The Yankees made the playoffs and won the AL East last year in what remains one of the greatest mysteries of 2019—after all, just how does any team, no matter how talented, win games in spite of nearly three dozen injured list placements? It seems that’s a question the New York front office would rather avoid moving forward, judging by their hire of Eric Cressey, a well known and “highly sought-after” performance coach (in the words of The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler).
Cressey, the proprietor of Cressey Sports Performance, has counted Max Scherzer and Corey Kluber as personal clients in recent years, and, according to Adler’s report, will help determine the direction of New York’s strength-and-conditioning program, along with taking a lead on personnel decisions. Interestingly, the Yankees will not require Cressey to divest himself of his personal clientele through CSR, not unlike the Reds allowed when they hired Driveline’s Kyle Boddy earlier this offseason.
More notes on behind-the-scenes men and women driving MLB…
- Speaking of Boddy, the new Reds minor league pitching coordinator gave a talk at the American Baseball Coaches Association shedding light on Cincinnati’s organizational pitching philosophy, as covered by Baseball America’s JJ Cooper. Data, as would surprise almost no one, will be central to Boddy’s appraisal of both players and coaches. “Our coaches are graded on skills progression,” Boddy said. “This guy came in throwing 90. At the end of the year, he averages 93. What did you do to do that? This guy had a 30-grade slider based on our data scientists, he now has a 65-grade slider. Why did that happen?… We are holding coaches accountable, and we are promoting them and celebrating them based on the work that they do.” Boddy also shared that every session between pitching coaches and pitchers will be videotaped for later evaluation, with transcription software documenting conversations.
- Former Astros international scouting director, special assistant and major league interpreter Oz Ocampo is joining the Pirates’ front office under new general manager Ben Cherington, in what the baseball man called a return to his “scouting roots” in a Twitter post relayed by Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (link). In addition to his tenure with the Astros, Ocampo has also spent time working under Kim Ng at the MLB office.
Max yes Kluber no. Seriously a team advisor….aka shrink?
Yes, everyone with the title advisor must be a shrink.
What’s the difference between “Advisor” and “Consultant?”
An advisor advises YOU, and a consultant you CONSULT. A consultant is often a person working outside your organization
Really, though they are probably loose terms meaning the same thing in practice.
You f’ed that up but whatever
You came in so hot with that answer. Aggressively using caps. And yet you literally said nothing with meaning. An advisor advises you and a consultant you consult?thanks for that wonderful explanation. Maybe next time just say you have no idea what the difference is.
Oh my gosh!! Look at you taking me down with irony. Keep wasting your life responding to comments of people who didnt know you were even alive before and have literally already forgotten what your handle was while replying.
It’s interesting that the Yankees would allow their new performance guru to continue training the competition as it doesn’t make much sense on paper, but maybe that was the only way to get their guy.
Either way, I had said for most of last season that the entire strength and conditioning staff needed to be fired and it appears that’s what’s happening. The local papers reported this morning that Steve Donohue was basically fired without being fired, instead being given an “emeritus” title.
If you hire a CPA firm they might very well have your competion as their clients as well. They offer professional services.
It seems like Cressey’s role is not going to be much more than an advisory capacity. I’m sure he will set the training program policy and lay out the plan for day to day operations, but it sounds like he will then look for the Yankees next trainer and turn over day to day ops to that person.
You spelled Cincinnati wrong: two “n’s” one “t.”
As a Reds fan, I think I love Boddy!
This is the third time I’ve seen Cincinnati misspelled on this site recently. I appreciate how quickly these folks hammer out content, but please, learn how to spell the cities teams play in!
Demand your money back!
Being FREE doesn’t mean that journalistic standards should slack. I’m guessing people are paid for their work.
3 “n’s”
In a row.
Ah, for the days when MLB teams ran their front offices with 30-40 people, and that included switch board operators (Google the term if you don’t recognize it). Now that technology has eliminated the need for at least half of them, the average MLB team FO’s now employs over 80 people (Business of Baseball).
Nope, the Lords of the Realm ain’t makin’ any money…… At least the Red Sox are cutting back on their “advisors”; 20 guys making 200K a year to determine Sam Travis can’t hit a curve ball.
It’s not your money, why do you care?
Because he’s not smart or talented enough to get in on it so he goes the route of jealousy.
“Boddy also shared that every session between pitching coaches and pitchers will be videotaped for later evaluation, with transcription software documenting conversations.”
_
@ bob;
This is truly scary. A little bit of Communist China or Orwell’s 1984 in MLB.
Has it actually gotten to a point that every session will be videotaped and words transcribed? For all the people on here that think it’s a good idea – is this what you want done to you at your job or at your school?
I know of Boddy and respect some of the things he’s done. But frankly, the overwhelming majority of those he’s worked with haven’t shown improvement that lasted very long. What gives him credibility to critique every single throwing session and all words spoken? This is ‘Control Freak’ taken to bizarre levels. Human beings are not computers to be programmed by someone with so little accomplishment in his past.
