The Yankees will hire Matt Blake as their new pitching coach, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link). Blake is being hired out of the Indians front office, as he was promoted to the role of Cleveland’s director of pitching development just two days ago, after working as a pitching coordinator and assistant director of pitching development for the previous three seasons. Blake also has past ties to the Yankees, as he worked for the Bronx Bombers as an area scout before heading to Cleveland.
At only 33 years old, Blake will provide the younger and more analytic-based approach that the Yankees were seeking to find as they looked to replace longtime pitching coach Larry Rothschild. Of the four known candidates for the job, three (with former Yankees star David Cone as the outlier) were younger names in their 30’s without much any direct coaching experience on an MLB staff. University of Michigan pitching coach Chris Fetter and Arkansas pitching coach Matt Hobbs were the two other names linked to the Yankees’ search.
It’s difficult to say the Yankees pitchers exactly struggled last year, as both New York’s starters and relievers ranked in the top half of the league in most major statistical categories despite some key names (Luis Severino, Dellin Betances) lost to injury for virtually the entire season. However, a lack of reliable innings from the rotation quickly became an issue in the ALCS, as the Yankees leaned hard on their bullpen and ultimately came up short to the Astros in six games.
It will be up to Blake to modernize the Yankees’ handling of their arms, and it perhaps isn’t surprising that New York hired someone from a Cleveland organization that has excelled at developing homegrown pitching in recent years. Indians manager Terry Francona recently praised Blake’s work in preparing young hurlers such as Jefry Rodriguez, Zach Plesac, and Aaron Civale, with the latter two making their Major League debuts in 2019.
How much experience does he have coaching pitchers though?
You’d think in 3 years of pitching development, he’d have coached a pitcher or two. SMH.
He was a scout and a front office guy. Both of those analyze pitchers, not coach them. SMH. Also, a pitcher or two is not an entire staff in the biggest media market in the world
Coach… he was Cleveland’s minor league pitching coordinator. That means he oversaw the development and coaching of all pitchers within the Cleveland farm system.
Cashman continues to impress as he brings the Yankees into the modern era of playing baseball.
I’ve been writing here for 2 years that they needed to dump Rothschild and bring in not just a technical pitching coach, but restructure the Yankee philosophy of pitching throughout the entire Yankee organization. It was ridiculous watching so many over-publicized prospects brought up as well as established veterans brought in, only to see them have a few good months and then go south.
You want to pay ex-starters to go to the bullpen and throw hard for an inning (or less) using one or two pitches – not hard to do. But working with starting pitchers where they have to throw 3, 4, or 5 pitches, change speed and location, and work their way through the opposing line-up 3 times was something the Yankees have done poorly for years now.
To all those complaining – as Yankee fans think high-salaried name players and name coaches will make them Champions – think again. Read how the article above finished….
“Indians manager Terry Francona recently praised Blake’s work in preparing young hurlers such as Jefry Rodriguez, Zach Plesac, and Aaron Civale, with the latter two making their Major League debuts in 2019.”
Rodriquez pitched hurt, and subsequently was shut down. But anyone that actually saw Plesac and Civale pitch was stunned at how the Indians keep bringing up starting pitchers that have poise, smarts, a plan, and know how to pitch. Clicking on their Baseball Reference stats on WAR’s:
Plesac – 1.9 / 115 IP
Civale – 1.6 / 57 IP.
Those 2 pitchers were not publicized coming up to much of any extent. Most commentators here not only never heard of them when they were called up, they have no idea that they even pitched in 2019.
Yankees starters WAR in 2019:
Tanaka – 1.7 / 182 IP
Happ – 1.2 / 162 IP
Paxton – 2.1 / 150 IP
Germán – 1.8 / 143 IP
Sabathia – 0.3 / 107 IP
Along with the Astros and Rays and to some degree the A’s, the Indians are the best in MLB at developing and re-calibrating pitchers. This has far, far more to it then simply looking at some statistics and telling a pitcher to throw this or that pitch and not another one.
Cashman made a smart move. Yankees continue to professionalize their operation.
I’m not saying that Rothschild should have stayed. Good riddance, there.
I’m just saying that we might not have needed ANOTHER spreadsheet warrior to run the show. Especially one with about an hour and half of experience under his belt.
