Red Sox Announce 3 Front Office Moves
- Thread starter soxhop411
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It looks like Dombrowski has been a bit busy.
Today Gus Quattlebaum was named the Director of Pro Scouting, replacing Jared Porter, who left to join the Cubs in the same role. Quattlebaum was the Asst Director of Pro and International Scouting.
Brian Bannister is now the Director of Pitching Analysis and Development, a newly created position. He had joined the team earleir this year in their scouting department. In case you don't remember, Bannister used analytics to see which pitches were the most effective when he pitched for the Royals. He is also a proponent of doing more in the minor league system to develop players.
They also named Chris Mears as the pitching crosschecker. This is also a new position.
Today Gus Quattlebaum was named the Director of Pro Scouting, replacing Jared Porter, who left to join the Cubs in the same role. Quattlebaum was the Asst Director of Pro and International Scouting.
Brian Bannister is now the Director of Pitching Analysis and Development, a newly created position. He had joined the team earleir this year in their scouting department. In case you don't remember, Bannister used analytics to see which pitches were the most effective when he pitched for the Royals. He is also a proponent of doing more in the minor league system to develop players.
They also named Chris Mears as the pitching crosschecker. This is also a new position.
Wow, fascinating. Bannister indeed seems like he was one of the first pitchers to really talk publicly about using pitch f/x data to help him pitch. I forgot he was already in the organization. That's cool.
Remind me what crosscheckers do again? They're like the guys who do like a second scouting report on an interesting unsigned player?
Remind me what crosscheckers do again? They're like the guys who do like a second scouting report on an interesting unsigned player?
absintheofmalaise said:
Yep. Many of the older articles interviewing him as a player are worth a read for things like how to beat the historical averages on BABIP:
Now, this didn't exactly pan out: After a fluky-low 2007, Bannister regressed to the mean and ended with a .292 BABIP for his career. But he's clearly a bright guy who thinks a lot about the craft. It'll be interesting to see how he works out in that position.
Wow. Gus Quattlebaum grew up in Andover, Mass. His dad was a teacher at Phillips. We played Little League together forever, plus a little high school ball.
I remember his dad gave me one of the best backhanded compliments of my life: "Man, this guy is a real throwback junkballer. He's got three speeds - slow, slower, and even slower than that!"
Pretty cool.
I remember his dad gave me one of the best backhanded compliments of my life: "Man, this guy is a real throwback junkballer. He's got three speeds - slow, slower, and even slower than that!"
Pretty cool.
The first time Bannister spoke at the Seminar, he discussed how MLB teams were dropping the ball in regards to the amount of coaching that the players in the minor league systems receive. Most teams only have the manager, a pitching coach and a hitting coach and the amount of time they can spend with the players is limited. It sounds like the Sox are going to try and address this situation, with the pitchers at least.
absintheofmalaise said:
I often wonder how much coaching players receive in the minors. Ideally shouldn't every player been taught the fundamentals/ situational play by the time they reach AAA ball and once there the primary goal is to further develop skill sets? Why would time spent with players be limited? Wish I knew more about Bannister's view and others that agree with him.
edit: grammar
75cent bleacher seat said:
In terms of limited time, just looking at a day in the life of a minor league baseball player, there's basically an hour or two (if you're lucky) of batting practice, with probably one guy going at a time. There's since there's only one hitting coach and probably 13 guys, that's not a ton of time for a hitting coach to really work with any one guy on something. Between working out/weights, arriving at the field, stretching/warm-up, defensive drills, running, and reviewing stuff for the the game, and actually playing a game, fitting in one-on-one instruction with players can be tricky. And as someone who often works with 18-21 year old men I can also tell you that they're not always the most on-task group of people.
And then throw in up to three times as many games as these guys have ever played before. Long bus rides. The physical and mental grind of the long season. Learning how to become a professional. For some, being away from home for an extended period of time for the first time and for some, being in a foreign country for the first time where most don't speak Spanish.alwyn96 said:
Can we assume this'll put to rest, at least somewhat, the perception that DD isn't all that into analytics or am I getting something wrong?
