I've met him at camps and he has a great personality comes across as kind and funny and as a former fastpitch pitcher he knows pitching no doubt. I am also pretty sure he is a good "cop" on the staff. He did a good job working Turner through the fall and the season as it was. Our pitchers in recent years have been a turnstile. The pitches they come with are the pitches they leave with. Many seem to regress along the way, etc.. Is that all on Marty? We either have too many cooks in the kitchen or too few it is hard to say. I know on the travel ball circuit some people tell others not to send their pitchers here. Will we get someone that adds something extra? I hope so but it may be a failure. When was the last time we were in the WS? Staying the same has not been working lately on the level we expect and hope the Ladyvols to be at. Wish him all the best.
Marty was a head coach before coming to Tennessee, albeit at a lower level, so he knows the complete game and was involved in different areas of the team over the years.
As far as the too many cooks comment, there's probably some truth to that, but it's more complicated than that. Karen has called pitches for their entire tenure here, predating Marty. I can't name them off hand, but there are other successful head coaches (that aren't the "pitching coach") that call the game, so it's not unique to here. The downside of your pitching coach calling the game is he/she can't be in the bullpen overseeing the next pitcher warming up or helping someone you want to re-enter fix a hitch in their game. The negative is that the pitching coach doesn't have total control of the pitcher that is on the mound.
Here's why that's important: If a pitcher isn't executing the pitches that are called, who is holding them accountable? What's the process to get them to fix the issues that are causing the lack of execution? Is the pitching coach seeing the issues in execution not being engaged with calling the game, calling set-up pitches, pitch sequences, etc. It's harder for a pitching coach to fix those things in that situation.
In 2019, Karen worked with the pitchers almost exclusively and Marty worked with the hitters. Marty helped Ashley Rogers develop and oversaw the bullpen during the games, but in practice he was working with hitting. The pitching results were roughly the same as the years before, while the hitters had some really good moments. Phillips was able to step in when Seggern was injured, Shipman was off to a great start before the injury, but most of all, they were able to fix Haley Bearden from being a career .100 hitter to a .313 hitter with 15 home runs and a team-high 47 RBI.
With Marc coming on as a Volunteer Asst this year, he moved to working with the hitters and Marty went back to working primarily with the pitchers. I think he got the most out of Turner that you could expect for a freshman thrust into being the only reliable option. Without question if Rogers is healthy this year, they would have been in a much different position when the season ended than they were.
