Padres beat writer Corey Brock announced this morning via Twitter that the team fired their hitting coach Phil Plantier but hinted that he may end up with another role in the organization.
I hate to see anyone lose their job but I'm glad that GM A.J. Preller is mixing things up because Plantier was clearly not getting results out of the team's hitters. He probably should have been fired in June when the team was on pace to be the worst hitting team of all-time. The hitters share a good portion of the blame as well and hopefully they'll be dealt with in a similar fashion.
Padres dismiss hitting coach Plantier | padres.com
The Padres ranked 30th in the Majors in runs (535), hits (1,199), RBIs (500), batting average (.226), on-base percentage (.292) and slugging percentage (.342).
Plantier's firing comes on the heels of hitting coordinator Sean Berry being fired last week. Strangely enough the Padres assistant hitting coach, Alonzo Powell, is being retained for now. It's not clear if Preller will continue with the Major League trend of having two hitting coaches.
Jed Hoyer hired Plantier, Powell and Berry in 2011.