The Orioles officially announced their 2022 coaching staff earlier this week, which included newly hired hitting coaches Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller. There weren’t any other new faces, but a pair of returning coaches will be shifting to new roles, including Jose Hernandez moving from assistant hitting coach to the broader role of Major League coach.
Fredi Gonzalez had been working as the club’s Major League coach for the last two seasons, and he will now move into the role of bench coach to manager Brandon Hyde. As MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko explains, this amounts to little more than a title change for Gonzalez, as “he pretty much handled the responsibilities” of a bench coach in his previous role. The former Marlins and Braves manager will now officially step in as Hyde’s chief lieutenant, and Gonzalez would also manage the O’s in the event that Hyde is ejected from a game.
Several other organizational changes were also announced, Kubatko details, with the Orioles making some new hirings and re-arranging some internal personnel. The staffing changes address such departments as draft operations, strength and conditioning, and development analysts at both the MLB and minor league levels.
Baltimore’s analytics staff is also the subject of a recent interview between The Baltimore Sun’s Jon Meoli and Orioles VP and assistant GM Sig Mejdal, who oversees the department. Mejdal and Orioles GM Mike Elias previously worked together with the Astros, and after Elias was hired to run the O’s front office in November 2018, Mejdal was almost immediately hired away from Houston and tasked with essentially building an analytics department from scratch.
Three-plus years later, Mejdal said the department has grown from a single employee to a dozen, with plans for more hirings and interns to join the staff this offseason. Meoli’s piece is an insightful look at what Mejdal has already achieved in Baltimore and how he is constantly looking to refine the analytics process, particularly when it comes to disseminating and adjusting the statistical info to best fit the needs of the players and coaches. This isn’t to say that the human element is being overlooked whatsoever, as Mejdal noted that “analytics are so well-spread that often the differentiators are the humans in the loop. The importance we put on the coaches, the managers, the scouts is greater now than I’ve ever seen in baseball.”
That’s why they lose, there shouldn’t be any human element whatsoever.
Sarcasm? Man, I hope it’s sarcasm. It has to be sarcasm. No one means something that ridiculous, right? Right…?
If that human is Fredi Gonzalez, then machine everytime. Heck, you may get a better answer from your toaster on a pitching change than good ole Fredi.
I can’t wait to see Fredi managing a few games next season.
You’re posting on a website that strongly supports analytics. Managers are just as useless as home plate umpires. Humans make mistakes, algorithms don’t.
And you are as useless as spit on a baseball
Humans make mistakes> Humans create algorithms> ergo, there will be algorithms with mistakes. (runtime, logic, syntax, etc.)
Actually spit on a baseball is quite useful in altering pitch movement. My database produced Gaylord Perry as an example.
Yes but being programmed with a mistake is not the fault of the algorithm. It is still a human that made the mistake. Carmine didn’t make mistakes, she helped Theo win quite a bit.
If an algorithm can’t be blamed for the mistake because it was programmed by a human, it can’t be receive credit for success because it was programmed by a human. That should go to the human who programmed it as well.
Actually spit on a baseball is quite useful in altering pitch movement. My database produced G. Perry as an example.
It’s always the dumbest people who think in all or nothing terms. Analytics and personal coaching can co-exist. They aren’t at odds with each other.
“Analytics” has always been a part of organizational management; it’s just a matter of semantics, but it’s a waste of $$ to devote so many resources to something (the human element) that’s impossible to quantify. As in all sports, the only thing that matters is “what have you done lately”?
It’s Borgschulte*
ANAL ytics….ruins sports
Bafflingly immature and pointless take.
Mendoza the arbiter of immaturity ⚾️
You commented on a bafflingly immature pointless take….makes you an irrelevant bafflingly immature and pointless Mendoza
And yet, he’s not as pathetic as you.
Anyone who is a fan of John rocker is as pathetic as Mario Mendoza
Fredi Gonzalez is such a terrible manager he shouldn’t even be allowed onto a little league field.
When you have the record the O’s had for the past 3 years, you DEFINITLY need new spreadsheets. That should be your first priority.
@ bobtillman;
Everyone but you seems to understand that the Orioles and Pirates are in long-term building processes as they had little in the way of FO processes and analytics / technology; quality scouting, coaching and support systems for players when those gentlemen took over operations. Those organizations had been stripped to the bone – no one of any merit wanted to work for them.
Your constant cheap shot comments about what Mike Elias and Ben Cherington along with their staffs are doing in what are obviously 60-90 hour workweeks for a few years now, are insulting both them and the fans of those teams that don’t live in a market the size of arrogant Boston – whereby their fans know so little about the sport that they think winning in MLB is about spending, spending and spending on name players that franchises like the Orioles and Pirates developed but couldn’t afford to keep (and that the impoverished players cannot possibly live on a measly $10-20m a year).
