Analytics plays an increasingly important role in player acquisition decisions, but team chemistry might be even more important now than it once was, Yankees GM Brian Cashman tells the New York Post’s Ken Davidoff. It’s especially important not to introduce a problem player into the mix, Cashman says. “20 years ago, you can bring anybody in and survive that,” he opines. “Now I don’t think it’s as easy — with social media, TMZ and stuff like that. Because you’re too busy instead of talking about the game and the results and the competition, you’re too busy talking about something that’s going on off the field or not game-related constantly. It’s a pain. It’s a problem.” There are, however, still unknowns in determining what sorts of players can become problems — Cashman says that, for example, one can’t know beforehand which players will suddenly become less interested in the game after setting themselves up for life with a big contract. Here’s more from the American League.
- Orioles outfielder Michael Bourn has a broken ring finger on his right hand and will miss the next four weeks, Roch Kubatko of MASN writes ( Twitter links). Bourn injured the finger yesterday while catching a football as part of a team workout. Bourn, of course, recently signed a minor-league deal to return to the Orioles, and he stood a decent chance of making their Opening Day roster. It remains to be seen how Bourn’s injury will affect his chances of making the team, and how his situation will be impacted by his opt-out, which allows him to leave the Orioles in late March if he isn’t added to their big-league roster.
- Former No. 3 overall pick Mike Zunino’s big-league career hasn’t gone as anticipated, with a .195/.262/.370 through 1,247 career plate appearances in the Majors. Zunino’s downward spiral even included a demotion to Triple-A Tacoma last season. He remains upbeat about his future, and now says the demotion actually helped him, as Larry Stone of the Seattle Times writes. “[I]t was exactly what I needed at the time,” says Zunino. “You never want to take a step backwards, but sometimes that can let you take two steps forward. It really felt that way. Being able to go down to Triple-A, be able to have some success and being called back up, you feel that sense that you earned your way back up.” In Seattle, Zunino says, he had a number of coaches giving him hitting advice, whereas in Tacoma he worked only with that affiliate’s hitting coach, Scott Brosius, who helped him re-think his approach. This year, Brosius is on the Mariners’ big-league coaching staff, and Zunino thinks he’ll also benefit from the presence of veteran backup Carlos Ruiz, who the M’s acquired in a trade this winter.
Bourn hurt messing with a football?!?
Was Buck trying him out as the O’s 4th outfielder and the backup to Joe Flacco at the same time?
They throw football as a means of building arm (including rotator cuff) strength.
Nolan Ryan was a big proponent of this and would regularly throw a football when he played.
Flashback! Remember Nolan Ryan’s Upperdeck baseball card? Throwing a football.
Why in the hell were they throwing a football in spring training.
Likely a variation from typical workouts. Good way to stay in shape, and friendly competition with your teammates. Good for morale and chemistry too.
Clearly a good idea
Just as good as any other idea where the guys timing and reflexes come into play.
And it works in reverse.
Per exclusive sources: The week before the Super Bowl, Bill Belichick had the Patriots play a bunch of grueling intrasquad doubleheaders, offense vs. defense, to prepare the team for the big tilt with the Falcons. Unofficial observers verify the story.
“I told them not to suck,” said Belichick. “Heard that somewhere.”
“I love baseball,” the savvy coach added. “The game’s not over till the last out is made.”
Worked for an independent baseball team last summer. It’s a popular exercise they do, even pickup two hand touch football games a few hours before 1st pitch. Good workout while improving team morale
Jake Marisnick and Springer play catch with a football almost everyday. It was just a freak accident and hopefully it stays away from Houston.
The constant media coverage has ruined things a bit in sports. A guy like Tim Tebow can’t get a shot as a back up QB because no team wants the media all over them because of a back up QB. I know he isn’t the most talented but I think it is fair to say a lot of teams would not even consider it because of the constant media coverage. Now a days, players are stuck constantly answering questions about what someone said on twitter or what other dumb thing a teammate may have done on social media.
Tebow can’t get a shot because he’s not very good. If he had the talent someone would sign him.
Wrong. he was good enough to get a back up shot. The headache of the media coverage outweighed taking the chance though for teams
If he’s good enough, then surely the social media stuff wouldn’t matter, or would matter less. It doesn’t help him, but the real problem is that he’s not good enough to make it irrelevant.
The point is, good enough or not, no team was going to deal with the media headache over a borderline back up qb. It was just an example and not necessarily just about Tebow.
