Tag Archives: Don Mattingly

September 25, 2022

Mattingly Exits

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Don Mattingly and the Marlins agreed on a parting of ways:

“After meeting with Mr. Sherman and discussing with [general manager] Kim Ng, all parties agreed that it was time for a new voice for the organization,” Mattingly said in a statement. “I am proud and honored to have served as manager of the Marlins for the past seven years and have enjoyed my experiences and relationships I’ve developed within the organization. I look forward to spending time with my family in Evansville, and to any future endeavors.”

MLB.com

That would appear to purge all the former Yankees captains from the Marlins. One wonders if this opens a door to The Bronx. The Yankees have fired managers for not winning the post-season Sometimes Aaron Boone appears to be on thin ice. I suspect Mattingly would be much better with a mature team than a rebuilding one.

August 11, 2021

Mattingly On Hitting

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National treasure David Laurila speaks with Don Mattingly on hitting. It’s a great interview. Here’s a bit on batters having a two-strike approach:

Laurila: You mentioned Derek Jeter. Can you elaborate on his thoughts?

Mattingly: “Derek talks about how we need to have some type of two-strike approach. There are times when you really need to put a ball in play. That’s when you need to at least have that in your bag. When you talk about two different swings… two-strike approach is more of a thought-process than it is a change in the swing. You might shorten it a little bit, but it’s more of a thought-process that helps you to put the ball in play.

“What’s really happened over the years is [a philosophy of] ‘Never get away from your best swing; always keep going for it.’ That’s probably good for certain circumstances, but there are other ones like, ‘Man, we’ve got second and third, and they’re playing the infield back, and all I need is a groundball to the right side to get a run, and to get a guy to third with a chance for another run.’ Instead, you get a strikeout and a pop up, and you’re out of the inning.

“Derek is definitely a believer in putting the ball in play, being able to move runners, being able to add on a run. But you don’t totally go away from some of the things that the numbers tell you will score you more runs. You listen to both sides. There are times for everything [and] never one absolute way to do it. You need to add some common sense to the whole thing.”

FanGraphs.com

The whole interview is worth the read, espeically the parts about how Mattingly developed as a hitter.

December 17, 2020

More False Outcomes

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Don Mattingly wants rule changes to reduce the number of three-true outcome events:

“I watched a lot of the playoff games after we were eliminated and quite honestly it was a little hard to watch,” he said. “There was nothing going on. Strikeout, strikeout, home run. It was hard to watch. It tells me we have to find a way to make our game move.”

ESPN.com

Instead of rule changes, how about economic incentives? How about large bonuses, in the millions of dollars, to hitters who don’t strike out and pitchers who don’t walk batters? Pay the batting title qualifier with the lowest K% five million, and work down from their to pay the top 20. Do the same with ERA qualifiers for walks. Maybe have a second set of lower bonuses for relief pitchers, or part-time players. Young players might go for this as a way to earn above the league minimum salary.

I wish baseball thought in terms of paying for what they want rather than fighting over rules.

November 10, 2020

NL Manager of the Year

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The BBWAA presents the Manager of the Year award for the National League for 2020 to Don Mattingly of the Miami Marlins. Mattingly received 124 points with 20 first place votes. Jayce Tingler of the Padres garnered 71 points for second place, and David Ross of the Cubs came in third with 25 points. Six different managers received first place votes.

This is well deserved given the problems faced by the Marlins in 2020. Mattingly is now one of the few people to win an MVP and a Manager of the Year award.

November 3, 2020

IBWAA Manager of the Year

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The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announced their Manager of the Year picks. From the press release:

The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announced the winners of the IBWAA Manager of the Year awards Tuesday: Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays and Don Mattingly of the Miami Marlins. This is the IBWAA’s 12th annual election for these awards. All IBWAA members were eligible to vote.

