Doug Brocail is the Pitching Coach

[Luke-OH]

3 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Maybe Elias/Hyde like Brocail because Cashner had one of his best seasons with Brocail as pitching coach and they hope he can help him again.  That could mean Cashner gets traded in July and saves the O's 3m.

If I had to guess, it's less about past results and more about a former MLB player with pitching coach experience who is open to using info provided by the FO/analytics dept. 

[Diehard_O's_Fan]

I think you just summed Doug up in a nutshell Luke. Doug is obviously open to analytics otherwise Mike and Brandon would not have hired him.

[tntoriole]

3 hours ago, Palmoripken said:

You didn't like Ray Miller? I thought he was good. Probably the best O's pitching coach of my lifetime. Granted '97 was one year but I remember it being night and day between the '96 team and the '97 team. The '96 team as I recall had a better offense but the '97 team was better on count of the pitching. Anyhow as for Brocail, we'll see what happens with him. I'm not expecting Cy Young winners. Just positive development.

He was alright.  But I am a Bamby fan!  

[scOtt]

7 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

He was alright.  But I am a Bamby fan!  

[Just Regular]

I thought about the Cashner thing too.  I'd pretty much bet the house we're going to hear some Crash Davis-approved quotes from Cashner in the next day or two.

Browsing his B-Ref page, his one year as a starter was as a rookie on the 100-loss '93 Padres, before being relegated to the pen.  This could make him the perfect consigliere for the David Hess/Josh Rogers types, and goodness knows who else if the right trade comes along for the front three.

The other takeaway is - heck of a job pitching 6 more years after making it back from 3 years out of the show in his mid-30's.

[Palmoripken]

26 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

He was alright.  But I am a Bamby fan!  

I hear ya. Bamby is probably the best Orioles PC of all time but you can like both heh but I hear ya. 

[Palmoripken]

3 hours ago, now said:

Whereas Ray as manager... maybe my least favorite ever.

TBH I don't really remember his managerial stint that well. I just remember 98-99 being so disappointing after how 96-97 had been. Was it a personality thing or something else? 

[now]

34 minutes ago, Palmoripken said:

TBH I don't really remember his managerial stint that well. I just remember 98-99 being so disappointing after how 96-97 had been. Was it a personality thing or something else? 

Yeah, could have been the disappointment--his--toxic in all the press interviews he was forced to undergo. He took it badly. Not smooth like Buck.

[mdbdotcom]

Brocail seems to fit the profile of all the coaches in that he is well regarded as a teacher and developer of talent who has also coached in the majors. The profile of our coaches, and the coaches themselves, might change as the roster is filled with more experienced/developed players who require less teaching and more coaching. 

[Cumberbundy]

10 hours ago, Luke-OH said:

They did improve as a whole from 2015 (pre-Brocail) to 2016. Swing Strike% increased, K% increased, ERA-, FIP-, and xFIP- decreased. The only negative is BB% ticked up. They threw fewer FBs, which is a thing the Astros did the last few years under Lunhow/Elias as well. Although admittedly when he was a pitching coach for the Astros they threw a ton of FBs.

Season	Team	SwStr%	ERA-	FIP-	xFIP-	K%	BB%	FB%
2015	Rangers	8.40%	101	106	108	17.60%	8.20%	59.30%
2016	Rangers	9.50%	97	104	106	18.70%	8.60%	56.50%

Do you think the additional 220 innings of Yu Darvish and Cole Hamels helped as much as Doug? 

[Moose Milligan]

9 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Give me Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine I’ll get your team to the playoffs while drinking a six pack every game.

That's what I'm saying.

[wildcard]

11 hours ago, Luke-OH said:

If I had to guess, it's less about past results and more about a former MLB player with pitching coach experience who is open to using info provided by the FO/analytics dept. 

I would think that any pitching coach candidate on Elias/Hyde's list would have to be open to analytics or they would not have made the list.   Brocail was a pitching coach for the Astros when Elias was there.  But he was moved out of the position in favor on Brent Strom.     That he lost the PC job in Houston and had to resurface with the Rangers in order to become a PC again does not speak very well for him.   

So if I am looking for reasons that Brocail is being hired it will be 1) Its late in the off season and there are not a lot of high quality candidates to pick from.  He may be a short timer.  2) Elias knows him.  3) He worked well with Cashner in Texas and may be able to help him again.  Having Cashner pitch well enough so he can be traded at the deadline could save the O's millions of dollars.

[Bradysburns]

17 hours ago, Frobby said:

I can’t tell if Luhnow actually considered this a promotion, or was just giving the press some positive spin on a reassignment of the pitching coach.   While in the special assistant job, he eventually took over as interim pitching coach at AA Corpus Christi in 2014 and remained there for 2015.    That doesn’t exactly seem like a promotion from being the major league PC.    But in any event, it seems unlikely Elias would have hired Brocail if he thought he’d done a bad job in Houston.   

Great intel. So you're probably at least partially write in your assessment. And I agree with you that Luhnow's statements could have come with a light sugar coating. But your last statement is the most important to me. I know Elias and Luhnow have that relationship, too. So they've both assessed him extensively. 

At the end of the day, you see the same pattern emerging with all of our latest hires. They all have some kind of serious development background. Very smart. 

[Redskins Rick]

15 hours ago, Palmoripken said:

You didn't like Ray Miller? I thought he was good. Probably the best O's pitching coach of my lifetime. Granted '97 was one year but I remember it being night and day between the '96 team and the '97 team. The '96 team as I recall had a better offense but the '97 team was better on count of the pitching. Anyhow as for Brocail, we'll see what happens with him. I'm not expecting Cy Young winners. Just positive development.

He was a better pitching coach, then he was a manager.

96 team had very good starting pitching and very good defense, but had a weaker pen and it cost them a trip to the world series.

[Palmoripken]

1 hour ago, Redskins Rick said:

He was a better pitching coach, then he was a manager.

96 team had very good starting pitching and very good defense, but had a weaker pen and it cost them a trip to the world series.

Oh definitely on the PC front. Help me out here though, other than Wells being replaced by Jimmy Key, I don’t remember too much difference between the 1996 and 1997 staffs and don’t about the pens. I remember Myers as closer, Benitez as set up but Orosco, Mathews, Rhodes, & Mills on both teams. But yeah that 1996 team was incredible on offense. I still remember thinking Ripken-Alomar-Palmeiro was as good as it got at SS-2B-1B and that combo is in fact the inspiration for my username.