It’s an epidemic throughout society though. It contributes along with under age drinking and sex that have me scared to death about the future.
This sounds pretty alarmist to me, but not nearly as dire as you make it sound. I graduated HS almost 25 years ago and under age drinking and sex were plentiful. We also had copious amounts of gossip that would spread like wild fire at times. If something happened at a party on Saturday night, you would hear about it on Sunday and everybody in out 2000 student school would be aware and talking about it Monday morning. I also have a the opposite view of social media. If anything, social media gives involved parents a way to keep better tabs on their children’s behavior. When I was a student, someone would have to talk directly to a parent, then that parent would have to pick up the phone and call other parents that they knew directly to discuss a child’s actions. Today, with FB all it takes is some bonehead kid to make a single post and every parent at the school knows who was at the party and exactly what was going on within hours. The problem lies with adults who want to keep their less than ideal behavior quiet that get caught up in trouble with social media.
Interesting perspective and I agree
Yes, the media loves Tebow. But when he was in New England it wasn’t a big ordeal. Why? Because Bill Belichick knew how to handle the media. Wish more teams would follow suite sometimes. A lot of the drama is self inflicted.
Cut Bourn now and save the drama.
After that is done, sign Coco Crisp.
Life is Good
Or Pagan.
Problem with Pagan is he would want to play full time
With Smith and others, on the team (Rickard) that is not possible
Crisp would fit.
“It’s especially important not to introduce a problem player into the mix, Cashman says. “20 years ago, you can bring anybody in and survive that,” he opines. “Now I don’t think it’s as easy — with social media, TMZ and stuff like that. Because you’re too busy instead of talking about the game and the results and the competition, you’re too busy talking about something that’s going on off the field or not game-related constantly. It’s a pain. It’s a problem.””
Says the guy who traded for a man who choked his girlfriend, pushed her against a wall and then fired 8 gunshots into the garage to terrorize her and who later gave that same gentleman a 5 year $90 million deal.
His statement is correct on it’s face. And his recent baseball moves have been excellent. But, a little self awareness…
Very true, and I think it’s extremely telling that his logic for not signing a problem player is simply the media annoyance of making such a move. NOT that it’s morally wrong to bring a wife beater or someone with multiple DUIs into the fold. Just that it’s not worth the trouble due to the attention. He’s a jerk. look at his own history and some of the known details of his personal life. Cashman has zero class. The fact that the only reason in his mind to not sign a piece of trash is b/c the media presence is bothersome shouldn’t be surprising at all
Cash is a what?
Zero class?
You have zero class for attacking someone for his personal issues.
You missed the entire point he was making and you took the bias Yankee hate talking points to a new level!
The premise of what he was saying is when you introduce players with bad attitudes into a clubhouse it can destroy the clubhouse. As far as putting out fires for a players off the field BS, every team has one or two players that are jerks outside the game.
Wow blind defence. Gotta love putting blinders on when it’s your team in the wrong
Wow blind defense? What team do you root for. I’m positive I’ll find numerous ass wipes you would root for just because and the point is I didn’t defend Chapman. Not once! I defended a statement from Cashman which was obviously misinterpreted because of your blind Yankee hatred and bias.
Ok keep defending domestic abuse
I have a feeling Cashman is thinking about the clubhouse. He said “chemistry” and not “character’. Personally, I didn’t like the Chapman moves either, but I suspect the guy you fear having is the one who disrupts the team inside the locker room.
He also likes the night life which Cubs were concerned once he signed a big contract. I guess it’s different if you can throw 103mph
“then fired 8 gunshots into the garage to terrorize her ” well that is just false…
But to the rest of your post, NYY teammates apparently really like chapman.
I don’t live in NY and am not around their media constantly, but I feel like we stopped hearing about chapman’s DV thing pretty early in the season, was it like that in ny?
Wait, Chapman didn’t fire 8 gunshots into his garage?
Didn’t do it to “terrorize her”
Right, I’m sure he was just showing her proper gun safety. Shame on her for being terrorized.