Who is say that Blake can’t be a “spreadsheet warrior” and be an excellent communicator and have abilities to connect with pitchers? Experience isn’t the most important qualifier in the game anymore.
That’s what you guys say every year about his moves and how many rings in the last 2 decades they have?
Case study: Boston 2018 vs Boston 2019.
Virtually identical rosters. There’s no way Kimbrel & Kelly were worth 2 dozen wins.
And yet, after a GM provides the same roster the outcomes, especially with starting rotation, were drastically different.
Conclusion: coaching and roster selection play a role, but, aren’t the be-all end-all source of your final results.
100% correct. But… Cashman needed a fall guy and so the change was made.It is what is and nothing to get wet about….
You see, the Yankees have not had a rotation like you did in 2018. we have had many this past decade like you did in 2019.
Yanks have several young and promising pitchers in the minor leagues. Perhaps a younger coach would mesh better with them.
He was also the Pitching Coordinator at Cressey Sports Performance, the top strength and conditioning facility for baseball players. Some guys you may have heard of train there every year… guys like… max scherzer, Corey kluber, Noah syndergaard, among many others. He worked hand and hand with these guys developing pitch design, fixing mechanical issues, etc… I would say he’s pretty qualified and ready to be a big league pitching coach
Hey IQIS-your family needs a fall guy and given little IQIS it turns out that Mrs. IQIS is tasked with “manning up” since you can’t. Speaking of your limitations, don’t you realize that wearing the Mrs. XS panties is having a prolonged impact on Little IQIS’ brain.
It’s time to admit your shortcomings and pick a man’s name since using most of someone else’s’ identities is so WEAK.
He was also just promoted to that position two days prior. He had previously been the assistant director of player development.
https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/11/cleveland-indians-terrys-talkin-about-how-things-changed-in-a-year.html
How much would Cone have brought?
The real question is WHY he wasn’t brought in and WHO had the most influence over that.
Cone is going to replace the 80 year old pitching coach as soon as someone wakes him up to tell him that it’s time to retire again.
Dana Levangie had no experience and the Red Sox won the 2018 World Series.
Levangie at least had a lot of professional playing and coaching experience before becoming a pitching coach. This Blake guy has nothing but college experience and some scouting experience. These front offices are trying way too hard to look smarter than the next guy. This is an embarrassing hire for Cashman, in my opinion.
It’s happening everywhere these days. Guys who talk a great game can win the interview. They promise the moon and the stars, usually they deliver absolutely nothing, but you can’t uncash their paychecks when you fire them. And they’ll talk their way into the next gig.
Why do you need a pitching coach to read the analytics and tell a guy “your slider is your best pitch, throw it always”? Can’t pitchers read that stuff for themselves? I’d rather have somebody who KNOWS something about pitching, about mechanics, delivery, selection, etc. Than another accountant masquerading as a pitching coach.
Amen. This sabermetrics fad is nauseating. It’s laughable, to be honest.
Guys who have no game in a comment section and probably still haven’t interviewed for their first job telling us how guys game interviews.
Awesome!
You keep laughing at math and facts. The stupid kids are always the cool kids.
These mathletes couldn’t get a job using their degrees for something math is applicable to, like engineering, so they have somehow convinced MLB owners and GMs that they can coach MLB players better than former players who have, you know, experience and credibility when guiding players.
On MLB network the other day, a few of the hosts, ex-players and reporters, admitted that more than half of all players in MLB locker rooms think sabermetrics is absolute b.s.
Not really a fad. If you use them the way they’re intended, like many front offices, they’re great. If you try to make them do things beyond they’re intended purpose… yes they’ll fail. Most successful teams are very saber-heavy.
I’m an accountant. I’m not mocking accountants.
Is it so bad to want a balance of guys who are good with a spreadsheet… and guys who actually know something about the game of baseball?
The spreadsheet guys will show you how to improve your win percentage over a 162 game season.
The guys who know the game of baseball will help your players when they need to win ONE GAME. Like…. Game 6 of the ALCS.
Hey Booney! Did the analytics say to pitch to Altuve with Marisnick on deck?
You sitting in on these interviews? Curious to know how you would know what is promised.
Math always wins, coach.
I wire-tapped the main office. Obviously.
