Baseball Musings: Coaches Needed?

May 13, 2008

Coaches Needed?

Gaslamp Ball wonders if teams really need coaches:

This allows me to, again, bring up something that's always bothered me. Jbox and Jonny Dub (and sometimes Kev) and I debate this all the time. Basically, it's always bothered me that baseball, unlike every other professional team sport in the world, apparently does not actually have a need for their coaches. Or at the very least, there's the idea that baseball players should be able to "figure it out" on their own.
When the team's not hitting, the hitting coach gets fired, but there's always a vocal argument that firing the hitting coach doesn't actually do anything because the hitters have to know what they're doing on their own. The base coaches get a little more credit, but we've seen players routinely miss (ignore) signs and signals. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but couldn't the players play base coach just as well and save some money? There, I saved some money for the Padres. Make the guys who made the last outs play base coach. We've all done it. It's easy.

There's something to be said for this approach. David Mamet found he didn't need a director:

I wondered and read, and it occurred to me that I knew the answer, and here it is: We just seem to. How do I know? From experience. I referred to my own--take away the director from the staged play and what do you get? Usually a diminution of strife, a shorter rehearsal period, and a better production.
The director, generally, does not cause strife, but his or her presence impels the actors to direct (and manufacture) claims designed to appeal to Authority--that is, to set aside the original goal (staging a play for the audience) and indulge in politics, the purpose of which may be to gain status and influence outside the ostensible goal of the endeavor.

Maybe teams don't need a manager either. Make the players responsible to each other. The seven guys standing behind the pitcher likely have a better sense of when he's tired than the manager in the dugout. It might take some time to make strategic decisions on bunts and hit and runs, but those sorts of things could be discussed before the game or a series. Or the players could just decide that one or two of them have the best strategic sense and leave those particular decisions to those individuals.

There would be no more excuse that things were the managers fault. Players who didn't get with the program would be fired instead. In a way it would be a throwback to the early days of baseball.

Of course, it won't happen. The managers position evolved for a reason, probably so players could concentrate on hitting, pitching and defense, leaving the worries about strategy and press relations to someone else. Still, it might be fun to see what would happen. Maybe the next time a manager is fired late in a season, the team will just let the players take over for a month to see how it works.

Posted by David Pinto at 12:11 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)

Comments

They just need a laptop so they can enter the situation and it spits out your options. Or the computer can watch the game and suggest what to do.

That will lead to android coaches, SkyNet, and the end of civilization.

Posted by: Andrew at May 13, 2008 12:54 PM

What about the return of player-managers? It could provide extra meaning to role-playing veterans who have a longer shelf-life than others (like Sean Casey). You pay them essentially for their good judgment in pinch-hitting, defensive prowess or good nature in starting once a week. So why not allow them to apply those characteristics the rest of the week in a managerial capacity?

Posted by: John at May 13, 2008 02:05 PM

I don't think talking about situations before a game help make many of the decisions you run into during a game. Any catcher can tell you this. So much goes on from at bat to at bat and pitch to pitch that you cannot possibly catch it all while in the field. Catchers have the best opportunity, because they can see how batters make adjustments, etc.

It is important to have a manager to direct what is happening on the field just as it is important for a manager to have coaches he can rely on for decision making. Players can't do it all. Player managers were always a dying breed when they existed, and now they're dead.

Posted by: Seeds at May 13, 2008 02:25 PM

They don't need 6 of them. Why can't the hitting coach or bench coach coach 1B?

Posted by: Bandit at May 13, 2008 02:28 PM

At least in the International League, it is one of the players on the team who's coaching 1st. And the manager coaches 3rd.

Posted by: rbj at May 13, 2008 02:37 PM

Should the seven guys standing behind the mound convene and take a vote? And would they have to vote first to convene? And then vote again, of course, to decide who to bring in? No vote for the catcher? What about defensive replacements late in the game? The pitcher should get a vote on that.

Posted by: Tom at May 13, 2008 03:38 PM

Bring back the Cubs' College of Coaches!

But seriously... baseball hasn't gone as far overboard as football or basketball in the coaching-staff game. Given the increasing use of digital video and scouting reports, there's probably enough off-field work to justify the coaches' existence. And I think in-game tactics are too much for players to handle themselves, or even a player-manager; look at the number of clubs who have a "bench coach" whose primary function is to share ideas with the manager during the game.

Posted by: johnw at May 13, 2008 04:23 PM

There was a player-manager in Japanese professional baseball for 2 (?) years. Their 40 year-old former catcher (Furuta) was made the manager, and it was kind of awkward when he pinch-hit himself into a game.

Coaches and Managers are hired so they can be fired, as far as I can tell. If something goes wrong with player X, they can blame the coach/manager without angering the person they're paying a lot of money to produce, and someone who they can't easily get rid of without consequence or loss.

If coaches and managers contribute as little as assumed, then they are essentially interchangeable, and therefore don't matter if they get fired (though it likely sucks to be them).

Posted by: Sal Paradise at May 13, 2008 07:59 PM