The Padres still have a few vacancies to fill on manager Bob Melvin’s coaching staff, including both base coaching positions. As part of his latest reader mailbag, Dennis Lin of the Athletic writes that San Diego has been in contact with Matt Williams about the possibility of serving as third base coach. As Lin points out, the 56-year-old Williams spent the 2018-19 seasons on the A’s staff as third base coach during Melvin’s time as Oakland skipper.
Of course, Williams is better known for his 17-year big league playing career and two seasons as Nationals’ manager. A five-time All-Star as a player, Williams took over the Washington dugout in 2014. He was named the National League’s Manager of the Year in his first season at the helm, a year in which the club went 96-66 to claim the NL East title. Yet the Nats disappointed the following season, and Williams was dismissed and replaced with Dusty Baker after the 2015 campaign. Most recently, he spent the 2020-21 campaigns managing the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization. Williams and the Tigers mutually agreed to part ways at the end of this past season.
A couple more staffing notes around the game:
- The Nationals are planning to expand their scouting, player development and minor league coaching staffs, writes Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. As Dougherty explores, Washington has had one of the smaller player development groups around the league in recent seasons. General manager Mike Rizzo and player development director De Jon Watson each recently spoke with Dougherty about the changes, which will see the Nats attempt to streamline their use of video and data in player development. Not coincidentally, the increased emphasis on the minor leagues comes a few months after the club kicked off an organizational reboot at the July 30 trade deadline. Barring changes to the service time structure, the Nationals will control Juan Soto for three more seasons via arbitration. Soto’s potential post-2024 free agency only adds to the urgency for Washington to develop ancillary contributors around their superstar outfielder.
- The Pirates are also embracing a philosophical change on the farm, as Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette chronicles adjustments to the club’s pitching development processes. The goal, coordinator of pitching development Josh Hopper says, is to more effectively tailor training regimens to individual hurlers as opposed to dictating a universal, top-down approach throughout the organization. Prospects like Tahnaj Thomas and Quinn Priester tell Mackey they’re excited about the new direction, with both righties implying the previous approach was not as personalized. Mackey writes that the Bucs have become increasingly willing to embrace different drills as certain pitchers prioritize development of velocity, command, biomechanics efficiency, etc. Mackey chronicles numerous training methods used by different prospects in a piece that’s worth a full read for Pirates’ fans.
As much as I respect the Nationals ownership and Mike Rizzo, they need to make some drastic changes to the way they develop and work with pitchers.
They haven’t developed an in-house starter that was half-way decent in years. They keep messing around with their #4 and #5 guys, giving them chance after chance…and nothing. And they have to go look for bullpen guys at every trading deadline if they’re in contention.
In todays MLB a team needs not just 13 decent pitchers on their ML roster, they need another 4-6 in the high-minors that they can call up in-season. If the Nationals cannot develop their own pitchers then they will be a cellar dwelling team for years. No other NL East team has pitching that bad.
I agree, Samuel. Teams really need at least 8 viable starting pitchers at the beginning of each season because you can count on about 3 hitting the IL every year and one or two of those will miss a lot of time. I’m surprised more teams don’t just roll with a six man rotation from the get go. That way it could shrink back to 5 not if but when a starter gets injured. I don’t think a fifth day of rest would be a bad thing for starting pitchers. Just go with a 6th true starter and forgo that terrible mop up guy every team has in their bullpen.
I’ve been waiting for the Pirates to change their pitching philosophy. A universal approach is one of the worst things any organization can do. I think the Pirates really screwed up the way they handled Chris Archer and Gerrit Cole. I read they were forcing them to throw specific pitches and pocket other pitches without regard for what the player was best at. Never try to mold a player to fit a specific philosophy. Smart teams mold their organizational plan around the talent of their roster.
Welcome to the 21st Century Pittsburgh Pirates.
They still have that 20th century payroll, though.
Good one.
Salary cap!
#JusticeforZimm
what did I miss? which zimm?
When Ben Cherington took over and a new development team was brought in, the whole “pitch-to-contact” bs left with the old regime. Sure, it works for some pitchers and being good at getting ground balls is always a stength, but a pitcher with overpowering stuff should be a strikeout pitcher. Not a pitch-to-contact guy.
The 2022 San Diego Athletic Padres.
If this new approach includes teaching the pitchers to throw strikes, then I’m all for it.
In all fairness, they throw strikes. Just majority of them are strikes for home runs. They throw meatballs half the time. Maybe teach them how to grip and hold the ball, so that the ball has movement and spin
I assume the baseball beat pays more than hockey, but Jason Mackey is being wasted having to come up with random stuff to fill time until the Pirates contend in 2025.
I think 2025 is a bit longer than many would expect. Next year, Oneil Cruz, Roansy Contreras, Travis Swaggerty, Miguel Yajure, Carmen Mlodzinski, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Ji-Hwan Bae, Diego Castillo, and Mason Martin could all lose prospect status. That’s a lot of young players coming up next season. Then in 2023, Nick Gonzales, Liover Peguero, and Quinn Priester will headline their next set of rookies. That’s too much talent not to at least be a WC contender in 2023.
if they hit on 3 or 4 of those first 9 they would be in really good shape but only the best development organizations hit on that kinda ratio and Pitt has never that
I’m going to give Cherington the benefit of the doubt. While the previous regime’s pitching development had a spotty track record, they seemed to bat at least .300 on position players. Cherington afterall played a big role in putting together the Boston Red Sox’ 2013 and 2018 World Series winning cores, as well as the Toronot Blue Jays’ current core.