Nothing like the inevitable “how do YOU know what they’re talking about?” post…
The Giants won 3 championships this decade, and the Nats just upset the sabr heavy Astros. Both of those teams were known for relying more on scouting, the quote-unquote, old school way.
Yankees, Dodgers and Astros are very sabercentric, and they won a total of 1 championship this decade. Please with the ” the most successful teams use sabermetrics ” line.
southpaw2153;
I agree with you on a lot of things.
But read my post above. This is not just about looking at stats.
Pick up the recently released book ‘The MVP Machine’ by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik (recommend to me here by a poster).
Keep in mind that the Astros GM ran an Engineering company before moving into baseball – and had a ridiculous record overseeing the drafting for the Cardinals before the Astros hired him.
Also keep in mind that John Farrell was a farm system coordinator for the Indians. He helped with some individual pitching instruction of minor leaguers, but was never a coach until Francona brought him to the Red Sox. This after Epstein failed with numerous pitching coaches, as he was/is awful in understanding pitching. In Farrell’s his first year in Boston the Sox won their historic championship. Epstein got most of the credit, Francona some. Would never have happened without Farrell as pitching coach.
@southpaw2153
I don’t really have a dog in this fight. I have no idea how good or bad he’ll be but your logic dude. Teams have only reshaped their front office and embraced pitching analytics in the last 5 years or so. How’s the Giants record been since then?
While winning a title is the ultimate goal I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the top 5 pitching staffs in the last 5 years are:
1-Indians
2-Astros
3-Nats
4-Dodgers
5-Yanks
By use of WAR
Using old timie stats those five staffs are top 7 in Wins, K/9, top 8 in ERA and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 10th in FIP.
So it would appear that those using metrics are doing pretty good for themselves. Having a mix of both old school and advanced analytics is the best approach I think. But players have to buy into it too.
I think in all those cases except for Cleveland, it’s pretty easy to give up over 6 runs per game on average when your offense is averaging 8.5-9 runs a game! That’s not good analytical sense except to build an offense to compensate for your mediocre starting pitching and build a bullpen that will hopefully shut them down from the 6th inning on! It’s also not good analytics when you burn your bullpen arms out and then let them go to FA when they have given you everything including their body! That’s called using and abusing tools that never should be near 100 innings pitched in a season, but LA, NY and Houston burned through their relievers this year, hence why neither of the aforementioned teams walked away with a trophy! It’s one thing to build a contender, a completely different monster to build a championship quality team. Teams need to get out of the books and computers and build a complete TEAM. If a starter can’t pitch more than 4 innings, don’t give him starters pay, and yes it’s a lot more than how tight the spin is on their release and throwing 98-100 mph with no control! If they walk 6 and give up 4 homers in four innings, that’s not even a mediocre RP! That’s garbage league material that FO is leaning on coaches and managers to retrain bad mechanics on an arm that about 75% of the time will blow up trying to adjust/coach bad habits from! Hopefully that will help you understand the difference between analytics and experience and the difference between knowledge of having a sucky starting pitching staff and over compensating for that!
Ignorance is bliss!
Because someone thinks something it doesn’t make it true. Just because you don’t understand something and it scares you it is not a reason to lash out and try to diminish someone else’s potential contribution. Analytics (none calls it sabermetrics anymore) is not a fad, it is here to stay, not just in baseball but in every aspect of life. Better adapt or you’ll be left in your little dark age.
Matt Blake was the assistant director of player development and a pitching coordinator with the Cleveland Indians for several years. As per Joel Sherman, Blake was part of the group that mentored and helped Bieber, Civale, and Plesac have breakout seasons this year. That’s not nothing. Cleveland always seems to have solid pitchers and this guy appears to be part of the reason why. I like the hire
@southpaw2153
“…after working as a pitching coordinator and assistant director of pitching development for the previous three seasons.
I have no idea how good or bad he’ll be but read what it said. He’s been working directly with Cleveland’s minor/mlb staff for the past 3 years. I would say that counts for something. Let’s give him a shot and see if he’s the right guy or not.
Red Sox had 4 starting pitchers that were better than anything the Yankees could throw out there.
Look at Baseball-Reference regarding the all-around stats and check your ignorance at the door
Come on man, you’re saying that you don’t wish you signed Chris Sale to a 5 year extension a week before he turned into a #4 starter?
@Melchez
What 4 pitchers are you talking about and when?
