The Marlins have hired Rachel Balkovec to be their director of player development, per a report from Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. She has previously been managing for Single-A Tampa in the Yankees’ organization.
Balkovec, 36, has lots of experience working in the minor leagues, having originally been hired by the Cardinals in 2012 as an interim strength and conditioning coach. She later had the interim tag removed from that title in 2014. She jumped to the Astros in 2016, becoming that club’s Latin America strength and conditioning coordinator, learning to speak Spanish for the role. The Astros moved her to their Double-A affiliate in 2018.
Going into 2020, she was hired by the Yankees to be a minor league hitting coach and then got promoted to manage with Single-A Tampa prior to the 2022 campaign. She has held that gig with the Tarpons for the last two seasons but has now found another opportunity with the Marlins.
As noted by De Nicola, Balkovec has often been the first woman to hold these roles, being the first to become a full-time strength and conditioning coach in affiliated baseball, the first to serve as a full-time hitting coach in an affiliated organization and the first to be a full-time manager for an affiliate.
The Marlins have been undergoing changes in their front office in recent months, with general manager Kim Ng departing the organization as owner Bruce Sherman planned to hire a president of baseball operations to work above her. Sherman expressed concerns about the club’s track record in terms of drafting and developing prospects, something that Balkovec will now be involved in. Geoff DeGroot was let go as director of player development in September of 2022 but wasn’t replaced until now. Peter Bendix was brought over in November from the Rays, a club with a strong reputation for player development, to take the president of baseball operations role.
???
How did she do as mgr
61-67 in 2022
30-34 in 2023
Rather than looking at win loss records for a class A team here the better way to evaluate that would be to look at how the prospects who played under her have done with their development since that’s the purpose of minor league affiliates.
everything i’ve read was positive. good rapport with players able to implement development plans etc
Seems like a diversity signing to me. Wonder if the Marlins are getting cute with the Kim Ng, Rachel Balkovec signings.
It’s an All-American Women’s organization. Yes I stole it from League of their own lol
hot saying that’s not true, but I doubt anything negative was going to be said of her performance no matter what it was.
Came for the boneheaded comments and you delivered. Thanks.
Diversity signing? She’s worked her way up having over 10 years of MLB organizational experience. She didn’t just get handed this job for being a woman.
Innour current climate, I would normally agree with you, but not in this case. This woman has paid her dues with multiple organizations in multiple roles. By all accounts, she’s been top notch at every stop. Players respect her, coaches respect her, and she brings good knowledge of her role. I wish her well.
You lost me at “in our current climate”
The rest of your comment was solid
Well, how’d they do?
She was a hitting coach? Really? So now you can learn baseball digitally (or analytically) and that’s how you know what you’re doing? She played softball. Does that translate? I head up my fantasy league. How do I get an interview?
Crystal clear to me: In the current climate, they promote anyone to fulfill DEI requirements regardless of whether they can cut it on the qualifications. He’s saying, in this case, she’s got the goods. It remains to be seen, of course.
How stupid are you to compare playing in your fantasy baseball league to playing college softball? Go back to your white genocide conspiracy forums and leave the intelligent people alone.
Soooooo fragile. A woman is good at a job that only men have ever done? Must not be based on merits and just on DEI!
Being so threatened by a competent and experienced woman underscores that you lack balls.
Oy
That’s a wide variety of different roles within baseball that she has had. Has she been qualified for any of them?
Did you ask that question every time a male was hired?
In this “age of DEI” it’s still a fair question when an anomaly hire (regardless of the anomaly) happens. If she’s good at her job? God bless her and I wish her all the best.
And more to your point, yes…a LOT of male hires are questioned here and elsewhere. Should we not ask simply because she’s a woman?
If the question is “is this person qualified?” And the answer is “yes” (or “seems to be”) that should be that…it’s a question, not necessarily sexism. IMHO.
Except the justification for the hire is spelled out in the article, as rct noted. Anyone that reads the article knows this hire has held numerous titles in this profession with consistent promotions and even notes Balkovec learning a 2nd language for one of her roles. I find it very hard to believe anyone who reads all of that and still thinks “is she qualified though?” doesn’t have a root issue with the hire being female.
Ok let’s look at some actual examples.
Ryley Westman is San Diego’s director of player development. Prior to that, he served as catching coordinator for the Padres & Rangers, a winter ball manager, minor league hitting coach, and college assistant coach. Does that make him more or less qualified than Rachel Balkovec?
To me, it seems they have pretty similar resumes and experience. Obviously no two resumes are the same but certainly indicates she is “qualified” if that’s what y’all are so worked up about.