Election results are as follows:

AL:

1st Place: Kevin Cash, Tampa Bay Rays- 479 points
2nd Place: Rick Renteria, Chicago White Sox- 282 points
3rd Place: Bob Melvin, Oakland Athletics- 161 points

NL:

1st Place: Don Mattingly, Miami Marlins- 341 points
2nd Place: Jayce Tingler, San Diego Padres- 305 points
3rd Place: Dave Roberts, Los Angeles Dodgers- 135 points

The IBWAA endeavors to serve the baseball writing community, representing more than 600 baseball content creators. We strive to increase visibility, networking, and opportunities for all of our members. Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results announced the following January.

Cash led a low-budget team to the best record in the American League. It must be tough for Renteria to be let go after a fine season in Chicago.

Mattingly led a team that posted two terrible seasons in 2018 and 2019. That group was then wiped out by COVID-19, forcing the reserves into action. They also had to play a tough, double-header heavy schedule. Some how they made the playoffs and won the wild card round.

Congratulations to both on well deserved wins.

September 16, 2018

Push-back Against Expanded Rosters

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Don Mattingly is the latest to come out against bigger September rosters:

Manager Don Mattingly called for a change in September roster rules after the Marlins and Phillies set an unusual major league record on Saturday.

The two teams combined to use 15 pitchers — seven for the Marlins and eight for the Phillies — not one of which stepped up to the plate to bat. And that, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, had never happened before in a big-league game in the “Modern Era” (since 1900) that didn’t involve a designated hitter, no matter the number of pitchers used.

“What we did today and really what they ended up doing, too, is something that really only happens in September and, quite honestly, shouldn’t be able to happen,” Mattingly said after the Marlins’ quirky 5-4 loss to the Phillies. “It’s too many guys. It’s not really regular baseball.”

Momentum has been building toward this idea for a long time. We will see what happens. My guess is that the four rotation pitchers would be left off, and we’d end up with the same situation.

August 27, 2018

The Streaks

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Kendrys Morales has a chance to tie the record for homering in consecutive games tonight. Here’s how his streak compares to the others.

Ken Griffey, Jr. was the most recent player to accomplish the feat. He hit .400/.432/1.086 during his eight games, blasting eight home runs. Amazingly, he walked just twice as it appears the opposition did not pitch around Junior. His six other hits were all singles.

Don Mattingly was the first person to accomplish the feat in the American League. He hit .459/.487/1.324, hitting ten home runs. He added two doubles and five singles. Like Griffey, he only walked twice. Mattingly hit two grand slams in the streak, and would hit six for the season. That is the record, and the only six grand slams Mattingly hit.

Dale Long was the first person to accomplish the feat and the only one from the National League. He hit .500/.529/1.400 with eight home runs. He walked three times and collected three doubles and four singles. He would hit 27 home runs for the season.

In his seven games, Morales is hitting .481/.500/1.370 wit eight home runs. His other five hits were singles. He walked once.

I would give Long the most impressive streak, although Morales could challenge that. The common thread seems to be that pitchers challenged these hitters. We’ll see what the Orioles do tonight. I suspect with the record on the line, they won’t pitch around Morales unless the game situation calls for it.

May 6, 2018

Research Project

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This is a start of a little project to try to study the changes in strikeouts over the years. I was hoping to cluster players into groups and study how the strikeout rates of those groups change over time. This spreadsheet is a first attempt. It includes everyone whose career started in 1969 or later (low mound era, division era), last played no later than 2015, and accumulated at least 2000 PA. For those players, I calculated their BABIP, and their BABNIP (batting average on balls not in play), defined as HR/(HR+K). The median BABIP was .291, the median BABNIP was .133.

There is a scatter plot of the data with the spreadsheet. Google does not make it easy to label points with the batter’s name, but you should be able to see the extremes. The most interesting grouping to me is Tony Gwynn, Manny Ramirez, Larry Walker, and Todd Helton. Gwynn did not have the home run power of the others, but his HR and Ks were in line at the lower level.

The group across the top is interesting as well. These are three players with high BABNIP, but different BABIPs. Valdimir Guerrero is at the high end of BABIP, and his BABIP is higher than his BABNIP, Don Mattingly is about even in both, and Barry Bonds has a higher BABNIP than BABIP. I suspect that as we go right to left along that group, line drive percentage diminishes.

