San Diego Padres fire hitting coach Phil Plantier

According to Corey Brock of MLB.com, the San Diego Padres have dismissed hitting coach Phil Plantier after the team struggled offensively yet again in 2014.

The move is hardly a surprise, as Brock points out. The team ranked dead-last in runs, hits, RBIs, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in 2014.

"“Anytime you have the pitching we did, there is no reason why we shouldn’t have been better than we were,” infielder Jedd Gyorko told Brock in September. “All we needed, on most days, was three or four runs a game. That’s all. But when you dig yourself a hole like we did, it’s tough to climb out.”"

Plantier, who played in the big leagues during the 1990s, was an 11th-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 1987. In 1991, he was promoted to the big league club, putting together a respectable run across 42 games in which he hit 11 home runs and 35 RBIs while hitting .331. He finished eighth in Rookie of the Year balloting that year.