Considering her qualifications are in this article, asking the question is 100% sexism because they’re asking it like it hasn’t been answered yet. Your opinion is invalid.
Was there an article dedicated to San Diego hiring Ryley Westerman on this site? Or was it a footnote somewhere?
Turns out it was a footnote somewhere on an updated mlbtr article and didn’t even specify his accolades or qualifications. So doubt many people even noticed his hiring.
mlbtraderumors.com/2021/09/padres-dismiss-farm-dir…
I remember vividly yankee fans questioning Sean Casey as hitting coach last year.
The Giants director of player development was a AA manager and the orioles director of player development was a minor league hitting coach that got promoted to minor league hitting coordinator. Being a minor league hitting coach and/or manager seems to be a stepping stone to player development positions.
Just because she held a lot of jobs does not mean she was good (or bad) at them. It’s a thin resume (breadth notwithstanding) and she’s relatively young. Gender doesn’t matter – at least it shouldn’t- and I honestly don’t care about that one way or the other. I’m simply saying that asking the question (even had read the top part) isn’t so terribly out of line as many of you seem to think.
Orioles director is 29, Mariners director is 36. She is definitely not too young for this title and her resume seems to hold up well to theirs.
If Casey hire was questioned that’s doesn’t excuse that remark about Balkovec. The poster didn’t simply question if she was qualified for this new role, he questioned if she was EVER qualified for ANY of her roles.
Sean Casey had never served as a coach or manager in any capacity prior to landing the Yankees hitting coach job.
Im sure people would question his qualifications as a bullpen coach or pitching coach if he held those roles at some point.
But more to the point. Fans do question people hired by their team and question their qualifications for being employed in prominent positions.
The reason Casey being hired was questioned was he at no point had any experience coaching of any kind.
@fffbbb: I support the hiring of Ms. Balkovec and have been impressed with her accomplishments to date. I am also an old white guy, and don’t appreciate you feeling it necessary to slam old white guys. If you believe that young women should be judged on their own merits and not on just being a young woman then perhaps you should have the maturity to not put down all old white men?
Fff-Do you have something against “old white guys”?
Well spoken Oscar.
I have never seen someone question whether a man hired to be Director of Player Development for a MLB organization was the right choice. That’s probably because 99.9% of people who pay attention to sports don’t even know what that person’s responsibilities are and what their credentials should be, so they don’t question the hire when it’s a man because they have no reason to let the world know they’re mediocre.
Sean Casey was a good professional hitter. Case closed.
When did this site become MLB Trade Rumors Amongst Incels?
This and the Cubs thread with the racist rants. That time of the year: incels getting cabin fever.
Thank_God: I read a lot of your post but stopped when I saw how long it is. You seem to think hiring women to work with minor leagues means women will soon be playing MLB. They won’t. Boys and girls play sports with each other until they reach a certain age. Then boys play against boys and girls play against girls. Guys get stronger than girls. Men’s skeletal structure is bigger than women. MLB is for men and that will never change until mnfred replaced them with robots.
@avenger65
Women will eventually be playing MLB baseball. Bank on that. There’s such a diversity of body types in MLB, height, weight, fitness, performance, defensive positions. Offensive value and skill. There’s no prerequisite. It’s predicated on skill, tools and performance. Women athletes are quite fit and strong. Some quite fast. I can easily envision a 6’0″ 185 lb dynamic, speedster, superb, base stealing, contact hitting, high OBP female CF, with pop being starting position player.
Don’t underestimate Woke Rob.
Goose, are you saying she must have been hired just because someone wants to appear “woke?”
>No, but the problem is that she’s not being hired because she’s the most qualified, it’s because she’s the most progressive.
You know nothing of the matter.
>if I saw this same article about a man, even an ex-player, I’d raise the same questions
Point to where you have already done this.
>but knowing it was done to promote some liberal narrative
Again, you claim to KNOW. You do not know, you suppose, and base your libel on supposition.
>me crazy
Now THAT explains your position completely!
” I know more about baseball than she ever will and I mean that is total sincerity.”
Oh, & how exactly do you know this? Are you assuming that her gender will hinder her from acquiring knowledge?
Terry why are you getting worked up over this? Go to nearly every story on this site and you’ll see comments ridiculing every player, coach and executive, and questioning the moves of all 30 teams.
If you believe in equality, and it seems based on your comments you don’t, she is fair game whether we agree or not.
Did you ask that question every time a male was hired?
==========================
It would occur to me that it was quite a varied resume. I wondered the same thing about Breslow going from Director of Pitching to GM.