On the far right in the middle are the great handlers of pitchers, Charlie O’Brien, Jeff Newman, Barry Foote, Buck Martinez. On the far right in the middle is a nice grouping of Wade Boggs, Derek Jeter, and Bobby Abreu.

Enzo Hernandez stands out as the player worst in both dimensions, but there is no corresponding great player. There is no one above Gwynn and to the right of Guerrero. There is no Ted Williams (.328 BABIP, .424 BABNIP).

Have fun with the data! More to come.

February 23, 2017

Strikeouts are not Diamonds

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Don Matting believes game times can be lowered by devaluing strikeouts:

“Analytically, a few years back nobody cared about the strikeout, so it’s OK to strike out 150, 160, 170 times, and that guy’s still valued in a big way,” Mattingly said. “Well, as soon as we start causing that to be a bad value — the strikeouts — guys will put the ball in play more. So once we say strikeouts are bad and it’s going to cost you money the more you strike out, then the strikeouts will go away. Guys will start making adjustments and putting the ball in play more.”

Strikeouts have set records in recent seasons, with teams averaging 8.03 per game last year. A career .307 hitter with 222 homers over 14 seasons, Mattingly never struck out more than 43 times in a single year.

The basic idea is good, the problem is that strikeouts are not something you can easily devalue. To me, it’s the difference between gold and diamonds. Both gold and diamonds have value due to their beauty. Gold, however, is extremely useful outside of the aesthetic:

Use Gold has unique physical chemical characteristics that made it very valuable. Gold is the most maleable and ductile of all the metals. One ounce of gold can be drawn into more than 80 Km of thin gold wire. One ounce of gold can be beaten into a sheet covering 9 square meters and 0.000018 cm thick. Gold has an electrical resistivity of 0.022 micro-ohm and a thermal conductivity of 310 W m-1. Hence, it is very efficient for the transmission of heat and electricity. Gold has the highest corrosion resistance of all the metals and it is corroded only by a mixture of nitric and hydrocloric acid. Gold is a noble metal because it does not oxidize.

If suddenly out tastes changed, and we no longer valued gold for its beauty, the metal would remain valuable for its other uses.

Diamonds, on the other hand, are simply valuable for their beauty. Their high price also seems to come from an artificially created shortage. If people no longer wanted to decorate themselves with diamonds, the value would drop. Manufactured diamonds can accomplish the non-aesthetic uses of mined diamonds. In other words, we can think away the value of diamonds.

Strikeouts are more like gold. They are the best way for a pitcher to record an out, since they take away much of the randomness of allowing a ball in play. For batters, high strikeout rates tend to go hand-in-hand with high power, and that is a very valuable commodity. That paradox, that strikeouts are good for both batters and pitchers, is why the rate keeps climbing.

If teams pay less for batters who strike out often, some team like the Athletics are going to take advantage of that market inefficiency.

I suppose a rule that states a batter is removed from the game after striking out twice, and a pitcher is removed from the game if he strikes out a certain number of batters after a certain number of innings. (If after five innings he records six K, he comes out, seven after six innings, etc.) Relief pitchers are allowed two strikeouts. In those cases, a pitcher might want to save his K pitches for dire situations, and a batter might not swing for the fences in every plate appearance. Paying players less by itself will not lower the K rate.

April 19, 2016

Slamming Harper

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Bryce Harper did not hit a grand slam in his first four years in the majors, despite hitting well with the bases loaded. He then hit one for his 100th homer, and he just hit his second as the Nationals are powering through the top of the seventh inning for a 7-0 lead on the Marlins. Jayson Werth got things started with his 200th home run, hit into the art work in center. Wilson Ramos followed on the next pitch to left field side of the fish display. The Nationals loaded the bases for Harper, who made it 6-0 and increased his RBI total to 20 in just 13 games. Ryan Zimmerman finished off the scoring with a shot off the top of the fence.

All his grand slams in one season makes me think of the Marlins manager, Don Mattingly. Mattingly hit six grand slams in one season, setting a record, but never hit one in any other season before or after.

