Everything You Should Know About Cubs' New Hitting Coach Anthony Iapoce

The Cubs under Theo Epstein have effectively turned the Texas Rangers into their American League farm system. Blockbuster trades with Dempster and Garza in 2012 and 2013, repurposing a busted Feldman in 2014, stealing Cole Hamels and Jesse Chavez in 2018. Even at the executive level, the Rangers just hired front office wiz Shiraz Rehman from under Theo and into its Assistant GM spot. So basically this hiring is yet another chapter in a long saga of Theo Epstein’s Cubs and Jon Daniels’ Rangers doing business.

Now traditionally I would’t expect the masses to give one flying fuck about position coaching hires. This is not the NFL not by a longshot. But Chili Davis absorbed the brunt of Theo’s immediate offseason wrath so I think Iapoce’s hiring calls for an appropriate amount of attention. Notably, the game is evolving at an absurd rate and it’s obvious that effective hitting coaches are aligned with this evolution in all material respects. Things like exit velocity and launch angle and dropping your back shoulder so you can lift a baseball onto Waveland matter these days. And it’s safe to say Chili Davis ran away from those concepts instead of embracing them head on.

Naturally, there’s more to coaching hitters than knowing the technical side of a baseball swing. The hitting coach needs to effectively be a psychiatrist/friend/mentor/sounding board and wherever you fall on that spectrum, the importance of being a relatable communicator cannot be overstated. The players these days are MILLENIALS and because they didn’t grow up in a constant state of nuclear threat and societal neglect they need CODDLING and FEEDBACK. Allegedly, Chili Davis severely lacked in this regard enough to explicitly say this recently when asked what he would change about his time with the Cubs: I guess I need to make some adjustments in the way I deliver my message to the millennial players now. 

I guess.

Hopefully the front office did more diligence on that character trait this time around and Iapoce can be that guy. Quick glance at his body of work with the Rangers from 2016-2018 and there’s really no reason to suggest he can’t be a phenomenal upgrade on all fronts. His track record speaks for itself:

In 2017 the Rangers became the first team in MLB history to have 9 guys hit at least 17 jacks. Elvis Andrus slugging % before Iapoce = .347…. Elvis Andrus sligging% under Iapoce = .438.  Robinson Chirinos OPS+ before Iapoce = 83…. under Iapoce = 107.  Ian Desmond ressurected his career from the depths of hell in 2016 with Texas then signed a 5-year/$70m deal with the Rockies that offseason. Notably, Desmond was predicted to benefit from the 81 home games at Coors Field but suprisingly, he’s been about 20% worse in his two seasons with Colorado compared to his 2016 season under Iapoce.

“It comes down to making a connection and talking with them,” Iapoce said. “These guys have a history of sustained success. I want to get to know these guys on a personal level and what they want to do to get better. Great players want to get better.

Joey Gallo remarkably became an everyday baseball player when that seemed fucking IMPOSSIBLE. He struck out 76 times in his first 133 career at-bats before working with Iapoce full time. In 2017 & ’18 Gallo hit a combined 81 jacks. Iapoce doesn’t deserve credit for Gallo’s raw power, but it’s undeniable Gallo settled into his game much better and sooner than most anticipated and you’d be a sucker to say Iapoce didn’t play a significant role. And while on the subject of fulfilling talented prospects,  Jurickson Profar actually showed up this year. The former #1 overall prospect slashed .229/.309/.329 in about 600 plate appearances across split time from 2012-2017, largely disappointing not just Rangers fans but baseball fans in general. Under Iapoce in 2018, Profar drastically improved his slash line to the tune of .254/.335/.458 in almost 600 plate appearances. In other words, he looks like a real baseball player right now, which is something few would have imagined at the start of the year.

Other miscellaneous noteworthy items about Iapoce include: he worked for the Cubs as a special assistant to Theo from 2013-2015 where he basically traveled the country as an organization-wide hitting guru before Texas hired him as the big league hitting coach in 2016. Iapoce played for the Gary Railcats in 2004 and 2005 after 9 years of affiliated minor league ball. He went to the same high school as White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper and is considered a disciple of former Cubs’ hitting coach John Mallee. His name is pronounced eye-uh-poh-see which sounds like a hallucinogen you can only find in remote parts of the Amazon. And possibly most importantly, Iapoce wears his pants up which is an extremely savage move for a middle-aged positional coach with 0 major league at bats:

“Everybody wants to talk about hitting and approach,” Iapoce said. “I think of it as outscoring the other team, whether it’s outslugging them or getting on base, bunting, situational hitting, winning a game 1-0. It’s all about executing a run-scoring culture.”

Maybe I’m overreacting (I am) but this has legs to be a much bigger hire than your standard positional coach move. At present moment there are at least 6 players at critical stages of their long-term development: Schwarber, Javy, Almora, Happ, Contreras and Russell if still applicable. Given that list of players Iapoce is set to inherit, it’s not unreasonable to say he’s in a more impactful position than Maddon to actually create change. No pressure or anything.