I think the Reds are overdoing it in multiple areas. They’re headed into a crash and burn situation.
This is becoming industry standard. Every in game pitch is filmed and used to enhance the performance of the players.
I agree. This guy might be a pitching genius but he’s going to wear out his welcome quickly.
No he won’t. His approach only pisses traditional baseball people off. Luckily, the Reds are almost done weeding them out.
The recording isn’t for constant surveillance lol. It’s to provide immediate feedback to ensure players are being told consistent things across their organizations. One of the biggest issues in MiLB and MLB is clashing philosophy. They learn something early on, then their “veteran” MLB will do a way with it Bc they don’t understand it. From day one, it seems Boddy will try to have a consistent message at every level.
The inconvenient truth unfortunately is that the “analytic revolution” hasn’t really doesn’t anything at all to change the MLB landscape. Yes,SOME analytically oriented organizations (Astros, A’s, Rays) have had some successes. So have the less- analytically ones (Giants, Red Sox, Royals, Nats). Hiring 20 MIT guys to study spin rates may be a great sales pitch to the fanbase, but really, that’s all it is. The REAL genius of the Astros is that they were able to convince their fanbase that losing 100 games a year was a GOOD thing; that they were able to do this has absolutely nothing to do with an analytical approach. Other factors (availability of information about the minors, the internet, etc.) are the real causative factors,.
Historians are as likely to chuckle at the obsession with analytics as they are to admire it, or see it as some kind of “revolution”. There’s a lot less bang for the buck there as is generally assumed. Does it make it “better”?; ya, probably; OPS is “better” than Batting Average. But not significantly so.
BTW, the scary part about “1984” is that it doesn’t have to be “forced” onto the populace. As a species, we WANT to think there are causative factors to what happens to us, from “God’s will” to logarithms….the truth is, there’s a whole lot of random. That’s true, not only in everyday life, but especially in endeavors like baseball, which by its essence has outcomes more random than most human activities.
Over any set time period, Pete Kozema will have more success against Mad Max than Mike Trout does. That over a long period that this is unlikely really is quite irrelevant to the process of winning baseball games.
Boy do you not understand analytics at all lol. Analytics are just a way to confirm or deny what experience shows us. “Man he’s got a great curveball” How do you know? Because he gets lots of outs with it? What if those outs are mostly hard hit outs? Does it still make it good?
So anybody who doesn’t worship at the altar of analytics is a brain-dead Neanderthal. Analytics have SOME value; no one doubts it. Decisive value? Not in the least.
I didn’t say that. They bridge the gap between hear say and truth. Instead of just taking things at face value, they help to show where the value comes from, to exploit it in the future. There are different kinds of analytics as well.
Yep!
If Travis can’t hit the curve, he needs to just call Jobu. It will only cost them cigars and rum.
Eric Cressey does amazing work! Have been following him and his work for years.
Let’s go Cincy!
The little Reds are definitely on the upturn. Great stuff from Boddy. #LetsGoReds.
Yes indeed!!!!
Hey Dylan: instead of saying
“…..not unlike the Reds…..”
why not …..”like the Reds…..”
so it’s simpler please? I’m
reading this at the end of a
long day and I don’t want to
think too much. Thanks!
Ask for your money back.
Can I get my time back? And maybe a return on the intelligence I lost reading childish mistakes?
Something tells me your time isn’t very valuable.
Wow all these ppl complaining about free stories and their mistakes. Must have way too much time on their hands. You know what they are trying to say. geesh.
Wow, Boddy is a genius. No pitching coach before him ever asked those types of questions about how their pitchers can/did improve. My God, how has baseball survived so long without his razor sharp perspective??? Lol Gtfooh
They did ask the questions, but had zero clue on how to find the answers…
Southpaw, you probably said the same thing about the switch from incandescent light bulbs to LED bulbs …
Oh my God, 2 brilliant replies to my post. Ok, millenials
This millennial turns 60 this year
happy 60th birthday soon . I will be a 62 year old millennial this year. being 60 means we can both remember getting into a MLB game for 1 dollar on a sunday afternoon
I’ve been saying since the dismissal of a lot of front office personnel in Pittsburgh, scouting and analysis is what the Pirates need to work on and improve. This is a start in the right direction for the Bucs. A few baseball advanced metrics, analysis, and technical personnel to improve players approaches to the game and daily routine, fine tuning of prospects, and breaking down possible MLB players and prospects before acquiring them. If Billy Beane can do it, why can’t Pittsburgh do it?
There is only one Billy Beane. We still have old traditionalist ownerships that are resistant to change and insist on meddling with decisions which evolve with a modern game.
this Boddy guy just seems too good to be true.
Everyone that gets introduced is the next great thing. They’re supposed to do things we’ve never seen before, get maximum results, or replicate one great case. The next guy will be too.
So Oz used to work for Ng?
Yo!
Can mlbtr list the teams that still employ astrological readers to determine who is best to bat leadoff based on their sign? And which teams have the little old lady that tells everyone they are a winner no matter how poorly they do?
Is this a joke?