Harper is now slugging .867 on the season.

March 6, 2016

Bonds as Teacher

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Peter Gammons sits down with Don Mattingly and Barry Bonds to talk hitting and learning while playing whiffle ball. Bonds starts talking about the hitters on the Marlins, and he appears to have the essence of coaching down:

“There’s no one way to hit,” Barry says. “There is no ‘Barry Bonds method.’ It’s about each individual hitter, and eventually what he does well, then what he can learn to make himself better. “

Bonds talks about learning from Tony Gwynn, and now learning from Ichiro Suzuki. Bonds always tried to learn from others, even David Eckstein. It may turn out to be a lot of fun watching the Marlins this year.

December 10, 2015

Bullish on Bonds

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Don Mattingly is looking forward to Barry Bonds helping Giancarlo Stanton become more of a monster. Mattingly also said Bonds comes from a strong family of teachers:

“The knowledge is there,” Mattingly said about Bonds. “You know he understands exactly, probably at a level that maybe not very many may understand, but also a guy that came through a pretty good teaching. His dad (Bobby) was a good teacher.

“Willie Mays was a pretty good teacher, he’s his godson, so he’s from a good teaching background. And his attitude of wanting to be good. When Barry Bonds tells me he wants to be good at something, I think he’s going to be good.”

Jim Leyland also praised his former outfielder:

“A lot of people don’t know how much Barry Bonds worked his whole career,” said Leyland, who managed Bonds for seven years in Pittsburgh. “He worked hard. His offseason regimen was unbelievable. He’s really familiar with hard work. That guy trains as hard as anyone. I don’t think it’ll be a factor at all.”

Like others in the baseball industry, Leyland didn’t anticipate Bonds accepting a full-time coaching job.

“But he knows so much about hitting,” Leyland said. “I think it’s great. I think he’s going to do great.”

November 2, 2015

Long-Term Mattingly

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Don Mattingly wants to be the Marlins manager for a long time:

”I signed a four-year deal,” he said Monday. ”I plan on being here at least 10.

That sounds good to team president David Samson, who can only try to joke about the Marlins’ instability while enduring six consecutive losing seasons.

”I got a call from an executive of another team asking about our advice on hiring a manager,” Samson said. ”We’re good at it. We do it every year. … We committed that we wanted this to be the last manager’s press conference we ever did. We’ve done too many.”

It took George Steinbrenner a long time to find a manager he liked. Joe Torre had the uncanny ability to take the worst the boss could throw at him and his team, and channel it away from himself and his players. Mattingly was a Torre protege, and if he learned that trick, he might survive in Miami.

Of course, he’ll need to try to keep his stars healthy. The Marlins have three outstanding players in Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon, and Jose Fernandez. Full seasons from all three will go a long way toward making Mattingly look good.

October 29, 2015

Jennings Fired

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The Marlins fired Dan Jennings as general manager, in a year in which he went from GM to bench manager to fired manager to GM to fired GM.

Heyman also reports that Michael Hill, the team’s president of baseball operations, will assume Jennings’s GM duties. Hill had been the club’s GM from 2008-13.

This is on the same day that word leaked the Marlins reached a deal to bring on Don Mattingly as the manager.

Jennings should count his blessings to be out of that organization. I also wonder why Mattingly thinks things will be different for him. Maybe all those years playing under George Steinbrenner prepared him for this job.

When I saw that Alex Anthopoulos stepped down this morning, I wondered if the Marlins might open the job for him. That doesn’t seem to be the case.

October 16, 2015 October 15, 2015 October 7, 2015

Mattingly Goes to the Mattresses?

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I find it tough to believe this could be true:

Somebody is going to have to take the fall if baseball’s richest team still can’t find the Fall Classic after 27 years of classic falls, and Mattingly is the one wearing the target.

Management demoted Ned Colletti, traded Matt Kemp, let Hanley Ramirez walk. The Dodgers have rid themselves of every perceived problem from the previous two seasons, and now, if they fail again to survive two rounds of the tournament, it would figure to be Mattingly’s turn.

