Who Is Alan Cockrell?

The three-month search for a new hitting coach finally ended Sunday as the Yankees gave Jeff Pentland the job that Kevin Long had occupied since the 2007 season.  Alan Cockrell, former hitting coach of the Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners, was also hired to be the first assistant hitting coach in Yankees history.  Cockrell, a highly-touted baseball and football prospect, was chosen ninth overall in the 1984 MLB draft, although his career never panned out.  A journeyman minor leaguer, Cockrell only had 9 PA in his big league career, never meeting the high expectations that many had for his career. 

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Upon his retirement, Cockrell began to work for the Rockies minor league system, eventually working his way up to becoming the MLB hitting coach by the 2007 season.  His first year as hitting coach was a huge success, as the Rockies offense carried them to the World Series for the first time in franchise history.  Cockrell has able to help Matt Holliday put up MVP-caliber numbers leading the league in 2 of the 3 Triple Crown categories, and the best season of his career, although he was barely beaten out by Jimmy Rollins for the MVP.  Under Cockrell’s lead, the Rockies led the NL in hits, batting average, and on-base percentage.

The following season, however, did not fare as well for the Rockies as they finished 10 GB, and Cockrell was fired.  The offense fell to a middle of the league offense, and the pitching staff was among the worst in the league.  Cockrell then went to Seattle where the offense finished in the lower third of MLB in most categories, except third to last in runs.  If not for Ichiro Suzuki having a great season, where he led the league in hits and batted .352, this offense would have had the second worst BA in MLB.  The following year, even with Ichiro again leading the league in hits, the Seattle offense was the worst in the league and Cockrell was out of a job by May.

While Cockrell has helped lead a great player in Holliday to the best year of his career, he has not fared too well besides that one season.  The Yankees are hoping, similar to Chase Headley, that the 2007 season was not an aberration, and that with a talented offense in a hitter’s park, Cockrell can be of help.  Hopefully, unlike Long, Cockrell and Pentland will encourage hitters to go the other way, as we saw too many instances of Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann hitting right into shifts.