Article on Instructional League

[Frobby]

Longish article with Q&A from:

Matt Blood, Director of Player Development

Anthony Villa, Complex Level Hitting Coordinator

Dave Schmidt, Coordinator, Florida & Latin America Pitching

Nick White, Minor League Strength & Conditioning Coordinator

Ryan Goll, Development Coach

Lots of happy talk but some insights into what they were doing.   I’ll single out this one answer as being interesting:

The front office has prioritized athleticism in the last several draft classes. Which players impressed you from a strength and conditioning standpoint?

… in meeting with our staff Jordan Westburg, Luis Gonzalez, Adam Hall, and Collin Burns were names that were consistently being highlighted and mentioned for their work. But overall, it was great to see the growth physically and mentally as these guys head into the rest of their offseason.

https://www.mlb.com/orioles/news/featured/top-prospects-continue-development-in-sarasota

[NCRaven]

Fun read.  Interesting to see what they emphasized.  Not ground breaking journalism, but a little peek behind the curtain at what Elias is changing at the minor league level.

[Tony-OH]

Villa was impressive. This was his comments on how they are working with their hitters down there:

Quote

Our process looked like:

· Utilize all the information at hand to reflect on the 2021 season: What went well? And what do we need to improve on? Where do we see the biggest margins are for offensive production gains?

· Create an environment that is going to challenge the hitter to produce in these areas. This is where the coach and hitter get to partner together to get creative, designing a practice setting that is going to challenge the hitter with different intentions, strategies, and movements.

· Execute. Attack the few main goals with laser focus. Push through struggles, knowing that learning comes from struggling through errors, adjusting, and expanding your skill capabilities over time.

 

[Tony-OH]

Quote

Coby hits the ball HARD! That is really important, because we know that hitting the ball hard is the best predictor for batted ball success. Coby’s power potential is very exciting, seeing him as a 19-year-old hit the ball as hard as everyday Major Leaguers.

 

[Tony-OH]

10 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

Fun read.  Interesting to see what they emphasized.  Not ground breaking journalism, but a little peek behind the curtain at what Elias is changing at the minor league level.

Not sure what you were expecting. I thought he asked great questions. This article was a great look behind the scenes on the "process". 

[ThomasTomasz]

2 hours ago, NCRaven said:

Fun read.  Interesting to see what they emphasized.  Not ground breaking journalism, but a little peek behind the curtain at what Elias is changing at the minor league level.

Agreed.  We are no longer in the Stone Age of player development, and that is only going to help us.  It was time to get the old guard out of things and we are seeing the benefits of the change as we speak.  

[now]

My favorite quote from the piece:

Quote

What we noticed as a whole is the talent in the organization has been tremendously improved over the past couple years. We have a physical, skilled, and highly competitive group of players...

Giving the benefit of the doubt that this is objectivity speaking, not just fan-hope.

[NCRaven]

9 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

Not sure what you were expecting. I thought he asked great questions. This article was a great look behind the scenes on the "process". 

This is exactly what I was expecting.  But, as with anything coming out of mlb.com or MASN, I didn’t expect anything negative or challenging.

[Tony-OH]

11 hours ago, NCRaven said:

This is exactly what I was expecting.  But, as with anything coming out of mlb.com or MASN, I didn’t expect anything negative or challenging.

I guess I thought the mlb guy did a good job. Other than Schmidt and Blood, the answers were pretty good and thorough. What was he supposed to ask that was negative of challenging when talking about Fall camp?

[Tony-OH]

17 hours ago, now said:

My favorite quote from the piece:

Giving the benefit of the doubt that this is objectivity speaking, not just fan-hope.

I do think the talent is better as a whole, but take anything from Blood as org speak.

[NCRaven]

Tony, I wasn’t blasting the piece and said I found how Elias was changing minor league development interesting.  I think you read more into my comment than I intended.  And you’re right, Schmidt is definitely the one “old school” guy in the group based on his limited answers.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, NCRaven said:

Tony, I wasn’t blasting the piece and said I found how Elias was changing minor league development interesting.  I think you read more into my comment than I intended.  And you’re right, Schmidt is definitely the one “old school” guy in the group based on his limited answers.

I can remember talking and interviewing Schmidt many times over the years. He's very cerebral and not much for giving good evaluations of prospects. He's the lone survivor of the old school guys so he must be embracing the new ways. I was actually shocked he was still with the organization.