There could be reasons for it, but it is not straightforward. The equal rights thing is healthy, but it has to cut both ways.
Joe Brady
“It would occur to me that it was a quite varied resume.” – Your comment would be fair enough, but that is NOT what Jay Tibbs said.
The JayTibbs post that I replied to said:
“That’s a wide variety of different roles within baseball that she has had. Has she been qualified for any of them?”
He did NOT say “That’s a wide variety of different roles within baseball that she has had. That variation concerns me.”
He DID say “Had she been qualified for ANY of them?” (Emphasis added.) No one would reasonably question her qualifications as a strength and conditioning coach, and I suspect the reasoning why the poster questioned her qualifications for ANY of the jobs was indeed gender, or the poster would have cited a reason why he thought she was unqualified. Did she do a good job as a hitting coach or single-A manager, JayTibbs gave no evidence or even anecdotes to the contrary. People bash male hires all the time. But for male hires they give reasons. For female hires, some posters treat it as if that is the reason.
This not like Kim Ng where I could specifically document why and where I would rate her as a GM, factors like hiring a good new manager, taking into account the team has a cheap owner and choosing to weight trades higher than free agent ignings as the owner results in the team being a less preferred destination.
Here, I would readily concede that I cannot evaluate this candidate as good or bad
wiffleball – 1) obviously you are incorrect – several people read his “diatribe” ( and thumbs up it) 2) It was far from infantile or bigoted..quite the opposite. 3) So is it your automatic response to banish anyone with an viewpoint different from yours or is this a special case? Don’t like what he writes? mute him problem solved
I did. and it was not bigoted.
@ Thank – Players are often hit during batting practice. Montgomery was hit while signing autographs, Scherzer was hit in face one time, Gurriel was hit another time. I can probably Google and find others. Getting hit during BP doesn’t speak to anyone’s qualifications. Accidents are always going to happen.
Wow. That’s a lot of words. You could have just said, “no woman is as awesome as I am”. Seems that’s what that 4th (!) paragraph is saying. She couldn’t even protect herself from a foul ball being an argument for anything is… wow. What am I doing engaging your non-sense? Shame on me.
Angels-Longest post ever
You may have diluted the strength of your argument by using the phrase “this chick….”
@Thank_your_mom_you’re_not_my neighbor….Aren’t you the classy one? Being completely inappropriate with subpar spelling.
Try to be better in thinking before posting a comment.
you have forgotten about Samuel
I’ll wait for the movie.
Is it bigoted to call someone bigoted if you haven’t read what they said? Seems like that would be a requirement to knowing if they’re actually bigoted.
Same
Aren’t Angels,
I got to the point you said “This chick” and realized it was time to move on. As the world has over time, seemingly leaving you behind.
LMAO Aren’t Angels wrote that 2000 word dissertation and it got deleted, absolutely all-time massive L
Some wild mental gymnastics he was playing and then kicked himself in the face.
@Thank_God_We_Arent_Angels – there’s many points I’d like to pick at in your post but I’ll just choose one. You say “I’m saying that if I saw this same article about a man, even an ex-player, I’d raise the same questions”.
I went back through MLBTR posts about non-mangerial hirings & promotions and could find only two that you commented on:
The first was about the Angels offensive coordinator saying they should hire more coordinators.
The second was about Kim Ng’s contract status, again pushing this narrative that people are only advocating for her because of her gender and not her accomplishments (and saying listening to her talk about baseball makes you cringe).
While you apparently pride yourself on giving the same scrutiny to both men and women, you certainly haven’t shown that in your actions…
Are you actually asking that question?
Are you actually asking if I’m asking that question?
She took the normal route of playing a sport, studied strength and conditioning, parlayed that into an on-field coaching job, working her way thru areas on the field and then managing a MiLB team, which all play into this front office role of player development. So yes. And she’s no less qualified than the scads of former MLB players who end up in front office roles.
Hopefully there aren’t any other reasons you question her qualifications.
The answers you seek are a few inches up in the article you’re commenting on. Please read it instead of vomiting out thinly-veiled sexism.
No idea what this comment means.
@JayTibbs, baseball is a results industry. We will find out if she deserves the role or not, same as we do for anyone else.
I wish her the best of luck!
She has two masters degrees in Kinesiology and human movement science has has been working full time in the baseball world since 2012. At driveline she specifically researched the effect of pitcher hip movement and hitters eye moment So yea she was qualified as a strength and conditioning coach and moved up the ranks like every other coach and was qualified as a hitting coach. You could also google her instead of just being lazy
She’ll be running a front office but she reports to at least one, but maybe three other front office positions?
