Barry Bonds Ejected for First Time as Hitting Coach
Barry Bonds, the Miami Marlins new hitting coach was ejected for the first time in his coaching career after arguing balls and strikes in yesterday’s 1-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants.
Usually, it’s the manager that gets ejected from a game when arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire. That wasn’t the case when Miami Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds was sent to the locker room after the end of the sixth inning.
Marlins hitter Chris Johnson struck out in the bottom of the sixth to end the inning. Bonds, standing on the steps at the end of the dugout closest to home-plate then made a comment to home plate umpire Cory Blaser. Bonds can be seen pointing to his head, which apparently was enough for Blaser to eject the major league leader in career home runs*.
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Wanting to get his money’s worth, Bonds came onto the field and had a brief argument before heading to the locker room. It was the first ejection for Bonds after taking over as the Marlins hitting coach at the start of this season. Not too many people have the plate awareness that Barry Bonds does, even if it is from the dugout.
It is clear the prolific hitter is doing something right for the Marlins offense. Both the average and on-base percentage has gone up compared to last season.
2015 versus 2016
AVG: .260 (8th) vs .272 (2nd)
OBP: .310 (23rd) vs .331 (5th)
HR: 120 (29th) vs 94 (28th)
Where the Marlins have drastically seen an improvement is in their ability to reach base via base on balls – something Barry Bonds was one of the best at regardless of if you think his power was aided by performance enhancers.
Miami hitters ranked 23rd in baseball last season at reaching base. This season they’ve shot into the top five. Christian Yelich (6th), Martin Prado (8th), and J.T. Realmuto (14th) are all among the league leaders in batting average.
The San Francisco Giants defeated the Marlins 1-0.