Alex Rodriguez made an interesting prediction after the Texas Rangers beat the Houston Astros 11-4 in Game 7 of the ALCS on Monday night to clinch a World Series berth.
Rodriguez reflected on how the Rangers departed from the current wisdom when it comes to building their coaching staff. Rather than hire a young manager or analytics-focused guys, Rangers GM Chris Young pulled veteran manager Bruce Bochy out of retirement. The Rangers also hired 62-year-old Mike Maddux as their pitching coach.
Rodriguez thinks Texas’ success may lead teams to reconsider and hire “baseball people” rather than just stat guys.
“To me it starts at the top with Chris Young…brought back his manager who was pushed out of San Francisco, sat on the couch for three years, and then got Mike Maddux, and so on and so forth. So, baseball people is coming back, and this is a trend that I think is doing to continue to happen,” Rodriguez predicted on Fox’s postgame show.
Sports tend to produce copycat teams. If one strategy is working for a successful team, other teams will often try to mimic it. Previously, everyone had “baseball people” running their organizations. Then a few got ahead with analytical approaches. Pretty soon, everyone had analytics departments, and some even have their front offices nearly dictating to their managers what should happen.
Bochy taking his third team to the World Series could be a win for “baseball people.” None of this means that Bochy eschews analytics, however. He recently said he thinks managing should be a 50/50 split between gut and analytics, but the success he and Dusty Baker have had recently may give teams more reason to reconsider pushing old school guys out of the game.
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