Tino resigns amid player abuse allegations

[RunRickyRun]

After rumors he grabbed 2B Derek Dietrich around the neck, during a BP session back when, had gone public, Tino Martinez resigned as hitting coach of the Marlins.  We fans didn't really know what to believe until the Sun-Sentinel cleared up the news:
 

A source confirmed Martinez for months had been at odds with several players and staff members, including manager Mike Redmond. It recently came to Redmond's attention that Martinez engaged rookie Derek Dietrich in an inappropriate physical manner less than a week after his arrival in the big leagues.
 
Martinez denied reports that he put his hands around Dietrich's neck, saying his grabbed his jersey. The incident was serious enough that the Major League Baseball Players' Association was made aware of it well after the fact.
 
A stunned Dietrich, who was optioned to Double-A Jacksonville last week, was at a loss about how to handle the situation. He chose to keep quiet and somehow produced despite unimaginable duress. Dietrich ultimately relayed the story to Redmond. One other person witnessed what happened in the batting cage and corroborated Dietrich's account.
 
"I want to say that I never physically touched anyone by the neck," said Martinez, who apologized for his behavior. "That never happened. I have made some comments to certain players at certain times that I thought were more constructive criticism on separate occasions. Obviously they didn't feel that way and it kind of backfired on me.
 
"I just thought with some young players you needed to be a little firmer and try to get them on the right track, but obviously I made a mistake and I apologize for that to the Marlins' organization, my family and everyone involved."
 
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-marlins/fl-marlins-notes-0729-20130728,0,3991918.story 

 
Who would've thought Tino would be such a prick as a coach?  He always struck me as a genuinely nice guy.

 

[NV]

Yeah honestly I always saw Tino as a fun loving great guy. 

 

[Giantmetfan07]

Idk what to believe here. The other player that witnessed it could just be some young kid who also had a beef with Tino. If he did grab the dude by the neck then resigning was the only option for him, but if it was a shirt grab and the rest of the incidents were verbally then I think this was blown a bit out of proportion, seems like nobody in sports nowadays wants to man up when being told they're a pussy or w/e. 

 

[RunRickyRun]

Idk what to believe here. The other player that witnessed it could just be some young kid who also had a beef with Tino. If he did grab the dude by the neck then resigning was the only option for him, but if it was a shirt grab and the rest of the incidents were verbally then I think this was blown a bit out of proportion, seems like nobody in sports nowadays wants to man up when being told they're a pussy or w/e. 

A lot of players have come out and said Tino was pretty verbally abusive....like, over-the-top.  And lets keep in mind these are players who've been coached for many years in this game.  I think we all know the difference between "tough love" and "verbally abusive".  Put it simple, I don't think Tino is so willing to resign if he was just being "tough on the young players."  
 
The more I read the it seems like Tino didn't know what he was signing up for and doesn't have the patients to coach such a young team.

 

[RunRickyRun]

2 sides to every story...
 
What really happened, according to Tino, is a far cry from "player abuse":
 

To describe how a soft-toss drill works, Martinez harkened back to his days as a player.
 
 
“If Bernie Williams is hitting in front of me and I’m waiting with Paul O’Neill or whoever, there are no questions asked,” said Martinez, who played 16 years in the majors and won four World Series with the Yankees. “You help pick the balls up, and the next guy hits. Whoever is hanging around helps pick the balls up. It's standard.”
 
Martinez’s disputes with the Marlins players — Dietrich, 24; infielder Chris Valaika, 27; and outfielder Justin Ruggiano, 31 — all followed roughly the same pattern.
 
Start with Valaika, who opened the season with the Marlins but went on the disabled list May 8 with a fractured left wrist and eventually was sent to the minors.
 
Martinez said that Valaika often would follow veteran outfielder Juan Pierre in the batting cage but never help pick up balls after Pierre was done.
 
“One day I told Juan Pierre, ‘One of these days, he’s going to help us pick up the balls. He’s a 27-year-old journeyman. You’re a 15-year big leaguer. He will help us pick up the balls,’” Martinez recalled.
 
“So finally after about a month or so goes by, I decide I’m going to tell him something: ‘Hey Chris, help us pick up the balls.’ And he goes, ‘Why should I? I didn’t hit ‘em.’ And I said, ‘Pick up the balls, you’re part of this team.’ And he goes, ‘But I didn’t hit ‘em.’ So, I got in his face and I said, ‘Pick up the f------ balls. You’re part of this f------ team.’ I got in his face and said it kind of angrily. And he picked up the balls.”
 
From that point on, Martinez said, “it was never, ever a problem again.”
 
Dietrich, a rookie, joined the Marlins after Valaika was injured. About a week later, Martinez said he was soft-tossing to another Marlins player when Dietrich, the next hitter, declined to help pick up balls.
 
“I go, ‘Derek, help us pick the balls up,’” Martinez recalled. “He goes, ‘Why, I didn’t hit ‘em.’ I said, ‘I don’t give a s--- if you didn’t hit ‘em, help us pick the balls up.’ He walked toward me, not angrily, and said, ‘Hey, I didn’t hit the balls, why should I pick ‘em up?’
 
“I grabbed his jersey and said, ‘Because you’re f------- part of this team, pick the f------ balls up right now. Pick the f------ balls up. I’m tired of your s---.’ I probably pushed him backwards. That was it.”
 
Martinez described this incident, too, as a one-time event. He said from that point forward, he worked well with Dietrich. Only after the Marlins sent Dietrich to the minors on July 22 did the incident become an issue, Martinez said.
 
“Derek, a day after he gets sent to the minor leagues, decides to say, ‘Tino grabbed me by the throat two months ago,’” Martinez said. “This came out of nowhere. We were working together for two months, fine."
 
Both the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that the players’ union was notified of the alleged incident.
 
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/tino-martinez-resign-hitting-coach-miami-marlins-picking-up-balls-batting-cage-072913
 

Tino is 100% correct on this one.  Picking up balls in the cage is a standard practice for every organization and I've heard of big leaguers thinking they're too good to pick up baseballs.  I said I was suprised to hear he'd be abusive toward players, given what we know of him as a ballplayer, and this incident is 100% different from what the media spun the other day.
 
Poor Tino but honestly, our offense is so bad he wouldn't have been brought back next season anyways.