What 4 pitchers are you talking about and when?
Duh, obviously…
Roger Clemens
Babe Ruth
Cy Young
And….
Derek Lowe?
@southbeachbully… it makes zero sense to reason with this troll. He hates the Yankees and comes onto every post making sure everyone knows he’s a.) a big troll and b.) not as smart as he thinks he is.
Porcello, Sale, Price and Rodriguez. Don’t you watch the game? Those guys were top starters in 2018. They were so good, they won a championship. Do you remember what a “championship” is? Your team used to win them frequently… not so much any more. You should have watched the World Series this year. The teams there had some super good starting pitchers. It was awesome. One of the better series in my opinion.
Man, you guys had some good starters in the day… Pettitte, Clemens, Cone… Guidry, Hunter, Figueroa… Ford, Terry, Reynolds… man those were solid rotations. Not so much today… Grandpa CC, Tanaka? Happ, Paxton? Who’s the lady beater… German? He was your ace. Man, that’s a sad group. The worst pitcher on that 2018 Red Sox squad would have been your ace. Think about that. Eovaldi had an era of 3.33 and FIP of 2.88. Your best this year had an era of 3.82 and a FIP of 3.86. Good God that’s mediocre.
BTW, my original post was a response to southpaw and der who were talking about the Red Sox in 2018.
Squeaky Melch, “I compare the years that I want to, not the most recent season. With the Red Sox “it’s important to selectively avoid the disaster seasons like last year and all of the times that we completely rank and end up in last place.”
Don’t cry to me fist69… the guy at the top of this thread talked about the 2018 Red Sox, I just said they had a solid rotation. As did the two teams in the World Series this year. As did the Astros the year before and the Cubs. Even the Dodgers had a solid rotation when they were in it. Yankees don’t have that. They have a Meh rotation. It takes more than just a really good bullpen to win a championship. I’m sorry you don’t understand the game of baseball, maybe you should focus on playing with yourself?
Man I wanted coney
At least Cone will still be on YES broadcasts.
At worst, Cone could have taught our young guys how NOT to warm up in the bullpen. Google it if you don’t get the joke.
Go away Rod
Like it really matters who the pitching coach is. If you got a team full of #3 or4 starters a pitching coach isn’t going to magically turn them into an ace.
Says who Ralphie
A pitching coach might help a kid in little league or high school, but I don’t think they make a huge difference in MLB. That’s just my opinion.
Luckily, we ALL have opinions.
Worst opinion ever
Just the opinion of a moron is a better description Ralphie.
Worked for Verlander and Cole…
Yes cause Verlander sucked before he got to the Astros, and Cole was a 26 year old #1 pick. Give me something better.
Verlander himself said he felt washed up before he left Detroit and Cole had become increasingly disappointing in Pittsburgh. They were #3’s cast in higher roles on bad teams. They became top of MLB studs overnight just by switching teams and getting new pitching coaches. So who knows? Maybe Happ will be the comeback player of the year!
Please stop. Verlander improved because he actually had something to play for, and Cole always had the stuff and finally matured. Neither of them was a #3 though. But I really hope you’re right. I can only hope a pitching coach comes and turns Paxton and Sevy into aces.
Give it up Mo. You can’t reason someone out of something they didn’t reason themselves into.
Mo-Ron_4ever, That is a cool story bro. Next time start it off with “Once upon a time”.
Don’t forget that being born yesterday doesn’t stop you from looking into the past.
@Ralphie
The first thing Verlander did was goosh over how great the coaching staff and analytic information was. He said he never experienced anything like it. Cole had 3 declining years of ERA before blossoming under the Astros staff.
I want to make 1 point. It’s never a good thing to ignore analytics. Also, you can be as old school as 70 yo Brent Strom or as extremely analytics driven as (enter name). Chances are if your really good with what you do then you’ll succeed in your own way. If you are average or below, then regardless what your style is you’ll never be good at your job.
Last, regardless of how good you are as a pitching coach the pitcher must have a foundation of talent to start with. No pitcher with average velocity and poor control will ever prosper into a stud because of analytics. At best, a poor SP might be a good relief pitcher if the analytics informs him on how to best use the one thing he’s good at.
