The Reds announced Tuesday that they’ve hired Kyle Boddy of Driveline Baseball to serve as the organization’s director of pitching initiatives/pitching coordinator. Boddy announced on Twitter that he will focus almost entirely on working to develop minor league pitchers in his new role with the Reds, but he’ll also remain with Driveline. The Reds also promoted assistant pitching coach Caleb Cotham, adding “director of pitching” to his title. Travis Sawchik of FiveThirtyEight.com reports (via Twitter) that the division-rival Cubs also offered Boddy a position, but he opted for the Reds’ position.
While Boddy will work more with the team’s minor league pitchers than the Major League pitchers, he’ll also “work closely with the Major League pitching department to ensure the pitching philosophies and protocols are consistent throughout the organization,” per the Reds.
The Cincinnati organization has rapidly turned over its pitching infrastructure, not only bringing Boddy aboard but also adding Cotham and pitching coach Derek Johnson (formerly of the Brewers) in the past year. For those unfamiliar, Driveline (founded by Boddy) seeks to utilize technology and biomechanics to take a data-driven approach to pitching development. Its services have become increasingly popular among both Major League and college pitchers in recent years, with Cincinnati’s Trevor Bauer and Detroit’s Matthew Boyd among the more prominent names in the company’s clientele.
The Reds, in recent seasons, have sought to bolster their utilization of technology and analytics in an attempt to stay competitive with the rising number of data-oriented front offices in today’s game. Manager David Bell’s coaching staff featured several members who’d previously worked in such organizations and, as such, were familiar with the best way to break down that type of information for players. They’ve also made multiple hires to add to their analytics department in the past couple of seasons.
Cotham, a former Driveline client and Major League pitcher himself, is assuredly a part of that. He spent the 2019 season as the team’s assistant pitching coach but will now see his role increase in with the addition of “director of pitching” to his title. While the aforementioned Bauer has had an inconsistent season, both with the Indians and the Reds, there were other success stories under Johnson and Cotham, with Sonny Gray chief among them. Luis Castillo also returned to form after a shaky 2018 campaign, and Anthony DeSclafani arguably had the best season of his career.
nothing says assistant pitching coach like a guy with an ERA over 7 in the Majors.
Sometimes the worst players make the best coaches.
Checkout the playing career of Soarky Anderson and Tommy LaSorda….
Throw Tony LaRussa in there as well.
im certainly not going to say it’s requisite – in fact, i will go out and say that that statement is genarally right. that being said, id at least hope a coach of a certain type has had some success so they can share their tips with the kids. ill give him the benetit of the doubt though, he does work for a Reds organisation that really turned things around on the mound this year.
For that matter, Bruce Bochy was nothing more than a fill in catcher his entire career. A lot of good managers were back up catchers because that allowed them to watch the game from the dugout with their managers and learn from them while the game was happening. Their playing career served as little more than an extended apprenticeship.
I’d rather have a guy that had to scratch and claw, fight through the battles of the minor leagues and can understand the struggles of trying to make it, as opposed to guy that was naturally talented and cruiser into the majors. I can’t imagine Barry Bonds or Ken Griffey Jr can relate to fringe MLB player’s journey.
Ted Williams was widely known as one of baseball’s worst managers. When trying to coach guys on how to hit, he just said “seriously? You just hit the ball – it’s easy”. Players hated him because he couldn’t communicate how to be like him. So there is definitely something to that.
Williams was a substandard manager (like Pete Rose) because he didn’t know how to handle a pitching staff. Both were famous for having guys get loose 2 or 3 times a game without ever actually pitching in said game.
Williams was a brilliant hitting coach (cc Frank Howard and Mike Epstein under his tutelage, among many others for example), but I see your point on how brilliance at something doesn’t mean one can teach brilliance.
While Barry Bonds is a brilliant hitting coach, Manny Ramirez (I would imagine) would be the direct opposite, Mike Maddux is a superior pitching coach to his brother Greg, etc.
I look forward to your team hiring Curt Schilling to be their pitching coach.
Hmmm….Trevor Bauer have a hand in this hiring?
Haha. I see what you did there.
The Reds won the Chapman trade!
Nice! I remember the Reds acquiring him but didn’t recall which deal.
on the count of Bauer, people really may have to accept that he was a one-year wonder. his 2019 numbers mirror those of much of his earlier career.
I’ve played baseball with Kyle Boddy the last 6 years in the PSSBL and couldn’t be any happier for him.
It was only a matter of time that Kyle got the call from a MLB org. Well earned.
Thus far not impressed with how they’ve selected and developed pitching, I respect their efforts to put together a competitive offense, though. When Sonny Gray is your big pitching move…eh.
