Friday, December 27, 2019
Thoughts on Coaching and Player Development
One major stamp Farhan Zaidi put on the Giants organization is a commitment to coaching and player development, not only in the minor leagues, but also at the major league level. To accomplish this goal, he hired an army of young, highly motivated coaches schooled in data analysis, eager to apply it to hands-on coaching. Baseball has a longstanding tension between hands-on coaching philosophy and a more laissez-faire approach. Harry "The Hat" Walker and Walt Hriniak are two names which immediately come to mind who had a strong philosophy of hitting and tried to mold every hitter that came into their sphere of influence. They had spectacular success stories, but not every hitter thrived with their approach. Although there are instances of coaching success during the Brian Sabean/Bruce Bochy era, I would say the Giants have been more laissez-faire under their leadership.
Maybe it's different this time. Coaches like Walker and Hriniak had their pet theories, but who knows how much data they had to back it up? Their experiences and successes as well as their failures were mostly anecdotal and testimonial. Maybe with access to mountains of data allows the new breed to make changes with an objective expectation of success or improvement. Admittedly anecdotal experience from the Cincinnati Reds last season would suggest that it's still dependent on the individual player rather than an approach that works across the board.
The reason why this is relevant to the Giants is one of Farhan's new young coaches is hitting coach Donnie Ecker. Ecker is credited with helping transform Reds OF Aristides Aquino into a hitting terror with changes to his swing. Aquino definitely had a terrific MLB debut and set the league on fire after his promotion in August of last season. Was that success due to the changes he worked out with Ecker or was it small sample size(SSS) noise? His slash line kind of dropped off the table in September suggesting the jury is still out on that one.
Then there is the experience of Nick Senzel, a highly touted prospect and rookie for the Reds. Again, the data is a bit dirty due to a series of injuries to Senzel, but in a couple of articles, Senzel sounds like he's not sad to see Donnie Ecker and Batting Coach Turner Ward move on from the Reds organization. Senzel was batting a season high .285 on August 2 when he started to incorporate adjustments in his swing advocated by Ward and Ecker. He slashed just .188/.242/.313 over his final 34 games before his season ended with labrum surgery. Again, was that cratering of his numbers due to the changes in his batting stance or was is simply a reflection of SSS or a rookie hitting his wall as so many do? From an MLB article 11/5/2019: "....Senzel overhauled his hitting approach even though he was producing. He switched to an open stance, stood taller and added a leg kick as he started his swing. It helped him see the ball better, but it hurt his numbers in a big way." In the same article, Senzel himself if quoted: "I tried to make the adjustment in August. You look at it stats-wise, it doesn't reflect. I feel like I contributed to the club. It's one of those things on paper. It was a learning experience. I can't wait to rehab, to get back out there and ready to go."
From another MLB article dated 12/6/2019: "Offensively, Senzel plans to return to his old approach." From Senzel himself: "I'm going back to what I do. I knew going into that that there was going to be failures. It wasn't just I was going to change something at the big league level and that my numbers were going to stay the same. It's obviously frustrating when you're going through it. I was just trying something out and it didn't work, so I"ll got back to what I've been doing since I was 5 years old. I don't have any regrets, it is what it is, and we move on."
Ouch! Senzel may not have any regrets, but it sure sounds like he has an ax to grind with Ward and Ecker because he doesn't stop talking about it. It is still possible in the long run Ward and Ecker were right and Senzel would have a more productive career if he stuck with it and adopted their recommended hitting approach. At this point it is likely we will never know. On the other hand, making changes like that in midseason when the player is already performing well seems like a case of trying to fix something that wasn't broken.
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This is the reason why they didn't resign MadBum. MadBum would have given these coaches a wedgie and stuffed them in a locker. This is also why most of the old core will be gone by the end of the season. You can't teach old dogs new tricks and Farhan is going to tear this thing down to the ground and build it back up with players he thinks this coaching staff can develop.
ReplyDeleteThe big question is can this approach work with professional athletes? The other question is can you consistently coach mediocre prospects into being elite level talent? Right now Farhan is betting all his chips that he can pull it off but how long is it going to take and how long will he get to prove it?
Based on your prospect list Doc (thank you for putting that together) and the moves so far it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not one pitching prospect in our system has the potential to be an "Ace" of the staff and most seem like their ceilings are 4th or 5th starters in a good rotation. The offensive prospects aren't slam dunks either and guys like Dubon and Wilson project to be average players at best.
With no clearcut future superstars and no stud pitchers to lean on, these coaches are going to have an impossible task of not only transforming mediocre talent into elite but also getting the players to buy in to their system. Getting FA's to come here has always been a challenge and with an eccentric coaching staff and culture like this one it will be even more difficult. Bottom line is that these coaches are being asked to perform miracles and there is no reason whatsoever to think they are capable of being successful.
If no future ACE is in the system -- and it appears that is true -- it makes sense that the Giants aren't spending for players especially pitchers, now but developing what they have in the system and adding to it: you can always buy Aces if you have enough money ala Cole and the Yankees, so save the money now and spend it when your ready as they tried to do do buying Cueto, Shark, Moore, Melancon, etc.
ReplyDeleteEveryone peaks spending money now for guys that will decline when the young team is ready but still cost money for the back end of their contracts (like Posey, Belt, Crawford, Longoria now).
Patience: we are in the 7 years of drought from 2015, we will come out in 2022 so get the pitchers then!