Chris Holt promoted to Director of Pitching

[interloper]

No complaints here, though I wonder if they fill the minor league pitching coordinator role or if this role will oversee that as well. Elias continues to move decisively this offseason. 

 

[mdbdotcom]

I think he's the new Pitching Czar, with all pitching coaches following his lead on all pitching matters.

[interloper]

4 minutes ago, mdbdotcom said:

I think he's the new Pitching Czar, with all pitching coaches following his lead on all pitching matters.

That sounds like an extremely good idea. 

[Aristotelian]

2 hours ago, mdbdotcom said:

I think he's the new Pitching Czar, with all pitching coaches following his lead on all pitching matters.

"More involved on the major league side". Interesting. He is director of pitching, a promotion from previous position of minor league coordinator, but emphasizes that Brocail is the MLB coach. That doesn't answer the question of whether Brocail answers to Holt but it sounds like it.

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, mdbdotcom said:

I think he's the new Pitching Czar, with all pitching coaches following his lead on all pitching matters.

That's how I read that title and that's a good thing. There needs to be one guy in charge of the pitching coaches and coordinators at the major and minor league levels. Everyone needs to be rowing the same way and not poking holes in the boat!

[weams]

52 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

That's how I read that title and that's a good thing. There needs to be one guy in charge of the pitching coaches and coordinators at the major and minor league levels. Everyone needs to be rowing the same way and not poking holes in the boat!

I am glad it is working that way and that it is someone deeply involved in the data that calls the shots.  There won't be any end arounds in this grouping. 

[interloper]

2 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

That's how I read that title and that's a good thing. There needs to be one guy in charge of the pitching coaches and coordinators at the major and minor league levels. Everyone needs to be rowing the same way and not poking holes in the boat!

That's what I hoped would happen when Duquette brought in that one guy who I'm blanking on early in his tenure. Rick Peterson? It obviously did not work out that way and I'm not sure that guy was very good anyway. But the O's have been needing one vision throughout the organization for about as long as I've followed them. Might finally be getting there. 

[Redskins Rick]

2 minutes ago, interloper said:

That's what I hoped would happen when Duquette brought in that one guy who I'm blanking on early in his tenure. Rick Peterson? It obviously did not work out that way and I'm not sure that guy was very good anyway. But the O's have been needing one vision throughout the organization for about as long as I've followed them. Might finally be getting there. 

Its relatively simple.

Rule 1 - Throw Strikes

Rule 2 - Throw Strikes

Rule 3 - When in doubt revert back to rule 1:)

[OsEatAlEast]

As long as one of his idea's isn't to take away someones out pitch when he gets to the majors. I'm golden!

[SouthRider]

There is a good Holt interview on MLB Orioles web site.  I love hearing about the step up our minor league pitchers had throughout the system this year.  He talked about guys not in the conversation prior to the season now forcing their way into it.  Strikeout rates took a big jump.  It's so refreshing to see this.  It shows that there was already talent in the system and how good organizations maximize it.   We fans tend to think along lines of hitting or missing on draft picks when it is the development of those picks which is more important.  

[Frobby]

Melewski has a nice interview of Chris Holt up.    https://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2019/11/a-look-at-the-pitching-on-the-farm-this-year-with-chris-holt.html

Here’s a few quotes:

”It really is about the individual improvement and an individualized approach to development,” Holt said. “Blanket programs generally fail to account for a lot of things that players may have that make them special. I can think of guys I played with in the minors that may have had a really special breaking ball and the organization I was in was preaching you need to throw 85 or 90 percent fastballs.

“So, these days we know better. If a guy has a really special breaking ball, we’re going to ask him to throw it, instead of making him throw a bunch of fastballs. That is an example of, OK, he had this strength and has to develop these other things. We have a more accurate picture of where to put the work in. All we are really talking about is having a better plan for assessing and correcting and improving what it is that we are working with in development. The fact is that we have more accurate information to form development plans for players that are more substantive, more meaningful and more accurate in terms of the feedback we are able to provide for them.”

