cutting edge of hitting, which there’s now an App for — the Zeep analytical swing platform.

“Players can see their swings in 3-D and get immediate pointers for corrections,” Mallee said of the program, which he recently touted in a Sports Illustrated article and plans to use with the Cubs’ hitters.

Though they fired manager Bo Porter after the regular season, the Astros wanted Mallee to stick around as hitting coach. It was a good situation for the Schererville resident as he worked with some of the most promising talent in baseball, including Jose Altuve, who led the entire major leagues with a .341 batting average, and slugger Chris Carter, who clubbed 37 homers while establishing the still-raw Astros as one of the top power-hitting teams in baseball.

“But they knew I always wanted to work closer to my family,” Mallee said. “That’s why when (the hitting coach position) opened with the Cubs, they gave them permission to interview me.”

The Cubs hired Mallee on Oct. 9.

“I’ve been working in baseball for over 20 years … I’ve never had another job,” Mallee said. “But this will be the first time during the season where I won’t be a part-time father to my two sons (John and Austin) and a part-time husband to my wife (Candy).”

Mallee once worked for the Cubs organization for two days.

“After I was let go (as hitting coach) for the Marlins, I served as a senior adviser for the Toronto Blue Jays,” Mallee said, “but I wanted to get back on the field even if it meant starting at the bottom again. That’s when the Cubs offered me a job as minor league hitting coordinator (the same position he held with the Florida Marlins before getting promoted).

“But then the Astros and Cleveland both came calling for me to be their hitting coach. I ended up choosing the Astros.”

Leaving the Astros, Mallee is entering a similar situation with the Cubs.

“Both organizations are going about it the right way … tear it down to build it back up again,” Mallee said. “When you can bring up your own talent, you don’t have to break your budget on high-priced free agents. And if you need to fill a gap here or there, you can sign someone for maybe just two or three years.

“You not only want to float to the top, but you want to stay afloat for a long time.”

A Chicago native who grew up a Cubs fan, Mallee knows patience is a resilient virtue in Wrigleyville.

“But now we’re expected to be contenders,” said Mallee, who will work with young all-stars Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro (if the latter remains with team), as well as white-hot prospects Jorge Soler, Javier Baez and USA Today and Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year, Kris Bryant.

Mallee will also be reunited with Chris Coghlan, whom he worked with in the Marlins’ minor league system just before Coghlan emerged as “Rookie of the Year” in 2009.

“The key for many hitters is two-strike production,” Mallee said. “Fifty percent of all at-bats get to two strikes. The major league average for hitting with two strikes is about .185 to .190.

“Altuve hit around .290 with two strikes. That’s why he’s a batting champion.”

Mallee is confident that Cubs hitters who didn’t hit well with two strikes last season will eventually come around.

“The best coach in baseball is the game itself,” Mallee said. “The longer you’ve been in the league, you’ll learn more about its players and their tendencies, enabling you to anticipate things better.”