Will Clark doesn’t think he’d make a great major league manager.
Clark explained why on Wednesday, saying he knows he’d be too openly critical of struggling players. Speaking of openly critical, Clark also took the opportunity to voice his displeasure regarding the Giants’ optional batting practice, especially with so many players who have low batting averages.
“I’ll just flat out come out and say it,” Clark said on KNBR. “The Giants have optional batting practice. I would not option anything if I’m hitting .220 or .230. I would make it mandatory that you get out there and do your job. So I’ll chunk that one out there for ya.
“Let’s do common sense here. I play in Oracle Park 81 games out of a full season. Don’t you think I should be in that batter’s box and figuring out ‘hey if I hit the ball this way it goes this way, if I hit the ball that way it goes that way.’ The ball carries this day, the ball doesn’t carry or stuff like that, you need to be in the batter’s box to figure out what’s going on.”
While the Giants overall hitting numbers aren’t that bad — they’re 13 in MLB in team .OPS and 11th in runs scored — they do have a number of hitters who have averages under .250. According to Clark, there is no excuse for them not taking batting practice.
“Practice hitting in your own ballpark so you become proficient in hitting at that ballpark,” Clark concluded. “The last thing that I’m going to do is take time off from hitting in a place I hit 81 games a year.”
The Giants lost again on Saturday to the 48-77 Detroit Tigers, and are now 61-62 with 39 games remaining.
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