You really need to stop. You can couch your sexism in whatever you want and write whatever novel you want about it, but most see it for what it is.
Aren’t, minor league records don’t matter. The minors exist to develop players for the majors.
From “I am Groot” to acknowledging a “Balk”.
And with that, the Miami Marlins have been officially crowned as the 2024 World Series champions
How do you go from being a strength and conditioning coach to director of player development? I know there were other jobs in between but still. There’s no way you can get me to believe that there wasn’t more qualified people for the job.
Because strength and conditioning IS player development?
Duh.
Actually that’s just a small part of it. Player development includes much much more than strength and conditioning. And why do you have to be such an ass about it by adding “duh”?
I am fairly well-read regarding strength training.. But I don’t think that would help me train a player to hit a slider.
Or recognize a player who could hit a slider or throw a good curve. Don’t PD folks make decisions about player movement up and down the minors? Also drafting players?
“How do you go from being a strength and conditioning coach to director of player development? I know there were other jobs in between”
You literally answered your own question in the next sentence. There were jobs in between, ie, she was good at her job and kept getting promoted. Like everyone else. Why are losers like you suddenly worried about qualifications when a woman is involved?
Because men who make these types of statements have never been able to actually talk to women, let alone begin to understand them.
Is it common for a person to go from strength and conditioning coach to director of player development? If it is share that with everyone and it’s clear the person criticizing is wrong.
But if it’s not then they aren’t wrong.
Maybe you should look it up……..
Maybe you should read the article and take note of the roles she held between her first job and her newest job. Looks like a pretty normal career path in the game to me.
Is it normal? I am not saying one way or another I don’t know. Just saying if it’s normal maybe provide some evidence instead of “girls good”.
Maybe get off your butt and find out yourself instead of dressing your sexist bias up as intellectual skepticism
Maybe you should read the article
=========================
The article is fairly useless in that regard. You are better off recommending that people read her Wiki page.
Lol OK thank God we get it you are a God among internet men here according to you. Who are we mere plebs to question your manly bona fides and how people constantly tell you that you’re the smartest baseball fan who ever was.
In my experience confident, secure and successful people don’t generally feel the need to write huge walls of text in website comment sections about how great they are and how they TOTALLY DO SEX WITH HOTTIES YOU GUYS. I call bs, jealousy and insecurity homie. Have a great day now ya hear?
That poor “beautiful” “woman” you’re married to.
Aren’t has gone completely off the rails. Thanks, Mute button.
Is the player development of softball players the same as MLB players? Her playing experience was in softball.
Thanks, Beta Pete.
Thank Gob, Somehow, a group of people with a lot more intel and understanding of the position than you chose to hire her.
Is that intel…or “incel”???
Thank Gob, I was addressing you. Not a straw man argument. Not interested in your rants. Sorry you didn’t get the job. Next time!
She has two masters degree in the field and first started working as a coach in 2012.
What master degrees are those?
Not a big believer in a college education being important for these type of roles. And I said that yesterday about Chaim Bloom it has nothing to do with man or woman.
Joel P look it up. Jesus!
@Joel Educate yourself on degrees and then educate yourself on the role and see the correlation. It’s not that hard. This convo has nothing to do with Chaim Bloom.
Pretending as if you’re “just asking questions” when you’re just mad that a woman got hired is easily transparent.
I asked what degrees she has. Is that not a legit question?
Like I said I don’t think a college education and working in a baseball front office should have anything to do with each other. My opinion isn’t share by MLB owners I know that.
Why would someone be mad a woman was hired?
She graduated from New Mexico in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science.[1] She then earned her master’s degree from Louisiana State University in kinesiology.[2] In 2018, she enrolled in Vrije University in the Netherlands to study human movement sciences,[2] earning her second master’s degree.[4]
-Per Wiki
The background for the phys-ed part is more than solid.
That sounds like an overqualified gym teachers resume.
Truly I dint know what kind of education you would have that would be beneficial to this job. Not saying it doesn’t exist just saying I don’t know what it would be.
Casey Stengel managed the Yankees to 7 WS titles. Barely finished high school. A degree in kinesiology will not help a player development person in recognizing MLB talent.
Lmao you’re citing things that happened in the 20s through 50s. As much as you want it to go back to the old days where women just make you dinner and can’t be in baseball, they’re long gone, boomer.
And since you’re anti-intellectual too, please explain how a kinesiology degree isn’t helpful. The coach at UGA has a master’s in it. I suppose that doesn’t do anything for him? Or is it only helpful for a man?
