The Value of Good Coaching
 

Article from BP by CJ Nitkowski. Good read. And for the record, it isn't a saber bashing article but it could seem that way from the intro I pasted below. I just didn't want to paste too much article and get grounded.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ar...rticleid=18964

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

:beerme:

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

I guess coaching is a supposed stable factor in all the numbers, which isn't an assumption I'd guess anyone would care to make after it being pointed out. Good stuff. I think the line of talk that states "you're just managing egos" has pervaded the public perception about the coaches role. Interesting to hear from a player on this topic.

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

Baseball is a game of constant adjustments, and having highly competent coaches who can analyze and offer suggestions is very important. At that level, I don't think you can force yourself on players, and like all levels, you have to make the player believe that you, as a coach, have something that is valuable to them, something they want and need. Some players are very stubborn. Some have trusted people and coaches from their past, outside of the team, that they go to for help when things are going bad. That may even be "Dad" in some cases. You have to build trust, as a coach, to be effective.

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

This stuck out for me....

This, to me, screams Dusty Baker in my book.

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

Fortunately CJ is only rarely befuddled if he ever actually has been. I can't think of an instance where a saber writer has done what he describes.

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

All coaches don't offer valuable information and aren't "engaged." Since I have retired from coaching at this point in my life, I have asked Matt what his coaches say when he begins to struggle and they come out to the mound. It's usually the same thing. "Throw strikes," or "You need to focus," or "You're not picking up your target," or something trivial that a lot of TV announcers might say. He usually waits till the inning is over and comes to the fence to ask me, "What am I doing wrong." A lot of it is taking the time to know your pitcher's mechanics and having a few quick fixes for game situations that aren't necessarily the long term cure of the problem. Coaches that take the time to know their players and their mechanics are always the best. That takes work, though, and a lot of coaches don't like that part.

_Sir_Charles comment about communication, above, is right on the money. Some coaches see the problem, know how to fix it, but can't communicate it to the player.

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

I always laugh when I hear coaches yell these things. Like the kid is trying not to throw strikes!

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

A good coach can save/make a players career, I don't believe a bad coach can ruin someones career

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

They certainly can ruin pitchers at an early age by throwing them so many innings in the summer.

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

True, I suppose I should amend that to the bad coach can ruin a pitchers career while a bad coach likely can't ruin a position players career

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

I'd love to see some of these articles where sabermetric scribes talk about the uselessness of coaching.

Why did Billy Beane have to write that book anyways?

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

There out there, let's not pretend that the BP of 2004 wasn't snarky at all, because I read it religiously and it was

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

Of course it was. But I don't think the critique was about the tone of sabermetrics in 2004.

Re: The Value of Good Coaching
 

There are many posters on Redszone who ascribe to the notion that a manager's usefulness is virtually nil. If a manager is the top coach, so to speak, how can coaches be viewed as anything other than useless (or close to it) for those posters?

(BTW, I'm very numbers-oriented, but woy's right. There have been a ton of people in the sabre community and those who ascribe to the sabre approach over the past decade that poo-pooh traditional coach'em-ups as little more than cheerleaders.)