How is it false if Chapman himself admitted he fired 8 shots into the concrete wall of his garage, well 7 and one through a window into an open field (smart guy to know that wouldn’t accidentally hit anyone). Listen the guy has a questionable character, he has a crazy girlfriend as well, which is the exact ingredients that when combined can be extremely harmful to a team as cashman is referring to. So more than a little hypocritical if you ask me. No doubt one of the reasons why the cubs laid off signing him to a huge deal. While he may be a good teammate, and have the best intentions, the part the Yankees need to be worried about is the domestic life of the guy, he has a one year old child with the chick, and that will always be a part of his life. Good teammate or not, these things can be a huge distraction and possibly devolve into much more, and in doing so by default make him a bad teammate. The other thing I don’t like about him is that he is very nitpicky with how and when he is used. I don’t care if you are a closer, a starter, a third baseman, it doesn’t matter, if the manager calls on you to do something you do it and you give your full effort, and consistently he whined with the cubs and sometimes he took pitches off clearly, and that’sa huge deal. Theo and the cubs do a very good job in identifying guys with heart, I know it’s very cliche, but they find high character guys that really put the team first, look at heyward, sucked all year at hitting, never whined about where he was used, when, or how often he sat on the bench, he always gave good effort no matter what, and then delivered the famous rain delay speech and showed how much respect guys have for him in the clubhouse. I Just don’t see many of them on the Yankees at this point
“I Just don’t see many of them on the Yankees at this point” That’s kind of a broad brush to tar every Yankee on the roster with, don’t you think? Or is just because they are wearing the uniform? Is every Met a bad person because of Familia? Colorado, because that’s where Reyes was when his case came up? The entire Atlanta Brave organization years ago when Bobby Cox had his issues, or now because of Hector Olivera? And there were others that were reported,in the past, including several famous names, and I think we can all assume there were plenty more that were hushed up.
Stick to the facts. Chapman was abusive. It’s unacceptable behavior.
Tell us what else you think about Chapman a year after the incident and then when your done tell us why your Cubs traded for him and why you rooted for his success to win a World Series? Are you a hypocrite?
Well that’s an easy answer, the cubs traded for him because they needed a closer, spoke to Chapman himself and believed the incidents to be over, the same reason the Yankees resigned him a huge deal, i have zero problems giving a guy second chances, so in no way am I a hypocrite. After they made the trade i was hopeful they would resign him, that said, after the season was complete and I had a chance to see him, hear from him in press conferences, I’m not sold that his personal issues are over, and that his situation where that woman will be forever intertwined with him, good closer, wouldn’t give him a long term deal for various reasons, this just one of them, cubs likely felt the same way hence why they never were players for him, they obviously could have matched the price and by many reports were never contenders, I wonder why? Listen the guy made a mistake, and most definitely deserves second chances, horrible people can change, seek help, I don’t buy into the media stance, I subscribe to that we are all just humans, with many flaws, and he certainly deserves to continue to play baseball. Usually, though, not in a media driven town, with so many spotlights on the team. As far as the comment that I don’t see many of the higher character guys on the Yankees now, I stand by that, that’s not saying they are criminals, it’s even saying there aren’t good guys, or good players. It’s saying that there are guys that if you benched them, or decided to use them less, or in a different way, they may say something publicly bout it, cause a stir or what not. The front office itself cannot even keep things quiet and created a problem for themselves when they made brash comments bout why betances didn’t deserve the extra money. Point being, they are a young team, and cashman doesn’t want distractions, and generally when you say something like that, you aren’t coming off signing a guy for huge money with question marks personally, you didn’t just burn a bridge with your best home grown arm. It’s just ironic coming right after these two things, and let’s not forget the whole ordeal with arod, and the handling of that whole mess. For a guy who is looking to move forward, and get younger, more team minded players, this appears to be a step backwards that’s all. One last thing, if it was the cubs who signed Chapman for that deal, id be furious, I want no part of him after seeing what I saw, i am grateful he helped bring a championship. By no means was he the sole reason they won either. He certainly throws fast, but he can’t pitch, so if he ever lose his velocity, he’s going to be cannon fodder. And judging from his mental strength, he doesn’t appear have what it takes, heart or mind, to adjust to it, not many do
Mike Z!!! Dats my boy
If Zunino doesn’t improve chances are they’ll be in the market for a Catcher soon because it doesn’t look like they have great options in the farm.
Zunino was rushed up and I hope he considers that as a factor to his undeveloped ways. However, I’m glad he’s moved on from it all. If he can hit .250 and carry that pop and glove with him, Zunino is going to be a great MLB catcher.
Well said bro
Bourn is still going to make the roster. His glove and speed will get him in. On paper he’s their best defensive fielder.
It think Chooch (Carlos Ruiz) will definitely help Mike Zunino’s progression as a Major Leaguer; Cameron Rupp, the Phillies catcher credits a lot of his improvements to working with him.