Former MLB hurler Dylan Axelrod is joining the Angels organization in the position of pitching coordinator, he announced today. Axelrod had worked as a pitching instructor and now becomes the latest such figure to step into a notable role with an MLB organization.
Axelrod ended with only a 5.27 ERA in his MLB career. But he threw over 200 innings over five campaigns — no mean achievement for a 30th round draft pick. Just getting to the point of being drafted was an achievement, given that Axelrod had to throw at a community college before even gaining a chance with a D-I outfit.
It probably won’t be surprising to hear that, in addition to his time with Peak Performance Project, Axelrod has some background with Driveline Baseball, the institution that has helped many pitchers discover or rediscover a formula to add velocity and harness spin rate and other tools to get on the MLB map. Driveline has spun employees out to affiliate teams in player development roles similar to Axelrod’s. Among others, Driveline founder Kyle Boddy signed on with the Reds and Rob Hill recently joined the Dodgers.
he was the worst SP in a team that lost 99 games. by far.
perfect fit with the angels pitching staff
You understand he’s a coach, not a player right?
jdodson.
I think that went right past him.
JDods I doubt he can read. Most people understand that the ability to pitch and the ability to coach are 2 different things. There have been a ton examples in history that not so great players made great coaches. See Roger Craig. He turned around a Tiger Team that was near the bottom and made then the best in the league in the early 80s. He also saved a lot of careers like Mike Scott by teaching him the split finger..
Those with less talent always make for better coaches than those that were blessed.
Not to mess with your overall point, but Ted Williams was a great hitting instructor.
I don’t think one has to do with the other. It doesn’t take talent to teach and talent doesn’t hurt your ability to teach either. They are non-sequiturs.
He’s saying that the Angels‘ pitching in general is terrible and a guy who had horrible career in his playing days is a perfect fit for the Angels.
Craig wasn’t a bad pitcher.
Guille
Right, because you can’t have brains unless you have talent.
“But he threw over 200 innings over five campaigns — no mean achievement for a 30th round draft pick. Just getting to the point of being drafted was an achievement, given that Axelrod had to throw at a community college before even gaining a chance with a D-I outfit.”
He clearly didn’t have talent, but it looks like he has brains.
But he can still call himself a former major leaguer and we can’t!
his gold star has already been sent
The worst players usually make the best coaches. They have to learn how to overcome their lack of skill just to play professionally, so they’re usually smarter.
I wish I had that last name
You could ask him to adopt you.
I know it’s easy to associate his pitching career to his merits as a coach, but the two things don’t have much relevance. Leo Mazzone was one of, if not the best, pitching coaches in history and didn’t even make it to the Majors. Axelrod was there for 5 years.
I hope that he can help out in an area of great need for my Angels, He posted his proposed offseason workout routine to his twitter, so I’m glad he has a plan.
Those who can’t—teach!
I agree, Will. Dave Duncan is another recent example in that he had an excellent career as a pitching coach after a fair-to-middling career as a catcher.
The Angels definitely need to look into new directions. Pitcher development and health have been horrible the last few years.
I like his coaching background. That’s what matters here. He isn’t coming on board to pitch.
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.
Those who repeat tired “jokes” about teaching do so to cover their own defects and inadequacies.
Lmao…something on your mind?
It’s a well worn cliche not
“a tired joke.”
Luckily for the Angels Axelrod could, did, retired from doing, is using his post-did time to teach.
Over the last four seasons the Angels have had only one projected starter go an entire season without ending up on the DL, and that pitcher was out of baseball the following year. Most of those pitchers on the DL missed large chunks of the season.
Clearly what they have isn’t working, so I don’t know how this is a bad thing.
I agree with this. “If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it.” Well it’s broke, so fix it.
This from another guy called Dylan:
‘Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can’
I like Axelrod. I hope this really works out for him.