Since you can’t own up to your sexism, just take the L and go away.
From the article
“ first woman to hold these roles, being the first to become a full-time strength and conditioning coach in affiliated baseball, the first to serve as a full-time hitting coach in an affiliated organization and the first to be a full-time manager for an affiliate”
Idk how she performed in those roles or what impact she had on Yankees prospects hitting and pitching and fielding.
Could be the marlins taking a chance on an up and coming naming
Could be the marlins being cheap and going with a first time candidate rather than an experienced expensive candidate
Only marlins really know why they hired her compared to others.
Baseball is a results based industry. She either helps minor leaguers transition to become useful major leaguers or she doesn’t. I’d give her 5-7 years in the role and let’s judge her results then.
Let’s see if she has an eye for talent in drafts and ifa spending. I’m sure she gets input into those decisions too.
She will be managing in the majors before all is done.
You love to see it
This is so brave.
LOL.
At first glance, I thought the Tampa team was the “Tampons”.
What are you 13 years old? Grow up bruh.
Cmon just having a little fun with the name of the team. Sounds like you could use a little humor in your life.
I love humor coop! Lmk if you ever learn how to do it well.
Rememberthecoop a hit with the ladies. To wit: “Ma!!! Meatloaf!!!!”
I posted my comment before I saw this one.. so Im not the only one.
sure you did kid
LOL! That’ll be next.
Let the intellectual discourse begin!
I for one expect a robust and erudite symposium fully informed by the theorems of bell hooks and Simone de beauvoir among other luminaries lol
Thank you, HatlessPete! Standards must be maintained!
@bart lol you know it broseph! Veritas et Scientia MFers!!!!
Nice one! The LaSalle University motto (minus the ‘MFers!!!’, of course).
Or the flogging will continue?
HatleesPete — But before all that, pull my finger 🙂
Here for the comments
I guess people don’t realize player development has to do with working with minor leagues.
Says here she learned Spanish so she could communicate with all players when she was working in Houston organization. Pretty cool.
I would have thought speaking spanish would have been a prerequisite to get the job
Can Mike Rizzo speak Spanish?
Learning Spanish? sHe’S wOkE i KnEw It
LOL
She joined a drum circle too to fit in with the Astros. Some tribes send smoke signals. Houston uses cans.
Cool, a Croatian
I’ve never seen anybody from the planet Croat, sweet!
Yeah, when they arrive they also say “take me to your leader” except theyre wearing babooshkas.
Out goes one, in goes another…
So, if you’re goal is to focus on Three True Outcome players, what would the training and development be for that? For example, the guy’s gotta strikeout a bunch but also have a good eye to walk. How do you develop that?
Yeah, if she can figure that out (I have my sincere doubts) then she will be desired by every single MLB team for exponentially higher pay.
Part of the problem with TTOs is, like Joey Gallo, they are committed to their own method. It’s extremely difficult to get someone to change who doesn’t want to. Best of luck to her though.
“-she will be desired by every single MLB team”
You dirty dog, Clip!!
P.S. I’m all for Girl players and coaches and execs etc in the show, Clip! I think someday pretty darn soon (a few years tops), that we will have a Girl pitcher in the show. I have been hearing about these HS Girls that are playing on D1 teams with 12-0 records and 0.07 era’s! One I heard about throws a filthy knuckle. She is probably good enough to get guys out right now lol. So yeah that will be cool to see.
**get guys out in The Show right now
Lolol, I didn’t realize how “desired” would read in that context.
Seriously though, it won’t surprise me either, especially since some of the women today are built like trucks. I mean, have you seen Ann Andres?
I’ll probably get slammed for referring to them as “Girls,” but I mean it in the most harmless way. I just saw “A League of Their Own” for the 87th time the other day and thats what they were called. Girls lol. And even if one is built like our pal Altuve, and throws some type of sicko knuckler, she’ll probably be alright. I don’t see a hitter making the show as much as I do a pitcher.
@TrumboRedux,
6’0″ 185 female speedster CF., high OBP, line drive, contact hitting base stealer.
Whom do you speak of that fits this description?
You keep going back to 6’0″ 185 which is a bit curious. But what are her measurements? And her likes (puppies) and dislikes (mean people) and hobbies?
LOL!!!!!!! That was great, Theo. I can’t top that hah
Given that Altuve is as big as my cat and absolutely jacks the ball any size, shape dimension is possible.
Altuve is the strongest little Venezuelan in the world. Only one of him.
I really had to take a second look when it stated she managed the TARPONS. Actually thought I read TAMPONS
as long as she doesn’t begin to introduce proper use of pronouns in her day to day responsibilities and just does the damn job, good for her.
