My Opinion on Player Development in the MLB
In the more recent years, baseball is undergoing a transition period. Like many sports, the style of play is very much like a pendulum. We are watching the game of baseball swing from one side to another, with “new school” coaches pushing it while “old school” coaches are trying to hold it, and when all is said and done, essentially neither are right nor wrong. I believe that baseball has pushed the pendulum one way hard for so long. Coaches, teams, and the organization itself relied so much on old-fashioned ways where only ex-professional players had the capability and knowledge to teach the game of baseball, but what we are starting to realize is that the best and most talented of players are not necessarily the best coaches, and more importantly, the older coaches may not be as progressive or in some cases, flexible to change. More recently, what we see happening in the game of baseball is basic physics. Just like Newton’s 3rd Law: For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction and currently, we are in the “opposite and equal reaction” right now in baseball. The advantage of being a coach during this era, is the process of change and innovation. However with that being said, this can also cause a lot of confusion and suffering from a player’s standpoint when trying to develop. Within this article, I will briefly explain my individual perspective of player development as a college coach (and MLB fan), indicate the current issues of player development within the MLB, and implement ways that can help improve player development.
INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVE
When looking at player development from both an outsider’s perspective and from someone who is already within the MLB organization, I believe that context and perception is everything. I also find it a fascinating subject to examine from both a college coach perspective and a fan perspective. As a coach, I am intrigued by how MLB players play the game, especially elite players. We try and train our college players to prepare them for the highest level of baseball. As a fan, I examine why teams win or lose with such elite players as well as why all teams do not always develop elite players, or at least not develop players to their highest potential.
When I examine the elite players, more specifically elite hitters (since this is more of my specialty), I notice that they perform better than any other players based on three attributes: 1) they move efficiently in tight windows, producing the most force consistently, 2) they have phenomenal proprioception within their swing, and lastly 3) their discipline to their approach at the plate, is remarkable. These three attributes are what separate the elite hitters from great hitters. In rare individuals, these attributes are innate, however I believe with profound player development, these idiosyncrasies can be learned. If we pull back the curtain and dive deeper behind these three attributes, we will get a glimpse of where I believe the issue lies within player development and struggles within many MLB organizations.
Looking into organizations from an outsider’s perspective, one thing is clear: winning teams seem to be on the same page throughout the entire organization and losing teams seem to have a power struggle somewhere in between. Having so many minor league teams within an organization can cause confusion in what needs to be accomplished. For example, if one coach or upper management doesn’t agree with what is being done (especially in a progressive time in baseball), it creates a crack in the entire foundation. The losing teams have more cracks which tend to slow down player development at some level or at all levels. Philosophies are unclear, making training environments complicated and hard to structure, while management knows all they want to do is win.
ISSUES OF PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
In this next section, I am going to explain in my perspective what player development is getting wrong break it down into three parts: Management, Philosophy, Training.
Management
Baseball has and will always be the statistical giant of sports. Everything revolves around numbers, even more so now than ever before. These numbers help evaluate a players production for the organization. Currently, I think clubs are in a frantic race trying to find the “next” statistic to get a perfect player evaluation on each player’s production. I think some organizations are way ahead of others in knowing what statistic(s) to look at or combination of stats to look at to find out a player’s production. However, I do not think any organization has put much time or energy into finding a stat or system to predict a player’s production throughout the season. In sports, for example football, there are plenty of “age meters” where once a player hits a certain age productivity will go down. I believe there could be a system where you could predict a player’s productivity into three parts of a season once you have a decent sample size of games played or seasons played. This could help with decisions throughout the entire organization on who to bring up and when, and who should be traded and when. If that system gets created, it propels the next system, which would be stopping the poor performance prediction. If an organization knew that a player’s numbers were going to drop, then preparing that player would hopefully be a top priority especially if trading was not an option due to contract or financial obligations.
Philosophy
As a fan, when I watch baseball the word “progressive” is a term that is often used to describe the Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, Indians, and Dodgers. The word “progressive,” I believe, is used in correlation in how these organizations use technology to develop their players and how they use data. Very rarely do we hear the word philosophy, mainly because it is a “secret” among organizations. One thing for certain is organizations are dictating the style of play and philosophy. With this “long ball era” we are seeing less bunting or small ball but also an increase in strikeouts. Again, we are in the middle of the pendulum swing. I think there is a lack of situational hitting at the big league level which trickles down into the player development side. Situational hitting doesn’t mean bunting or hit and runs. I believe situational hitting has to with bat control, period. One question that should be asked, is a hitter able to control his bat to produce the most optimal opportunity in any given count? I think every organization would also give you different definitions of “optimal opportunity.” In this age and time, the only way you move up within a successful organization is if you can produce power “consistently.” Every organization probably has a different definition for consistently as well. By looking at the numbers I believe it’s safe to say most teams are fine with strikeouts as long as the power numbers are there. I would highly doubt organizations are putting much thought into decreasing negative numbers, but just focusing on increasing power numbers. To me, this is a mistake, as I think there are plenty of numbers that correlate between one another. For instance, the Astros are top in pitching strikeouts (with the most), and first in the hitting strikeouts (the least). They have one of the best records in baseball (when I originally wrote this statement it was September). The strikeout correlation has to do with the difference between free outs given and taken. Teams that are having a huge amount of success are those that are striking opponents out at a higher rate AND also striking out less at the plate. Finding these types of correlations could dramatically improve player development at the lower levels.
