Orioles working to create a "Mental Skills Curriculum" as part of their player development

[Luke-OH]

Check out this job posting.

https://www.teamworkonline.com/baseball-jobs/orioles-jobs/baltimore-orioles-jobs/player-operations/sport-psychologist-counselor-1961053

"This position is a consortium experience between the Baltimore Orioles Minor league affiliate teams, the US Naval Academy and the University of Maryland. The primary role of this position is to develop and implement a mental skills curriculum for two Baltimore Orioles Minor League Baseball (MiLB) affiliate teams. In addition, clinical psychology and sport performance services will be provided for student-athletes and military academy members at the University of Maryland and US Naval Academy. Under the supervision of two licensed providers/Certified Mental Performance Coach, this position will be first point of contact for players and staff seeking assistance and/or information related to performance, mental health, and wellness."

 

[Going Underground]

7 minutes ago, Luke-OH said:

Check out this job posting.

https://www.teamworkonline.com/baseball-jobs/orioles-jobs/baltimore-orioles-jobs/player-operations/sport-psychologist-counselor-1961053

"This position is a consortium experience between the Baltimore Orioles Minor league affiliate teams, the US Naval Academy and the University of Maryland. The primary role of this position is to develop and implement a mental skills curriculum for two Baltimore Orioles Minor League Baseball (MiLB) affiliate teams. In addition, clinical psychology and sport performance services will be provided for student-athletes and military academy members at the University of Maryland and US Naval Academy. Under the supervision of two licensed providers/Certified Mental Performance Coach, this position will be first point of contact for players and staff seeking assistance and/or information related to performance, mental health, and wellness."

 

Didn't Beattie and Flanagan try something similar to this many years ago?

[Luke-OH]

1 minute ago, Going Underground said:

Didn't Beattie and Flanagan try something similar to this many years ago?

Not sure, wasn't nearly as tuned in many years ago. 

[Going Underground]

2 minutes ago, Luke-OH said:

Not sure, wasn't nearly as tuned in many years ago. 

 

The more things change . Maybe they can get the test from Ritterpusch to give to the two Oriole minor league teams.

 

But as a yearlong window for signing Loewen, the team's No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft, was about to close in May, the front office used Loewen's high score on a psychological test to help persuade Angelos to sign him.

Loewen, a 19-year-old pitcher, signed a $4 million contract and is now one of the jewels of the Orioles' farm system.

Angelos "would not have let us sign him without that test result," said Dave Ritterpusch, the Orioles' director of baseball information systems. Angelos confirmed that, calling Loewen's test score "helpful."

 

Psychological evaluations have become a critical component of the Orioles' personnel decision-making since Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie took over for Syd Thrift, who was fired after the 2002 season.

The team often relies on test scores such as Loewen's before acquiring players via the draft, trades or free agency.

"It's an important part of everything we do," said Flanagan, the team's vice president of baseball operations.

The team isn't so dependent that it is basing all acquisitions on the test scores; in some cases, the scores aren't deemed as important as players' physical attributes, the team's needs or doing what is needed to complete a trade.

An ally of Flanagan's, he was the Orioles' director of scouting for three years in the 1970s. At that time, he was among the first in baseball personnel to believe in psychological testing, and retained the interest during a varied career in the military and government.

Since returning to the Orioles in January 2003, he has worked with an assistant across the hall from Flanagan and Beattie, studying the results of almost 10,000 psychological tests. (Most players are tested once when they are eligible for the draft.) The Orioles purchased a majority of the results from the California company that administers the test, enabling Ritterpusch to analyze players' scores and performances over a 30-year span.

His labor was fruitful. He said he has "cracked the code" for identifying psychological profiles of prospects likely to blossom as well as those destined to fail. Distinct patterns exist for starting pitchers, closers and position players.

 

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2004-02-22-0402230917-story.html

[Luke-OH]

5 minutes ago, Going Underground said:

 

The more things change . Maybe they can get the test from Ritterpusch to give to the two Oriole minor league teams.

 

But as a yearlong window for signing Loewen, the team's No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft, was about to close in May, the front office used Loewen's high score on a psychological test to help persuade Angelos to sign him.

Loewen, a 19-year-old pitcher, signed a $4 million contract and is now one of the jewels of the Orioles' farm system.