Learning the proper use of pro nouns is usually learned in grade school
you just used three pronouns…..
If by “proper” you mean improper, woke, cult grammar, then yes. I agree.
Don’t listen to Carl. They are still stuck in their parents’ basement. Xe might get out one day if xey let xim.
Carl just a product of the unfriendly confines of Wrigley field, where the suburbanites and farm country transplants who aren’t comfortable around diverse settings take up residence in the summer. Unlike folks who actually live and work in diverse company. Maybe even start a mixed race family. Imagine that.
Funny, I live a mile south of Wrigley. Carl would probably call this very affluent neighborhood a “war zone”
Embarrassing how you think that anyone who has a gender that isn’t “man” or “woman” is a part of some cult. Just shows how transphobic you are. It’s funny, because you Trump-thumpers actually are a cult.
Go back to protesting at libraries, you absolute bigot.
People can identify how they want. Who are you to tell people how to identify and live their lives? Gender is not a biological trait. Read a book, you simpleton.
LMAO of COURSE he’s from Oak Park. Born with the silver spoon in his mouth.
The lady doth protesteth too much methinks
So when you screech “ma, meatloaf!” to the heavens in frustration does that make it her meatloaf or your meatloaf, since you did not initially make it or have the recipe but its now in your possession so conceivably yours to dictate how to use-consume.
DEI hire…
You and like 3 other knuckledragging mouthbreathers in this thread. And it wasn’t funny the first time.
Men get worried whenever women get hired in sports as if anyone on this forum is in a position to get this job. She didn’t beat you out for the position, so don’t worry about it. Nobody is hiring a woman for this job for inclusion reasons, contrary to what many of you want to believe. If that were the case, there would be more women and minorities in leadership positions in baseball. They hired her because all of her background was in developing players (strength and conditioning, hitting coach, managing prospects, etc) and this is about developing players.
“Nobody is hiring a woman for this job for inclusion reasons”
Are you joking or just born yesterday. Am I reading a comment from a 1 day old infant who has no clue about the current sociopolitical climate in the West? If so, well done.
Carl has zero qualifications in baseball and in life, so either they are jealous, sexist or both. Either way, they need to get off the internet and meet people unlike them.
Hey Carl, shouldn’t you be prepping your race baiting comments for a new season at Wrigley? The Cubs just signed an Asian player so have at it.
No, I need to know. Do you people actually believe that in 2024 nobody would hire a woman over a more qualified male as a DEI virtue signal?
Are you guys actually that delusional or are you just feigning stupidity to protect your fragile ideology?
That’s what beta’s do, Carl. But you know that.
So you’re an incel? Because this is classic incel talk. Thinking you’re an alpha, but a woman has never touched you.
@Enregistre well that depends…mace and tazers are sort of like them touching him.
lmao Pete
Total moron post, Catuli.
Par for the course for Catuli. Sadly lot of fellow brethren at the friendly confines are like him, afraid of change and the modern world. Transplants straight from the Iowa caucauses
Nah man, he’s from the mean streets of Oak Park!
It’s not that men are worried. In fact, I am confident in saying nobody in this comment section will ever be contending for a coaching position at the mlb level. She may be more qualified than a lot of men (certainly more qualified than me) but we really do not know if she was hired for her qualifications or for DEI reasons. People who are asking this question aren’t sexist, they are simply living in a world where this kind of thing happens often. So i think it’s fair to question. I wish her the best, but if she does a poor job, it’s a real bad look for the organization.
So the marlins traded Kim Ng and Geoff DeGroot for Peter Bendix and Rachel Balkovec. I’m partial to Kim Ng’s talents over Peter Bendix. Rachel will have to crush Geoff’s efforts by a wide margin for this deal to be even.
@Wampum…..How was Geoff DeGroot at hitter development?
This is an honest question and not countering what you’re saying. It seems her recent experience may be leaning more on the developing hitters. Broadly speaking, seems that’s an area of player development where the Marlin org could improve.
Kim Ng was great. Could see Peter Bendix perusing more middle infielders. He was always partial to a certain type of journeyman ballplayer like Gordon and Tim Beckham. Makes sense tho. Bendix like Beckham.
Waiting for the comments to be closed. Do better people.
I love how any time ONE woman is hired it’s somehow some kind of “liberal agenda” or “hiring bias” — but over a hundred years of ALL MEN is totally fair and unbiased, and the only thing people have ever cared about was who was the most qualified.
But that one woman, well, that upends the whole system, according to these people. I wonder what system it’s threatening, according to them?
