Giants Bench Coach Kai Correa on Teaching Defense, #CoachesvsCOVID, and his path to MLB

On this episode of the Sports Info Solutions, senior research analyst Mark Simon (@MarkASimonSays) is joined by Giants bench coach Kai Correa (@ThatGuy_Kai). He talked about #CoachesvsCOVID, a series of coaching clinics aimed at raising money for The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which is doing Covid-related research (1:56). Kai also talked about the instructional videos available on the Giants YouTube page and how he taught the younger Giants first basemen proper posture and how to turn one-legged double plays (3:32). He then goes through what influenced him as he progressed in his career: the MLB and college coaches, film study, and trial-and-error (6:22). He also told the story of his coaching family tree, including his grandfather, who coached scholastic sports for more than 60 years (8:34). Correa’s path to MLB is fascinating. He explained the process that led to his becoming a coach on Gabe Kapler’s staff and what his role will entail (10:04), what he wants to do to help add length to the primes of players like Evan Longoria (11:22), getting buy-in to the program-building work that the team is doing (13:55). He explained his receptiveness to analytics and how he likes to combine film, feel, and data to teach defense (15:33). He explains how he teaches getting in position and why he prioritizes that for teaching youth baseball players (17:28). Thanks for listening. Stay safe and healthy!Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center- FredHutch.orgKai’s Fred Hutch Fundraising Page#FridayFielders baseball tutorials How to train like a big league infielder: Part I Part II Part III