Whereas Bill Plaschke sees the GM not being married to Mattingly (since Mattingly was hired by Ned Colletti) as a negative, I see Andrew Friedman as someone who knows that post-season success is a bit more random than one would like. Maybe Friedman doesn’t like Mattingly’s managerial style, and a lack of a World Championship will be an excuse to fire him. If you get the reputation as an organization that does not reward success, it might be tough to get good people.

I continue to be amazed by the negativity surrounding the Dodgers, a very good team.

May 14, 2015

The Replay Bias

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Don Mattingly wants a slight change to the replay rules. A call stood last night, and Mattingly felt there was clear evidence it should be overturned:

Mattingly has voiced his displeasure with the protocol a few times. His beef: Umpires in New York shouldn’t know the call on the field before deliberating. Right now, they choose one of three options: The call is overturned, the call stands (because of insufficient evidence) or the call is confirmed.

Some inside the Dodgers’ clubhouse have wondered whether umpires are hesitant to overturn close calls because they are protecting their colleagues in the field. Umpires are penalized and rewarded based on their record of making correct calls. Mattingly wouldn’t go so far as to suggest such a conspiracy when asked about it Wednesday.

I think it might be tough to keep that information close. You’d almost need to put the replay ump in an isolation booth, and not show replays with the field umpire making the call. I think in principle, it’s a good idea. However, there will still be times the replay umpire can’t make a call, so it won’t solve everything.

October 4, 2014

Mattingly Excused

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Don Mattingly does not seem to be catching criticism for leaving Clayton Kershaw in the game Friday night:

Mattingly left Kershaw in the game, and it’s hard to blame him. This was not about a manager’s decision, but the makeup of a bullpen that has never lived up to its expensive expectations.

Said Mattingly: “It’s really hard to take Clayton out.”

Added Kemp: “That’s our horse right there. You win with him, you lose with him.”

Back in 2003, after Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in a game in a similar situation, I was at a talk by former Red Sox Manager Joe Morgan. Morgan noted that he thought Pedro should have come out of the game, because he could no longer control his change-up. That was the sign that Pedro was tired. Martinez had to rely on his fastball, and batters could hit the fastball if they didn’t need to worry about the devastating change. There looks to be some evidence that Kershaw’s slider was not as effective in the seventh. He wasn’t throwing it much early in the inning, and both Yadier Molina and Matt Adams singled off the pitch. Oscar Taveras did strike out after swinging at two sliders, but Matt Carpenter took two sliders for balls and fouled off a third. He hit a fastball for a home run, which indicates to me Kershaw didn’t think he could get Carpenter with a slider.

Maybe someone with more experience judging these things can chime in, but I thought Kershaw was gassed in the inning and should have come out.

Kudos to the better hitters on the Dodgers, especially to Matt Carpenter, for picking up on the problems with the slider.

Update: Dodgers Digest provides actual evidence that Kershaw was fatigued. His release point dropped, and he started relying more on his fastball. This is something Mattingly should have seen.

September 16, 2014 January 7, 2014 October 21, 2013

Mattingly’s Future

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Mike Scioscia‘s Tragic Illness reviews the Don Mattingly news conference with Ned Colletti. Mattingly basically said extend me or fire me.

And you know what? Good for him, seriously. Whether he’s a flawed manager or not is beside the point. He’s been the manager for three seasons now, and in the organization for six. Good and bad, it’s pretty clear what he is at this point. It’s not like there’s a lot of mystery remaining. If you want him to be your manager, fine: Extend him. If you want to move on, also fine: Fire him. But I don’t see the value here in letting him swing in the wind, especially when (publicly, anyway) he seemed to be a good sport about not letting his expiring contract become a distraction.

He’ll have plenty of options if he does move on.

October 16, 2013

Mattingly Remains the Don

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The Dodgers picked up Don Mattingly‘s option for 2014. I don’t know why anyone thought this might not happen. George Steinbrenner doesn’t own the Dodgers.