I first heard of Bannister's approach to analytics in some Posnanski columns. He was seemingly doing well one year with KC (B--Ref says probably 2007) and explained that further analysis suggested that it was unlikely to last unless he struck out a few more guys.
Mugsy's Walk-Off Bunt said:
At the very least, it can put to rest my worries that Dombrowski's hiring signaled a purge of our very talented front office. I was less than enthused at the time, but it seems like Dombrowski's kept a lot of that talent (Eddie Romero, Bannister, Quattlebaum) while making some smart changes where Cherington hadn't (Hanley at 1B, most notably).
johnnywayback said:
I doubt it'll be a "purge", but my guess is we're going to continue to see more front office reshuffling through the fall. In baseball new management almost always brings in people that they're comfortable with, and who know the kind of information Dombrowski will be looking for and how to present it to him.
So far, it seems like the scouting/minor league guys have been doing a pretty good job, and those are the guys who mostly seem to be sticking around. However, if people think part of the problem with Cherington's FO was MLB talent evaluation, then I would think that that team and the process by which that those decisions are made will probably be in for some changes.
alwyn96 said:
No doubt he'll bring in new/"his own" guys. But rather than completely cleaning house just for the sake of it, he seems to be much more fine tuned than that. Hopefuly "reshuffling" takes into account "putting quality personnel in different roles" as much as it does getting rid of people. This has to be a far cry from taking over the Tigers.
Well it probably is a far cry from taking over the Tigers, or the marlins, or the expos. The teams that DD has taken over in the past either didn't exist, was a miniscule market, or had not had a winning season in a decade (this guy was the GM for six/seven years before DD fired him six days into the job). In every situation, the team improved with DD at the helm.joe dokes said:
I think these moves confirm what some of us suspect; DD is a smart guy who knows how to build a franchise (not just an MLB team). All the more so, he should be effective coming in to a good organization.
Interesting look at how Dombrowski has set up the pro scouting department, by Jen McCaffrey on Masslive.
"The Red Sox will have seven people within the scouting department cover four organizations from its Low-A club all the way up through its major league team. For example, in a hypothetical scenario, one person would scout and cover all clubs within the Kansas City, Chicago, Minnesota and Detroit systems.
Dombrowski noted there will be three additional people in charge of scouting each major-league team: Frank Wren, Eddie Bane and Steve Peck. The recently added Sloan will be part of the team as well, but will focus on scouting in the Far East, Cuba and other international areas of interest...
Dombrowski's streamlining of Boston's scouting process is a somewhat significant shift from how it had been done. That Dombrowski felt the need to rehaul the department is interesting in itself.
"It was just a little bit different," he said. "Some of that was in play, but we had more diversified responsibilities here than I've been accustomed to having. I really liked the idea of having people committed full-time to these responsibilities, short of a special assignment where you send somebody out to the Far East to watch somebody or to Cuba to watch somebody.
One thing Dombrowski noted upon his hire was the wealth of personnel at his disposal, a luxury he didn't have in Detroit."
8 different people in the pro scouting department are named in the article, plus Dombrowski. FWIW, Allard Baird is not one of them.
"The Red Sox will have seven people within the scouting department cover four organizations from its Low-A club all the way up through its major league team. For example, in a hypothetical scenario, one person would scout and cover all clubs within the Kansas City, Chicago, Minnesota and Detroit systems.
Dombrowski noted there will be three additional people in charge of scouting each major-league team: Frank Wren, Eddie Bane and Steve Peck. The recently added Sloan will be part of the team as well, but will focus on scouting in the Far East, Cuba and other international areas of interest...
Dombrowski's streamlining of Boston's scouting process is a somewhat significant shift from how it had been done. That Dombrowski felt the need to rehaul the department is interesting in itself.
"It was just a little bit different," he said. "Some of that was in play, but we had more diversified responsibilities here than I've been accustomed to having. I really liked the idea of having people committed full-time to these responsibilities, short of a special assignment where you send somebody out to the Far East to watch somebody or to Cuba to watch somebody.
One thing Dombrowski noted upon his hire was the wealth of personnel at his disposal, a luxury he didn't have in Detroit."
8 different people in the pro scouting department are named in the article, plus Dombrowski. FWIW, Allard Baird is not one of them.