I asked Bob Sikes at Getting Paid to Watch to weigh in on the Yankees firing Marty Miller:

I saw that story late last evening when I arrived home from spring football practice. I didn't know Miller, but was rather surprised to learn he'd been hired from a health club. Another thing I'm coming to realize is just how separate strength coaches are from the athletic trainers (ATCs). The Yankees have two of the very best in the business in Gene Monahan and Steve Donahue. I believe that Monahan may currently be the dean of athletic trainers in the major leagues. Donahue and I worked in the International League together during the early 80's.

At any rate, strength coaches did not begin becoming a fixture for major league teams until the late 80's and its wasn't until the 90's that all teams had them. Conditioning and strength training as it was had been handled by the ATCs and coaches. For example, pitching coaches ran the pitchers and pre-work-out stretching was handled by the ATCs. Until the Mets brought in Keith Cedro before the 1987 season, I lead team stretching prior to spring training work-outs. Once the season began, Davey Johnson preferred to let players handle their own warm-up activities. Only when Buddy Harrelson took over did the Mets start stretching as a team before games. Only a few teams in the National League actually had weight rooms.

This is far less involved than what teams do now. And strength coaches that MLB teams bring in have a wider variety of philosophies than does the NFL. They also have autonomy that's separate from what the traditional medical staff's - ATC's and team physicians - operate under. I've found this to be an unsound development in the politics of the game as the professional educational and professional development of ATCs includes all principals of conditioning. I'm going to get hate mail on this, but unless a strength coach has a master's level degree in Exercise Physiology and a certification by the National Strength and Conditioning Association , his or her preparation is not that of what ATCs have. I've felt that baseball executives have never really given ATCs the respect they deserve nor leaned on them in medical matters.
However, major league players have long appreciated our work and generously includes ATCs in their benefit package. Perhaps this is what's caused the schism as management perceives ATCs as part on the Player's Union.

Someone asked me to respond to the high number of abdominal injuries that seemed to be occurring. Although this is anecdotal, I agreed with the general observation. How I replied was that in previous years it seemed that these types of injuries occured mostly among pitchers. I hypothesized that that perhaps players trunks were being over-trained and trained for one-rep power. Most activities in baseball are done multiple times.

The hamstring has its own unique role in biomechanics. Running involves the hamstring to fire both types of contractions-concentric and eccentric. Or in laymen terms, shortening the muscle and then lengthening it under stress. Weight room activities are designed to supplement and athletes ability to run. If Miller desired to decrease the amount of running in favor of something else, he made a decision that's ended up burning many professionals.

Thanks, Bob.