Because the talent at the major league level is relatively balanced, the coaching staff has more to do with a team’s success and you would think more attention would be paid to what they bring to the team. There are 30 sets of players, 30 ownerships and 30 coaching staffs. Of all the teams, eight of them will achieve enough success to reach post season play. Each year the quality of the coaching staffs evolves and it’s their contribution that puts a team over the top.
How much does the coaching staff have to do with a club’s chances of making the playoffs? How much influence does the executive management have on a club’s chances of making the playoffs? Though this may not have been the case thirty or fifty years ago, it is today. Some would say it’s as much a mental game as a physical game but the meaning of that is so vaguely understood.
A great coach is not valuable simply because he understands the how to teach the vast array of skills necessary to perform well or whether he has good resources for playing the statistical odds with player/pitcher match ups. Today no manager or pitching coach has much of an edge in this department. Just as the old-timer fisherman can tell you when and where to drop your line, a seasoned manger can sense the right time to go against the odds. Tiger Woods doesn’t sink those distance putts simply because of his physical skills.
In general, TV broadcasters and radio announcers understand little about this aspect of the game and only refer to the managers in hindsight reporting their greatness if the outcome proves successful. They would then of course conclude and sight evidence that they surely had the most skilled coaching staff. Rarely do they speak of the entire coaching team. There is a sense these days that there are factors that play a part in the results that have always been left to chance. You can have ‘enlightened’ managers but without the organizational savvy beyond contracting for players based on their historical statistical evidence, harmony between the two can be challenged and costly to their success.
If you are a player and your number one concern is no longer the money, it’s only to make the playoffs, then full research into the entire teams coaching staff should be your top study. If you are a coach and your top interest is signing with a team that will make the playoff, then your top concern should be, knowing the coaching staff first and then the organizational executive body. If they have the optimal coaching staff they have a leading edge ownership team.
I am surprised MLB has not done a better job of promoting this aspect of the game as it appeals not only to the savvy fan but to the intellectual businessman. It is my contention that few understand that much more is going on that precedes the players standing in the box or the pitchers on the mound that produce wins. Find coaches that cause a player to the level of comparative success they had prior to their entry into the major league level.
Of course the obvious question is what is it that an ownership body does to produce a winning team that is senior to securing statistically valuable players? And what is it owners can discover about coaching a staff that causes them to be senior as well to others? To begin the inquiry is to open the opportunity for advancing the future success of MLB.