Given that, this is as appropriate a time and place as any to ask a baseball question that’s been on my mind for a few days- it seems to me that every comment section thread on the topic agrees that Didi Gregorious is going to either receive and take the QA from the Yankees on a one-year pillow contract/pillow roster spot fill-in OR Didi Gregorius is a fit for the Reds. I even came to the conclusion on my own, though I’m not sure how.
Why do people seem to think Gregorious is destined to be a Red or get and take the Q.A.? I’m gonna guess it’s that the Reds have the most obvious need at the SS/2B positions, they will have the budgetary flexibility and they’re the exact kind of small to mid market club to overpay for any kind of marquee agent if they even get the chance to sign someone, so a guy like Didi might be able to get an extra $5M a season and an extra 1-2 seasons from them, versus a 1-year contract with, say, NYY and then he’s back in the same position next season?
I think there’s like a 7% chance he accepts the QO. I’d put the likelihood of his signing a multi-year contract with the Reds at 24%. The field gets a 69%.
I actually think he’s a good fit with the Phillies. Move Segura to 2nd and trade Hernandez for depth. The Phillies have the money to get Didi and still go after someone like Moustakas for 3rd base.
Sonny Gray is going to finish in the top 5 for Cy Young voting. I’d say that WAS a big move
Yankees practically gave Sonny Gray away to free up the rotation spot and Sonny Gray immediately signed that modest extension because he appeared to not handle the pressure in NYY and thrived in a smaller market with less media scrutiny or overall expectations. Sonny Gray is a great pitcher, not debating that, but they got him at a steep discount and his overall stock had dipped a bit and yet he also was deemed to have signed a very team friendly extension with the Reds after the debacle of his season-and-a-half in New York.
Bottom line is that Sonny Gray worked out great but was not a big move at the time and won’t entice marquee free agents to the Reds on the promise of a stacked line up and play off potential ahead of financial considerations the way other clubs would and with the way the game’s finances are nowadays, it’s really hard for teams to justify not paying certain players to play for their club, so I wonder how Cincinnati will compete if they’re offering up Sonny Gray type contracts when pitching is at the premium that it is.
First you criticize the Reds for having Sonny Gray as their “big pitching move”. I’d say the adding one of the best pitchers in baseball is a big move.
Then you complain that the Reds signed him to a team friendly extension. What? How in the world is that going to hurt their ability to sign future free agents? In fact, it should enable them to stretch their budget farther.
There’s something wrong with this whine, oh yeah, sour grapes. Good luck with that pitching staff for the Yankees against the Astros pitching. Don’t worry about us out here in small market ville, we’ll be just fine without your expertise.
He only stunk in New York because Larry Rothschild is a trash pitching coach that made Sonny Gray throw a change-up he didn’t need. Luis Severino should be Pedro Martinez right now, but Rothschild is garbage.
I don’t think they’re going to be going all in for Cole and I doubt they’ll make a sincere push for next year’s top tier free agents. I think they’re a good team with some budgetary issues that they try to get creative with and it hasn’t panned out and so I think marquee free agents will continue to avoid signing with them- unless they dole out an excessively lucrative contract against otherwise comparable but more cost efficient offers from larger market clubs. Bottom line is: If a guy can get 4 years/$60M from just about any team- Mets, Angels, White Sox, Pirates, Reds, etc.- they’re probably gonna try to get an extra $5-10M from the Reds that they might not from, say, the Astros, if they know the Astros can survive without signing them so the Astros- or any other team in contention- don’t have to offer that extra $5-10M, but then a club like the Reds has to wonder how well spent that money would be- look at the Diamondbacks after signing Greinke- it’s the same problem.
The reds don’t need a shortstop if they resign either Jose Iglesias or Freddy Galvis. They need a decent hitting catcher like Yasmani Grandal and a center fielder because I think Nick Senzel will move into 2nd base next year. Maybe a Boston trade if they are cutting costs for Jackie Bradley jr.
Galvis and Iglesias are both mediocre at best and I will be very irritated to see them sell fans on either. Let both go and non tender Peraza
If you have followed the Reds at all, their obvious need is a competent manager.
Oh, it’s the manager who was the reason for one of the worst offenses in the league? Or the bullpen that imploded in the 2nd half? gotcha
Lol, agree on the offense and BP. However, I don’t have a problem with keeping Galvis at SS and Peraza on the bench. VanMeter should be starting at 2B, and if he doesn’t work out, a replacement at 2B isn’t that hard to come by.
The Reds MUST sign Grandal. Adding that bat in the middle of the lineup will make a world of difference.