And don’t blame it on the owners. Until John Henry, Hal Steinbrenner, and the corporations / business partnerships and that own the large market teams sell off their assets to buy players, don’t demand small market owners do it.
Tampa and other owners just take revenue sharing and “put the money in their pockets” because they don’t overpay players? How immature and ignorant. They take their revenues and invest it in computers and video equipment – along with people to program them, analyze the output, and find players they can bring in that can be productive with some adjustments. Those owners work 365 days a year with all the laws, MLB bylaws, negotiations with municipalities, vendors, player agents, etc. that they oversee and are often involved in – with the majority of the groundwork being done by well paid employees. The fact that they take a salary and profit out of it is hardly them gouging the clubs that get TV contracts and admission revenue that is easily 5-10 times what they can generate with their only sin being that they own a franchise in a small market. The same clubs / fans that complain about revenue sharing have been running up salaries at an almost parabolic rate since free agency took place in the mid-70’d as they try to starve out the small market teams (and their fans) from having any decent players.
There are no Springer, Altuve, Kuechel in the O’s system – this ain’t gonna turn out like Houston.
Rutschman, Rodriguez, and Hall look pretty good to me.
@extreme113 we have a top 2 farm system in baseball and we have the #1 pick in the coming draft. Make (uneducated) jokes while you can.
For a team that has gone 178-368 over the last 4 seasons, whether its a new spreadsheet or a new voice in the dugout something needs to change in Baltimore
Worked for Houston. And due to lack of imagination, other MLB teams, like Baltimore, and Detroit are copying.
The common thread between Houston and Detroit was managerial changes and in both cases the new Manager was A.J. Hinch
Orioles notes: that’s a short read
Them why do they have one of the best farms in baseball ⚾️ since they’ve both been here?? Hmmm and nobody is talking about Houston players but you bucko. Merry Christmas
Question on Orioles’ farm rating – is this driven by organizational overall depth or is it carried by a few players at the top? Rutschman by all angles and approaches is going to be a star…IF he is properly directed at the MLB level. For Hall and Rodriguez I have to wait and see, as I’d say about any pitcher in the Orioles system no matter the hype (call it Brian Matusz Syndrome).
If driven by the organization DEPTH, we are in for a decade of player after player coming up and succeeding, like the Orioles of the late 60s-early 80s. But I find that difficult to believe based on what I understand. Its more likely being carried by a few top guys, which narrows the window.
Also, does it matter that when these heralded prospects come up they often turn into turds at the MLB level that there are differences between Houston and Baltimore? See: Jake Arrieta, as one of several examples.
I’m with bobtillman. I’ve been an Orioles’ fan for 40+ years. I know the organization well, I know several people that worked for them and 2 that still work in the organization, including “baseball men.”. There are a lot of knowledgeable fans on this site, but my own take and input from those in the know that I know supersede those arguments and are proved correct time and time again.
A few things always hold:
1. No team overhypes its prospects more than the Orioles. Lots of other teams have players who light it up at AA or AAA and their success translates to the MLB levels (Yankees’ prospects often exceed their minor league #’s at the MLB level for example). But for the Orioles? Never believe what the brass says. There are many examples but I’ll provide Matt Wieters, Brian Matusz, Nick Markakis, Chance Sisco…older examples Ben McDonald and Ken Gerhart. Among many – I could go for weeks. None lived up to their predicted levels for the Orioles. Exceptions: Manny Machado (who didn’t spend long in the system) and Mike Mussina (brass was focused on Ben McDonald, this would be the ONE that the brass UNDER-estimated).
2. The Astros spent money to build around the young guys, the Orioles have not and will not, especially for pitching. Except when they are thinking they are getting a deal on someone (Nelson Cruz in 2014 for example). Two high caliber starters brought in would improve not only the MLB rotation, but the pitching depth from top to bottom of the organization. The Orioles refuse to build from the top. All the statistics and analytics in the world, even on the most recent version of Excel, won’t help make this ballclub a winner if you don’t spend the money because EVERY TEAM, including those which spend money, does the same.
3. Ownership has been an issue for 2 decades, and Angelos’ sons haven’t proven different yet. Ownership drove moves (and overrode dissent) such as competing against only themselves for the ridiculous Chris Davis contract and signing Ubaldo Jimenez and Sidney Ponson based upon flashes and not consistent, proven performance. Ownership cries poverty. Obviously if the team lost money, the Angelos family would have run away long ago.
4. Direction/coaching at the MLB level, as earlier stated.
These 4 issues are the main problems that put the Orioles at the bottom of the AL East and dampen any optimism that they’ll get out anytime soon.