All good points but we are at a point that was somewhat similar to Huntington’s early years here and he was lauded in a similar context. While I believe the great failure of the previous regime was the twin evils of poor scouting and perhaps even poorer instruction in the minors where it means so much in developing players, it’s hard to believe that Huntington suddenly lost the touch without some prompting from the ownership group with regards to cost effectiveness. Yeah, agree all about Cherington’s tenure so far but the question is, will he be allowed to continue with the plan as the kids make it the majors?
IMO Ben’s role in the WS wins is over rated but still note worthy
in 2013 he ‘bought’ the WS with one of the highest payrolls in the league at the time. They Pirates just won’t do that.
in 2018, many of those players he had very little to do with as a GM. I would note though he was in the organization for a long time and likely had the ear of those ultimately making the decisions. also the red sox had the highest payroll in 2018 some of which was arbitration costs.
It is also note able he signed a few albatross contracts and most seasons the team did poorly.
That said, his approach and experience in scouting and player development should play much nicer than NH did. I also think he would also convince Bob to spend more if there is a shot. Not 200m but probably closer to league average depending on what is available.
I liked NH but the moves and development was horrible especially the second half of the decade.
Gonzales can be up in 2022 as well. He is in AAA at the moment and should see at best, 3 months in AAA. I really see Newman being dealt after the freeze and the Pirates start the season with Oneil, Bae, and Gonzales at the middle infield. Oneil may even see time in RF too. Mason Martin sits down for another year in AAA to fine tune his game a bit more. Swaggerty I can see coming up in 2022 and playing CF and moving Reynolds to LF. RF is going to be the position that could see 5-6 different players playing it. It won’t hurt to have Oneil, Bae, and Gonzales starting this year. 3B Hayes, SS Oneil/Bae, 2nd Gonzales, and CF Swaggerty will be Gold glove candidates in future years. If Reynolds makes the adjustment in LF, that is potentially 5 gold gloves candidates. We probably haven’t seen that many Gold Glove finalist since Bell, King, VanSlyke, and Slaught. Slaught maybe a push but I felt he was a really good catcher at that time. After playing behind Sullivan for a few years, Slaught stepped into the role fairly well.
Would love the Padres to retain Wayne Kirby at 1B. Love that dude. Haven’t heard him going anywhere else yet.
So the Pirates finally realized that not every pitcher throws the same way? That’s earth shattering
Excited for the Pirates next year. Not a play off team but we ‘should’ see a jump in development if Ben’s reputation is deserved but also.. the development before was pretty horrible.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these prospects hit the mlb ‘earlier’ than projected, heck it has been already happening in 2021.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see players like Davis accelerated if they do the right things so that they can have them contributing to the ‘window’
I think it’s fair to say that the new regime has been more aggressive with their promotions to their higher-end prospects. Travis Swaggerty completley skiped Double-A, Carmen Mlodzinski ended 2021 at Triple-A after spending most of the season at High-A. Heck, Oneil Cruz and Roansy Contreras played like a week at Triple-A before making their debuts.
I do think they’ll be aggressive with Davis as well. He played 2 games at the Florida Coast League before getting promoted to High-A Greensboro. Two levels of the minor leagues seperated Davis to the major leagues just a few months after he was drafted.
Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised to see Davis start at AA and AAA at mid-season seeing sometime by the end of ’22. Seems like it would mostly depend on his catching ability.
Of course if the CBA doesn’t change rookie deals and super-2.
It might also depend on where they start Endy Rodriguez. I really like him. Contact hitting switch-hitting backstop who’s power output has steadily increased since his first season. Catching really went from a weakness of the system to a potential strength. Davis, Rodriguez, then they added Abrahan Gutierrez and Carter Bins at the deadline, and drafted Wyatt Hendrie. Solid group of potential future options.
All in all i agree. Pirates had no depth at the beginning of the year and by the end of they year they had a lot of potential. out of the bunch they should get at least one everyday guy a couple backup catcher types and a couple players who only have a C by their name is because they needed a position to get their bat in the draft and they played catcher in little league 😉
Given that Mike Rizzo’s history is in the scouting side I am surprised that they need to expand that area. Finding the balance between analytics and traditional scouting would seem to be a no brained.
Does this mean in the new system Gerrit Cole would’ve been allowed to strike people out instead of trying to only get ground balls?
Yeah, pretty much. That kind of approach worked with the veterans who’s velocity was declining or just couldn’t sling it through the zone around 97 MPH like Francisco Liriano, A.J. Burnett, or Edinson Volquez, but what works for a guy working in the 90-94 MPH range won’t work on a guy that works in the 96-98 MPH range.
I think it was a huge factor in the turnaround for J.A. Happ. He’s who comes to mind for me to the pitch to contact philosophy of the Pirates
The difference in Cole was that someone in Houston got into his head to make him see that he just can’t blow the ball by every hitter. Like Morton, spin and off speed pitches added to heat made/make them more complete pitchers. Here in Pittsburgh, the Searage plan worked with A.J but where Cole especially was concerned, just how long can you keep throwing fastballs to the outside corner until you become a little “predictable?”
Preller’s going into his 8th year, and he’s in the middle of another organizational house cleaning, from the manager, to the coaching staff, to analytics, to development and scouting. At some point, this has to reflect on his inability to build a winning organization, doesn’t it?
Just looking at managers, I can’t think of another GM in baseball who’s been allowed to (scapegoat) fire and hire as many managers as he has.
What is the affect on the players at all levels?
These should be serious questions, open for discussion.