What the Orioles' hitting coordinators learned on a recent two-week trip through the affiliates.
Orioles hitting coordinators Cody Asche and Anthony Villa spent two weeks in May visiting every affiliate in rapid succession. They shared their impressions on the work they witnessed.
Tuesday was a unique occasion on the Orioles’ farm, and not just because of the raft of Double-A debuts or Gunnar Henderson spending his last day as a 20-year-old by hitting for the cycle.
Both the Orioles’ hitting coordinators — full-season coordinator Cody Asche and short-season coordinator Anthony Villa — found occasion to be in Bowie at the same time working with the Baysox.
Each found himself in Baltimore for meetings this week, and took the occasion to help the new prospects at the level settle in Tuesday. But it’s rare for the two to align their schedules, which is why instead of leaving the opportunity to see how each other works to chance, the pair spent two weeks in May hitting every full-season affiliate in a two-week span for a fact-finding mission that doubled as an occasion to support their coaches, check in with players, and get a holistic look at the promising hitting program they oversee.
“I think getting that face-to-face time with our coaches where we’re both in a room and we can go over pregame meetings, pregame practice, dugout demeanor or dugout coaching styles, just little things we see that we’re coming from a place of different perspectives,” Asche said. “When you spend the whole year in one place, you get in routines and you might not notice things, but we do. It’s nothing bad, it’s just how we grow as an org. I think that was probably one [of the biggest] things we did — provide some support to our hitting coaches, give them some face-to-face time, just because you don’t get a lot of it.”
The trip, which began on May 17 in Bowie then continued to Aberdeen for the second part of that week before they went to Delmarva and Norfolk for a few games apiece the following week, came together early in the season as the pair was going over the affiliates’ schedules.
The two worked together through offseason camps and spring training, but with Villa based at the Sarasota complex where most work is done in the morning and Asche’s affiliate responsibilities beginning right around when Villa wrapped up, the two found it hard to connect sometimes, let alone collaborate in person.
“Oftentimes, we’re at separate affiliates so for us to be able to work together too was really positive,” Villa said. “I think we each picked up some things from each other.”
Asche has delivered a unique perspective to the Orioles’ hitting department since he was hired this winter. A former major leaguer who spent most of his career with the Phillies, Asche was a minor league hitting coach for a spell there before the Orioles hired him away this winter. He entered a hitting department that was coming off a strong year of results and had just seen Bowie hitting coach Ryan Fuller elevated to the same role on the major league staff, one he shares alongside Asche’s childhood teammate Matt Borgschulte.
Where the Orioles’ minor league hitting coaches are younger and have limited professional experience, Asche brings a big league perspective to the work and preparation that’s being standardized across the farm.
“He’s a critical thinker,” Villa said. “He’s always looking for an edge of how the game is going to evolve, what adaptations we have to make and where we can sort of find hidden value in the market and maybe exploit some potential trends a bit earlier than other teams. Him playing in the big leagues and having a hint of how that’s going to go has been cool.
“He’s been huge on our game-planning front, understanding how pitchers are attacking and how, as hitters, we can really work to combat that. I would say that’s the first thing that comes to mind. He’s come in and he’s made game-planning very real to hitters and given them a good understanding, and given our coaches a good understanding, of how to talk and actually create plans and approaches to attack guys.”
That was just one aspect of what the duo tried to help with as they trekked across the Mid-Atlantic in late-May. They wanted to be extra batting practice arms, yes, and be sounding boards for the coaches when it came to instruction and practice. But they also wanted to ensure standards were being met, and it’s been a point of emphasis to have everything standardized when it comes to player development from the complex leagues to the big leagues for consistency and ease of use.
When Adley Rutschman was going through his rehab tour of the affiliates, he mentioned how easy it was to go from one spot to another and have the same tools and processes in place at each spot. Villa said coaches will frequently hear from promoted players on how they appreciate their new environment doing things the same way as the old.
They were pleased with that, and took opportunities to course-correct where needed as growth opportunities. But mostly, they were just impressed with the work going on at each location.
“We were very pleased with how the affiliates were operating,” Villa said. “We feel like our players are playing pretty well. We feel like the strategies they’re employing are good. We’re just happy to see how hard guys were working, how willing they were to push themselves — that’s been huge. That are area where they get uncomfortable and experience a little bit of failure and know that it’s going to prepare them to be better off for the game, it was nice to see that.”
Asche said: “You see it together and then really get to reflect after the day. Villa and I both see different things and have different conversations with players. That was really fun, and probably the big takeaway. We’re just really proud of our players. They have worked really, really hard, even before I got here, and they continue to work hard. They continue to push the envelope, and they continue to just get better.”