Actually Cole began elevating BJ’s fastball and using different selection of secondary pitches. In Houston, their pitching coaches value throwing up in the zone with low hard contact probability pitches resulting in less contact. In Pittsburgh Ray searage’s philosophy was pitching to soft contact and low in the zone. One approach worked for Cole the other worked much better
Good points and well said. Data analysis does not give you the answer, you still need data interpretation and implementation afterwards. That is human effort. A good pitching coach should take it as another input to confirm an approach or to use that information to define a new strategy. In that respect baseball is nothing different than any other business only that you work with qualified personnel in their field of work i.e. baseball. If it works for a pitcher or not, that depends, but a good pitching coach should assess that as well.
Hey Melch-the last time that your privileges were revoked by Mrs. Melch she said the same thing, tossing you out and screaming, “Once upon a time”.
She rubbed it in further, “Bret Gardner
performs better every night then you do any night”.
Paxton and Severino are 3/4 starters huh? You must be a real fan of Yankee baseball.
I sort of expect the Happ bounce-back to neutralize the German regression. Domingo German reminds me of Ivan Nova in this weird way that I can;t shake.
@GoAwayRod
Why do you expect a regression? Because he’s a Yankee? He was considered a top prospect with the Marlins pitching in the Futures Game. I think he’s got the stuff to be at least a #2. He’s got awesome stuff but needs to mature and harness his stuff better, especially limiting homers.
I never mentioned the Yankees or their pitchers genius, i just said that a pitching coach isn’t a magician. I wasn’t focusing only on the Yankees. Great pitchers make pitching coaches look good, that’s all i meant.
Could be a good hire BUT: it was extremely evident in 2019, as I and others stated in multiple comments on this channel, that the Yankees have a huge DEFICIENCY in CONDITIONING !
Those coaches must be replaced and the new S&C alternatives & tactics need to be in place By December as players WOrk Out on their own!
Get movin Cash & Boone !
I’ve never heard of him, but I’ll still give him a chance.
Mets chance to hire David Cone or Al Leiter for pitching coach. Why not? We have a manager with no experience
To go with your GM with 1 year of experience. Maybe Delgado wants to come back and work with the hitters too.
Please, hire Leiter. That would get him off my TV screen. Was so glad he left YES before last season. He brought absolutely nothing to the booth. I wish Ken Singleton would follow Leiter out the door. And John Flaherty, too.
In that case, can we get Michael Kay to run for president or something? He’s the one I need gone from EVERYTHING.
Sure, why not
I’d actually like to see a team be smart hire both a guy like Blake to work the Analytics side and a guy like Cone to teach how to pitch and get out of certain situations. Yes that’s what the minors are for but they don’t teach pitching anymore. They teach speed. A guy like Maddux probably has a harder time making it to the show these days. He was smart new how to pitch in and out up and down and to corners but never really blew a ball past anyone. If someone could teach both things they’d be perfect but I think it takes two people in the majors for it.
Should have hired Cone. Period. Highly intelligent guy, and just a tick below HOF level pitcher. Won a ton of big playoff games. And I’m not even a Yankee fan. But this was obvious to me (and I bet to many of you). Pitching coach is not the spot to hire a millennial geek/nerd.
One world championship in past 19 years. Time for Cashman to go.
am surprised after 4 hours since you posted that Cash the genius’ PR patrol hasn’t gotten on your case with thousands of irrelevant , pointless, and useless stats.
For example Cash has a WAR of 20. Or Cash doesn’t have enough of a budget to find Starting Pitching, or there was no one to get. Or spending 36 million last year on Happless, The fat man, and gardy was money well spent., yada yada yada.
Of course you are correct though as you cite the only state that matters…..
It will be up to Blake to modernize the Yankees’ handling of their arms.
Because they’ve totally modernized their handling of their legs. Injuries much? By the way, pitching is as much about the legs as it is about the arms. Good luck with your new job.
There is nothing modern about pitching. It’s location, movement, velocity. And command.
Solid. Now let’s get Cole and win 200 games next year.
Matt Blake is very well respected throughout baseball and what he did for several years with the Cleavland Indians starting rotation. My guess is the Yankees are hoping this hire will attract a starting pitching free agent or a big starting pitcher with a no trade clause that could convince them to waive if so they can work with Blake. Current and past Cleveland Indian’s starters have had nothing but great things to say about that Blake.