"These guys would never walk into Gene Mauch's office, or into Billy Martin's office... and try to tell you how to utilize your players" - Joe Maddon sounds off on analytics and its role in baseball
Joe Maddon has been around Major League Baseball for a long time. Maddon started his coaching career in 1979 with the California Angels, who are now known as the Los Angeles Angels. He started out in the organization as a scout and worked his way up to being the minor league manager.
Maddon eventually became a coach for the Angels in 1994. He served in various coaching roles during his time there until 2005. He was the bench coach, first base coach, third base coach, and even interim manager on three different occasions.
After winning a World Series ring in 2002 with Los Angeles, Maddon was hired to manage the Tampa Bay Rays in 2006. Joe Maddon found success in managing the Rays and took them to the playoffs twice.
Joe Maddon addresses the pitchers & catchers before their first official workout. New jerseys looking sharp! http://t.co/G7lpf5vqEu
After his time was up in Tampa, Maddon went on to manage the Chicago Cubs in 2015. He would help the Cubs break their 108-year World Series drought. After a couple of seasons in Chicago, Joe Maddon made the return to Los Angeles to manage the Angels.
Maddon signed a three-year deal with the angels in 2019. Over the next three seasons, the angels did not do well despite having players like Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. He was let go by the Angels on June 7th.
Joe Maddon recently went on The Athletic Baseball Show: Starkville to discuss the recent trends analytics are playing in baseball. While discussing he does enjoy the information analytics brings, he admits it can be overbearing at times.
“Back in the day, these guys would never walk into Gene Mauch’s office, or into Billy Martin’s office...and try to tell you how to utilize your players."
-Joe Maddon on Starkville
You can listen to the whole podcast - or you can read the highlights.
theathletic.com/3568605/2022/0…
"Back in the day, these guys would never walk into Gene Mauch's office, or into Billy Martin's office... and try to tell you how to utilize your players." - Joe Maddon
Joe Maddon understands that too much information can sometimes be a bad thing
Maddon mentions that every single club has analysts, but in his eyes there's a point where they cross the line. He believes there should be a boundary between the analytics department and the players. Maddon does not want the analytics department directly coaching his players or giving them a ton of information they can't retain before a game. He believes that the manager should be given the information and then decide how to coach their players.
Maddon has been around the game long enough to see what it once was and what it has become. He is not an old-timer trying to change the game back to the way it was when he was playing. He just understands the process of a ballplayer's mind before a game better than most.