I think it’s always fair to talk about qualifications but I do say it seems to happen more with women than it does with men. I am a Cardinal fan Mike Matheny was hired to replace LaRussa and he had no experience whatsoever. He was literally managing his daughter’s little league team at the time of his hiring. And people really didn’t make a big deal about it at all. Perhaps this woman is getting an opportunity that others deserved more but at the same time no woman would ever be hired to manage with Mathenys resume.
“Do better” = agree with me
One day a woman will talk to you I’m sure.
What are your pronouns, Enregistre?
@Carl Maybe better to……”Remain silent and be thought a fool or open mouth and remove all doubt.”
Quote typically attributed to Lincoln.
Instead of “do better,” I’d say “feel less threatened, life-like a baseball-is a process of adjustments.”
If you don’t adjust to changes, you’ll suffer for it.
The quote is from Mark Twain.
Well maybe we keep comments open for fun sees. Seeing Carl rack up more Ls on this thread than the Carolina Panthers is worth the price of admission. Popcorn, plz.
What in the world is this man talking about?
Lol he muted me because of that comment. Sensitive guy.
Most people have muted you since you’re so backwards. Note how some of your comments have zero thumbs up.
Pronouns, Enregistre. Now.
Stop hitting on me! I’m not into old guys like you.
Folks, she’s qualified. Could there be a male candidate out there who is more qualified…sure, and so what? Marlins wanted her, they have a role for her, if she’s no good at it they will show her the door. Let’s exhale. No one is asking her to turn around a 98MPH fastball and deposit it over the center-field fence.. If you don’t give people a chance, there can never be new blood, possibly to excel.
Right on. Literally every time a job opens in pro baseball there are qualified applicants who don’t get the gig. Same as any other desirable and competitive job opening out there in any field. Just a bunch of sexist manchildren who never grew out of keeping girls out of the tree house up in here.
Aren’t, you lost your credibility long ago in this debate.
She’s a woman which proves she’s the best for any and all jobs.
Yes, but can she define what a woman is??
She’s full of it. Only signs personal autographs.
I don’t care about her gender. If she does good work, then she is qualified.
Marlins being the ones to see the potential in women, I like that.
Is she married? I love strong liberal women
Did you just assume its gender?
If someone with zero baseball background or love for the game of baseball could pick it up one day, and find themselves President of a baseball team, then Rachel has qualifications.
I’d rather a baseball lifer who loves the game gain opportunities than non-baseball people with a math degree gain important positions.
Using Yankees as an example, Aaron Boone was given the manager job without ANY prior coaching or managing experience in MILB or MLB. He had 7 years as a TV analyst and he played MLB ball.
Balkovec has held different roles. Had accreditations, MBA, learned second language and had lot of positive reviews for her work from both the team and the players. She’s proven she’s worthy of the opportunity at least.
Boone is also a 3rd generation baseball man.
But there are executives who didn’t grow up with the game, did not love the game and did not care for the game. They have high ranking positions inside the game.
If you thought the comments here were divisive, imagine the ones the Marlins will be having amongst each other.
Lol
We need more male supermodels
This entire comment section is why I never post on this website anymore. This community is cancer.
She never did anything important, just the fact that she was a woman and that Cashman wanted publicity with something about the 2030 agenda. I’m sure there are many former players who have a lot more knowledge than her and with the same school degrees.
Have a good trip on the beaches of Miami.
Another failed man who is too fragile to believe a woman could be qualified for a job that men do.
Plot twist. She has a penis.
How can a woman even begin to know how to “develop” men?
Sounds like you don’t love your mother.
Love her dearly, but she didn’t teach me how to be a man because, ya know, she’s a woman
This coach isn’t teaching them how to be a man, she’s teaching them how to be better baseball players.
Because she has a penis.
How can she develop men into being better baseball players when she’s not a man and has never played professional baseball?
She played college softball. Plenty of coaches never played at the pro level. For example, the guy who many think is one of the best pitching coach in the game—Derek Johnson of the Reds—only played in college.
After reading all the comments I notice that no one is asking the truly important question….can she cook?
I read this in Norm Macdonald’s voice.
Everytime I double down on 11 and fail spectacularly I think of Norm.
Lol Nice, riffraff. If I was on her team I would expect freshly baked protein muffins and cute little cupcakes delivered to the clubhouse by her every home game. No later than an hour before BP. No excuses! Better be taking care of the hungry men in their clubhouse!