* * *

It is encouraging to see strikeout numbers improve,” said Holt. “We made a nice jump in one year. That is good. But we know that pitching is more than strikeouts. But what that does tells us is that when we have guys striking players out, we have guys developing better stuff instead of just trying to learn how to pitch with mediocre stuff. And they are also attacking the zone. They are being more aggressive and developing more intent to attack hitters. Those two indications are, culturally, very, very important to what we are trying to build here.

“The strikeout numbers improving is great. Those things can fluctuate from year to year. But in a general sense, we have the red meat of what it is we are working to develop in place when we start to see the strikeout numbers improve.

“The other thing you see increase with that is walk rate with a lot of guys. Because they are throwing a lot of non-fastballs in fastball counts. So, learning how to command all their other pitches and throwing them in different counts, we’re going to walk more guys because that is just a byproduct of doing some of that work at the minor league level. I’d much rather have them doing it now than trying to figure that out at Triple-A or the big leagues.

“The bigger point here is, walk rates will increase at times when we are asking guys to throw all their pitches at higher rate instead of just throw a bunch of fastballs all the time.”

[ThomasTomasz]

Both of those interviews are great reads/listens.  It is refreshing to finally hear this kind of talk coming from the organization.  

For all of the naysayers out there on whether Elias has authority or not, Chris Holt would never be hired under previous regimes, nor would anyone be talking the things that he is talking.  Someone from the Orioles past with archaic views would be in charge, and nothing would ever change.  Embracing this new model is such an awesome thing to see. 

[sportsfan8703]

On 10/11/2019 at 11:50 AM, Tony-OH said:

That's how I read that title and that's a good thing. There needs to be one guy in charge of the pitching coaches and coordinators at the major and minor league levels. Everyone needs to be rowing the same way and not poking holes in the boat!

Elias has his people in here now. I think that’s why last year we saw a very cautious approach to promotions. I’m looking forward to the org taking a step forward pitching wise. 

[scOtt]

On 10/11/2019 at 11:46 AM, Aristotelian said:

"More involved on the major league side". Interesting. He is director of pitching, a promotion from previous position of minor league coordinator, but emphasizes that Brocail is the MLB coach. That doesn't answer the question of whether Brocail answers to Holt but it sounds like it.

 

On 10/11/2019 at 11:50 AM, Tony-OH said:

That's how I read that title and that's a good thing. There needs to be one guy in charge of the pitching coaches and coordinators at the major and minor league levels. Everyone needs to be rowing the same way and not poking holes in the boat!

I would imagine that Brocail is already down with Elias' new-fangled ways. There already were cuts to the ML coaches and Brocail wasn't one of them. Again I would imagine Broc and Holt are already rowing the same way, not like Holt is going to be dictating that Broc has to change. Working together to form a plan and then Brocail implements it as the nuts and bolts PC. Same with all the pitching coaches down the line. Either weeded out or new hires, they're probably all already of an analytical mindset. JMHO

[Luke-OH]

2 hours ago, scOtt said:

 

I would imagine that Brocail is already down with Elias' new-fangled ways. There already were cuts to the ML coaches and Brocail wasn't one of them. Again I would imagine Broc and Holt are already rowing the same way, not like Holt is going to be dictating that Broc has to change. Working together to form a plan and then Brocail implements it as the nuts and bolts PC. Same with all the pitching coaches down the line. Either weeded out or new hires, they're probably all already of an analytical mindset. JMHO

This is a good point, the pitching coaches don’t need to be analytical whizzes. They just need to have bought in to the process. So when an analyst comes to the pitching coach and says that John Q Pitcher needs to get more separation between his slider and curveball to give hitters different looks. The pitching coach’s job would be to trust the evaluation and work with the pitcher using the appropriate cues/grip adjustments to achieve the desired outcome, which would then be documented/verified by Rapsodo/Edgertronic data.