Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 20, 2005
Mazzone to Baltimore

The AP is reporting Leo Mazzone is moving to Baltimore to join his friend Sam Perlozzo as pitching coach. It looks like the Orioles problem last year was not having enough people with double zz's on the coaching staff!

Could this move shift the landscape of the two eastern divisions? Will Atlanta pitch as well without Leo, or will they finally fall out of the division lead? Will the Orioles improve to the point where they compete for a full season with the Yankees and Red Sox? If those shifts happen, especially due to the pitching, Mazzone will go from legend to icon.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:21 AM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

At the very least, this is the experiment we've all been looking for to confirm or deny the Mazzone hypothesis :)

Posted by: Jason at October 20, 2005 11:23 AM

Any news on why Mazzone left Atlanta? Was there a falling out?

Posted by: Adam Villani at October 20, 2005 12:00 PM

It'll be nice to test the "Mazzone hypothesis," but couldn't he have done this in, like, San Diego? Or Japan? Anywhere but the AL East?

Posted by: David Dean at October 20, 2005 12:14 PM

Mazzone goes from enemy of Mets fans to hero overnighbt - he screwed both the Braves and the Yankees with one fell swoop.

I would think the Braves stand a decent chance of being able to replace him. They've got minor league pitching coaches that have been following the Mazzone-way for some time now (I would assume). One of them should be able to take his position and not miss too many beats.

Posted by: JC at October 20, 2005 01:31 PM

And the whole NL East, second division, goes Yay!

Posted by: MAW at October 20, 2005 01:34 PM

How do you figure he screwed the Yankees? It seems that both sides ended talks amicably and decided they weren't interested. The Yanks probably wanted to offer him a one-year contract to see if he could succeed in NY as he did in Atlanta. It'll be interesting to see how well he does in Baltimore. If he can turn Daniel Cabrera and Eric Bedard, two pitchers with extremely high ceilings, into stud hurlers, then he's the real deal. If not, the Cox-Mazzone duo deserves more of the credit than Leo alone.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at October 20, 2005 01:43 PM

More than testing Mazzone, who we know is a great pitching coach, it is a test of the black hole known as the Baltimore Orioles. Can they ruin and frustrate a baseball talent as great as this, or will Mazzone still be able to work his magic in one of baseball's most screwed up organizations?

Posted by: Bill H. (O's fan) at October 20, 2005 02:20 PM

well it will be interesting to see how leo likes working for angelos. it's gonna be a LOT different from schuerholz

and to see what he will do if/when perlozzo gets fired...

Posted by: lisa gray at October 20, 2005 03:27 PM

If I was the Braves, now might be a good time to discuss a trade with the Cubs and see if Maddux is willing to be a player/coach.

Posted by: Jabes at October 20, 2005 03:54 PM

Some research indicates that Mazzone is good for an improvment of about .5 in the ERA of his pitchers. thats works out to about 80 runs a year with that kind of improvment the Os instantly become a .500 team. if they can replace sosa and palmerio with legit hitters they could make the east very interesting

Posted by: ben at October 20, 2005 03:57 PM

Regarding lisa's comment, I wonder if Leo will have as much of a voice in personnel decisions in Baltimore as he had in Atlanta.

Posted by: high&tight at October 20, 2005 10:09 PM

Now maybe the O's will give the Yankees some more competition in the AL East!

Posted by: Yankee Despiser at October 21, 2005 11:49 AM

I still don't understand the "WHY" of Mazzone leaving the Braves, an organization he's been with for 25 years. I've read the online version of the Atlanta Journal Constitution and heard Leo on ESPN radio with Dan Patrick and on Sporting News Radio with James Brown today, and nowhere do they discuss this question. He says he still has a good relationship with Cox, who has been like a second father to him and that money wasn't the driving force. Could it be as simple as that? The O's are going to pay him $500K per season, making Mazzone the highest paid pitching coach in the majors, and an amount about double what he was getting with the Braves. Plus I guess he grew up in the Baltimore area and Pallazo is a buddy. I discount the hometown and best bud theories because Mazzone was ready to take the Yankee job if it was right. Why leave the Braves? Is there a deep dark story there?

Posted by: wallimooner at October 21, 2005 03:36 PM

I'm wondering if Leo feels like Cox is getting close to hanging it up. Schuerholtz won't give coaches multi year deals (Leo gets 3 years in Baltimore). Obviously Leo could stay as long as Cox is there.

Posted by: high&tight at October 21, 2005 04:33 PM

Mazzone might help the Orioles. His teams have been first or second in the NL in ERA in 12 out of the last 14 seasons. Maybe that can offset Terry Crowley whose teams have finished in the bottom half of the league in runs scored in 14 of his 19 seasons as a hitting coach.

Posted by: kinglessswing at October 21, 2005 08:02 PM

It might be a bit much to expect Mazzone to catapult Baltimore to the top of the pitching heap in his first year - it took Cox and Mazzone a couple years to get things turned around in Atlanta, if I remember right.

Posted by: Tom Scudder at October 22, 2005 09:59 AM
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