Angelos "would not have let us sign him without that test result," said Dave Ritterpusch, the Orioles' director of baseball information systems. Angelos confirmed that, calling Loewen's test score "helpful."

 

Psychological evaluations have become a critical component of the Orioles' personnel decision-making since Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie took over for Syd Thrift, who was fired after the 2002 season.

The team often relies on test scores such as Loewen's before acquiring players via the draft, trades or free agency.

"It's an important part of everything we do," said Flanagan, the team's vice president of baseball operations.

The team isn't so dependent that it is basing all acquisitions on the test scores; in some cases, the scores aren't deemed as important as players' physical attributes, the team's needs or doing what is needed to complete a trade.

An ally of Flanagan's, he was the Orioles' director of scouting for three years in the 1970s. At that time, he was among the first in baseball personnel to believe in psychological testing, and retained the interest during a varied career in the military and government.

Since returning to the Orioles in January 2003, he has worked with an assistant across the hall from Flanagan and Beattie, studying the results of almost 10,000 psychological tests. (Most players are tested once when they are eligible for the draft.) The Orioles purchased a majority of the results from the California company that administers the test, enabling Ritterpusch to analyze players' scores and performances over a 30-year span.

His labor was fruitful. He said he has "cracked the code" for identifying psychological profiles of prospects likely to blossom as well as those destined to fail. Distinct patterns exist for starting pitchers, closers and position players.

 

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2004-02-22-0402230917-story.html

Thanks for sharing, interesting stuff. The difference now is instead of targeting mental skills, they'll be trying to develop them. 

[Oriole1940]

i wish them the best with this endeavor.  I am also interested in trying to detect  what I call  INSTINCTS for the game of baseball.   Not really coachable, but by intense observation of the player BEFORE they are drafted with an eye as to just how much each player they are scouting, instinctively knows about the game. ie,  like do they throw to the right base, when they are batting and the pitcher is somewhat wild, and there is a 2 - 0 count do they almost ALWAYS swing at the next pitch if it is near the strike zone, or when the ball leaves the bat do they USUALLY know how many bases they can get out of it.  etc.   I know that many major leaguers do not have this instinct, and some cover up this deficiency by being so good that usually it is not much an issue   But most players are not Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig.  I just never knew if this was a MAJOR part of the scouting process because I have seen many players over the years who just did not have this ability.  .  

[Darkhawk]

I'm curious if this position is more of a mental health professional to help young players cope and adapt to the rigors of a professional baseball season, as well as adjust to their first extended stay away from home, as opposed to developing baseball acumen.

However, I would be shocked if this hire was someone who did not believe in the growth mindset. Astroball made a big deal of the growth mindset, as opposed to fixed mindset, and I wonder if this hire will be helping to assess/develop players to that mentality. 

Edited September 30, 2019 by Darkhawk
Typo

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Luke-OH said:

Thanks for sharing, interesting stuff. The difference now is instead of targeting mental skills, they'll be trying to develop them. 

I’m really interested in the specifics of what they’re trying to do.    It’s hard to tell if they’re talking about in-game mental skills, or more general life skills, or both.    

[LookinUp]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

I’m really interested in the specifics of what they’re trying to do.    It’s hard to tell if they’re talking about in-game mental skills, or more general life skills, or both.    

Well I'm sure their in-game thinking/coaching is proprietary, so I wonder how useful something like this will be. I'm always skeptical of regimented psychological approaches because different people are affected differently.

[Hallas]

I don’t believe Ritterspusch was off base in his physchological profiling, I just by default assume that the Os failed at it because of bad execution, because they were bad at executing everything during this time period.

[Moose Milligan]

I wonder how this will help pitchers not leave fastballs belt high over the plate.  

Can't hurt though.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I wonder how this will help pitchers not leave fastballs belt high over the plate.  

Can't hurt though.

And maybe stop the catchers calling hanging curve balls.

[murph]

Isn’t there something like this for NFL quarterbacks?   

[Br10n]

Brady and Cousins among others.

[byrdz]

3 hours ago, murph said:

Isn’t there something like this for NFL quarterbacks?   

You're thinking of the Wonderlic test.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderlic_test#Average_score_in_the_NFL_by_position