If you want to follow a major league team that appears to be steered strictly from a sabermetric approach, follow the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Diamondbacks, 12-17 going into tonight’s game, fired manager Bob Melvin on Thursday. Today, pitching coach Bryan Price resigned.
It’s an unfortunate end for a couple of good guys who made a nice manager-pitching coach paring with the Mariners. My guess is they’ll both surface somewhere soon and have a positive impact on the teams they join.
It’s no surprise things turned out this way in Arizona. Like so many other teams, the Diamondbacks wisely are using statistical analysis to help formulate their baseball decisions. But unlike the rest, the D-backs appear to be looking strictly at the numbers and ignoring the fact that living, breathing, humans play this game and will have good days and bad based on factors having nothing to do with numbers. And that there are men with vast knowledge of this game — Melvin and Price, for example — whose input could make a difference for the better.
However, the Diamondbacks front office made moves in the offseason based strictly on numbers without consulting men like Price or Melvin, who would learn of some acquisitions by reading about them in the newspaper.
Today, the Diamondbacks announced they had handed the manager’s job to farm director A.J. Hinch, a former catcher with no previous managerial experience. General manager Josh Byrnes said Hinch’s hiring is unconventional, which also describes how he’s running the club.
We’ll see how that works out.
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