Training
Training is the one thing that college coaches are not afraid to share on a regular basis, but we never hear what the MLB clubs do. There are college teams that track progress of redshirts and JV players and have plans for these players to have a chance to move up in their system. In the MLB, however, you don’t hear plans (which makes sense), but what you do hear are horror stories from players. MLB organizations lack in off-season protocols or have non-existent protocols. There should be more organizations with off-season player development plans, such as facilities and coaches similar to what Driveline provides.
Another issue that I find in the training aspect, would be over-problematic coaching, which is an epidemic throughout all baseball, from little league all the way up through college. This leads me to believe that it is also happening even at the highest levels of baseball. My definition of over-problematic coaching, “is finding numerous problems in a player’s skill (swing or throwing ability) without understanding the player’s ability to move efficiently — this leads to mechanical changes and cues that are not understood.” This happens mainly because too many times coaches talk about their own feel and players tend to take that as literal in a swing. One good example is the Jason Heyward effect. I believe Heyward has had more batting stances than years in the Bigs. Someone who is as athletic as Heyward should not be making drastic changes in a batting stance year to year and definitely not throughout the year. With that many changes, I would find it hard to believe that coaches are not messing with his stance. This stems from over-problematic coaching by not letting guys move the way where they are most athletic, and to compound the problem by not letting them (or teaching them) to take ownership of their own feel and ability.
WAYS TO HELP IMPROVE PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
In this final section, I wanted to focus on implementing ways to help improve the player development side of the MLB.
Implementing a “strength to speed continuum” for hitters would help with placement within an organization as well as help coaches know where each hitter is at on the hitting continuum spectrum. Ultimately, doing so would lead into programming for each player with more accuracy. I have not seen any plans or programs in progressions in hitting other than basic bat speed programs. I think a hitting continuum needs to be more detailed with different checkpoints such as bat speed, exit velocity, plate discipline, finding each hitter’s below, at, and above windows (I wrote an article titled, “Zone Hitting: Leveraging Your At Bat” that would help explain this concept). Each hitter would go through this type of hitting assessment to see where they stand and it would also help coaches know whether or not each individual is improving efficiently or not. This type of concept would also help provide a clearer understanding of each individual’s progression as they move up and down throughout an organization.
Another, but more holistic approach and different angle to player development would be plate discipline and decision making. With pitchers throwing harder and with nastier pitches, hitters need to drastically increase difficulty in the training environment. It’s about acquiring this new skill of pitch recognition and decision making. “…the quickest way to acquire a new skill is to force yourself to do that skill with a constantly changing environment, implement, or activity (Bauer, p. 153, The MVP Machine).” This statement though is lacking execution among organizations because players are afraid to force themselves to get uncomfortable and coaches have a hard time seeing their athletes fail as well. This could be solved by just monitoring where players currently stand or where they plateau and having systems and protocols in place to meet every player at in their specific skill level. Essentially, it would be treating hitting more like lifting. If guys hit a plateau of hitting ability or pitch recognition, there should be a system or protocol to get them past that plateau.
Another key to player development, is the understanding of efficient movement. I think many coaches are trying to teach a perfect swing on every pitch in the strike zone. However, the hitter’s perfect swing won’t always hit a pitcher’s perfect pitch. If we train hitters to refine a bat path and then train movement adjustability, I think organizations could produce more Mike Trouts and Pete Alonsos. These guys currently show time and time again that they can put their same swing path on a pitch (some out of the strike zone) because they are able to keep a hip hinge long and then adjust their move to the ball keeping their bat path. I say a “hip hinge holds power” so as long as you can get that hinge to unload and sequence properly, it doesn’t matter what your body looks like or where the pitch is located.
Finishing up last, but just as equally important, is the matter of nutrition, which is also another key to player development. I have heard and read about the minor leagues horror stories and nutrition is usually the main topic. If we take a look at a player more holistically, there should be no reason that NCAA D1 athletes have better nutrition choices than any player from Rookie ball all the way through AAA. I think taking nutrition to a whole new level with actual plans and goals with available resources to reach those goals would be a huge advantage for any organization. The one who decides to go all in with nutrition will reap the rewards much quicker and have greater long term success.
In conclusion, I believe these are all areas that could be improved in the player development side of the MLB. I think more areas need to be explored such as a clear understanding of what management wants to see in terms of product on the field. I think philosophies need to be defined from rookie ball all the way up to the Majors and training needs to keep on improving to push the athlete’s ability and not pamper the athlete’s ability. Player development will keep improving at a slow pace in the MLB as long as the few “progressive” teams keep trying new things and the rest of the league just tries to copy the format by putting “lipstick on a pig.”