There’s no score in the bottom of the second of their game against the Cardinals, but the Dodgers are threatening.

Update: Four singles, including one by Zack Greinke, net two runs in the second so far. I love it when a pitcher helps his own cause.

October 12, 2013

Not Mattingly’s Fault

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I’m somewhat surprised at all the second guessing going on about Don Mattingly and his decisions in game one. The truth is that the Dodger offense couldn’t score against an inexperience starter and a group of relievers that included Carlos Martinez and Seth Maness. Mattingly tried to execute one-run strategies late in a tie game, when you’re supposed to execute one-run strategies. They didn’t work out, but that doesn’t mean the reverse would have been true. The manager can only do so much.

The next time he sends in a runner to steal a base, however, he should make it clear to the batter that he should take a could of pitches.

July 6, 2013 June 18, 2013

Games of the Day

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Wil Myers

Wil Myers bats sixth for the Rays in his MLB debut Tuesday afternoon. Photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Extra-action Tuesday offers a pair of double headers, each featuring a headline major league debut. The Rays play two against the Red Sox, Wil Myers making his first big league start. The big trade with Kansas City helped the Royals as KC sits at .500, second place in the AL Central. The Rays hope Myers gives them more pop in the middle of the order. Five games behind Boston in fourth place in the AL East, a double header sweep would give the Rays a huge boost in the division race.

If young pitching is your cup of tea, the Mets and Braves send Matt Harvey and Alex Wood to the mound in game one, with the debut of Zack Wheeler in game two. Harvery finally took a loss his last time out, despite allowing just one run in seven innings. He allowed one run or less in nine of his starts this season, his 5-1 overall record a huge indictment of the Mets offense. Wood makes his first MLB start after striking out nine in 7 2/3 innings during six relief appearance. Wheeler faces the only veteran in the twin bill, Paul Maholm. Zack strikes out a ton of batters, but also walks quite a few. His 3.93 ERA this season at AAA needs to be taken with a grain of salt, since he played at Las Vegas. Nine of the 20 home runs he allowed in his four seasons in the minors came this year.

Zack Wheeler

Zack Wheeler debuts for the Mets against a tough Braves team. Photo: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Don Mattingly returns to Yankee Stadium as manager of the Dodgers as two high salary, injury ridden teams meet in the Bronx. Unfortunately, Vin Scully did not make the trip. Based on this season, the Yankees appeared to make the right move hiring Joe Girardi instead of Don Mattingly to manage the team. Joe has a line up of has-beens in contention, while Don hasn’t found a way to prime the offense. New York gets it’s first glimpse of Yasiel Puig. Despite his heroics, the Dodgers are just 6-7 with Puig playing in a game. That’s actually pretty good for an LA position player this season.

The best pitching match-up of the night takes place in St. Louis where Jeff Samardzija battles Adam Wainwright. Both strike out a ton of batters, but Wainwright adds impressive control and the ability of keep the ball in the park to his Ks.

Enjoy!

May 20, 2013

D-Day?

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There seems to be a small consensus that Don Mattingly gets the axe today.

Watching Sunday’s meltdown on television, I thought, “Mattingly might be gone tomorrow.” And then I got a text from a rival scout, one who has no particular insight into the Dodgers, but is attuned — like so many in the sport — to the game’s day-to-day rhythms.

“Making the call — Donnie Ballgame will get the axe tomorrow,” the scout said.

So keep your eye on the Dodgers twitter feeds today. I could imagine a trade, with Don Mattingly going to the Angels and Mike Scioscia hitting the Dodgers. I suspect both need a fresh start.

Update: The Dodgers say there are no plans to fire Mattingly in the near future.

May 10, 2013 August 30, 2012

Blast from the Past

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I was just chatting with Rob Neyer, and it struck me that the Angels are turning into the Yankees of the 1980s. They have two great young players, but they’re surrounded with a bunch of aging, over the hill, over paid players. Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo are Rickey Henderson and Don Mattingly, while Albert Pujols takes the Dave Winfield role. The Angels probably have better pitching.

July 14, 2012