Strength and conditioning background definitely screams Director of Player Dev……..meanwhile we are still one of two teams who havent spent a penny in MLB free agency
Correction, Marlins are now the only team that has not spent one penny in MLB free agency this offseason……but hey, we still lead the league in DEI hires
All opinions should be allowed since we are not (yet) North Korea where only one party line is allowed.
How do we know that this person identifies as a woman and they use she/her pronouns.
Awful presumptuous of the author if you ask me
I don’t know what’s more annoying, the pronoun people or the people that constantly make annoying non-stop “jokes” about them.
Lots of disagreement on qualifications for the job of DPD but I doubt that any MLB team would be disadvantaged if the position was eliminated, so no matter the “qualifications”, it’s irrelevant as to who holds the position. We all know that drafting and developing players in such a difficult and highly individualized sport is a crapshoot. Do away with 80% of the bloated staff and teams will do just as well.
She probably works harder than 99% of the people complaining about her being hired.
Personally, as an avid fish fan. I think this is a great hire. We always have players on IR and our training strength and conditioning staff should be cleaned out. This also is a great intel move as she can find the next Martian or Cole in the Yanks system after we lost Ngs inside expertise. She’s going to make sure Luzardo prospects produce. Knowing Astros minor leagues also helps. Welcome aboard, Rachel!
Everyone’s doing the fish. Yeah yeah yeah. Good times
My favorite Martian
People will have questions until they see us develop the next big stud under her watch…which I hope does happen.
Funny that the same people trying to question her ability are some of the same people that bashed the Marlins for letting Ng go, when Ng left because she wanted to do the Player Development hire instead of Sherman getting someone else to do it. Let me see…Marlins have a good hire in Peter Bendix. And then the Player Development person that is hired is a woman that Ng may not have hired. Hmmm…I think the people bashing the Marlins about these hires and departures need to reexamine their statements and stances.
Peter Bendix may go out and hire Gordon Beckham as his deputy. Word on the street: Bendix like Beckham.
Gordon Bombay is the man to get!
I for one favour a diverse range of people in coaching and Front Office roles. There should always be opportunities for ex players (Major and Minor League) but also for people with qualifications in useful areas, and Balkovec has learnt a lot about preparing people to play and using technology to help the physical processes of playing the game.
There certainly have been college types in Front Offices for a long time. I would certainly prefer someone with degrees in how bodies function than a degree at Harvard Business School (Michael Hill) or Latin Classics at Yale (Chaim Bloom)
I wish Rachel lots of luck and success in the Marlins organization
She has a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, learned a foreign language to advance in her field, and has a dozen years of experience training, coaching and managing professional baseball players.
Meanwhile, a bunch of mediocre keyboard warrior knuckle-dragging anti-American losers whose mush-brained responses to virtually everything involve using “woke” and “liberal agenda” as slurs are questioning her being hired.
Not hard to pick a side in this argument.
Between the misogynist comments here and racist comments on the Cub thread its been a banner day on the boards
Take her over Boone any day.
Compared to the fools running baseball operations under Derek Jeter’s watch, anyone new would represent a significant improvement. How about all those great position players Gary Denbo & company drafted over the last five years? J.J. Bleday, Conner Scott, Joe Mack, Khalil Watson, Jacob Berry, and many others. None of them could hit water if they fell out of a boat, and any major league potential they may have once displayed now looks like a pipe dream. One would think the law of averages would allow at least one drafted position player to flourish, but that’s not the case. The inept and dysfunctional scouting department under Jeter has been perfect, batting .000. They are the root cause of the Marlins offensive struggles since 2018, I, for one, am glad to see Rachel Balkovec come on board, and I hope she can shake things up and do us proud. But whatever happens, in my estimation it’s all good – because no one could possibly be as incompetent as the clowns she’s replacing.
Over the past two Low A seasons, I got to see Ms. Balkovec manage her team. Like most Low A managers, she also coached a base when her team was batting; in her case, first base.
She sure looks and acts like a manager, and her players had no issues playing for her. She also had the respect of the opposing teams and umpiring crews.
I expect she will improve the Marlins player development system based on what she has done with the Yankees prospects with whom she has worked.
@farscott
Thank you, my friend, for sharing your insights and observations. Believe me, the prospect of a wholesale upgrade in our minor league scouting, drafting, and player development would bring joy to the hearts of Marlins fans. This organization doesn’t have deep pockets. The only way to build a sustainable winner in South Florida is with homegrown talent – consistently, year upon year. To do that, we need smart, forward-thinking people in the front office, not clueless wonders. Was ever thus – and today even more so. But in truth, I feel a renewed sense of optimism with the arrivals of Bendix, Balkovec and all the other new people. We’ll see how it plays.