MONDAY MUSINGS

by Holly Horning

Today, it’s about quick hits – bits of news that catch my radar during the week as well as connecting the dots re ongoing stories.  Even the quirky.

So let’s get to it!  Here are the most interesting topics that hit my radar over the past week………..

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The Tigers are really going full speed ahead in their effort to develop catchers.  It’s been decades since they last produced solid ones.

As I reported last week, Tim Federowicz who was the Tigers’ catching coordinator is now the AAA manager.  Tony Cappuccilli, another former catcher, is at High A West Michigan.

Federowicz just published his book The Modern Day Catcher which covers blocking, pitch calling and framing and how to build relationships with pitchers.  He has been assigned to help develop Dillon Dingler.

Let’s not forget Brayan Pena who got promoted to be the minor league catching coordinator.  He will be traveling to all farm teams and helping train all their catchers.

And over the past couple weeks, a number of catchers have been signed for depth in case Rogers or Kelly go down. With the new catching system in place, what are the chances that 1 of them will develop into something of real value?

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Congrats to Jim Leyland for getting into the Hall of Fame.  While I was never a big fan of his managerial skills, I appreciated his work ethic and overall reputation of being a nice guy.

It’s interesting to read the national accounts of his qualifications that got him into Cooperstown.  Most of it centered around longevity and popularity.  I would have preferred hearing stories of how his managerial skills were the biggest reason for his admittance.

Over the weekend, a radio show did a half hour segment on Leyland and had a bunch of his buddies on to share stories about him. None of them pertained to his work as a manager. All of them focused on his personality and infamous quips.

But isn’t it interesting that there is this huge focus on the number of wins a manager has without putting it all into context?

Naturally, if you’ve been managing for decades, you’re probably going to have a higher number of wins than someone who had the position for half the time. Why isn’t there a system that ranks wins against the number of years they managed in order to give a better picture of their effectiveness?

Out of 23 managers, there are only 3 who have lower win/loss percentages than JL.  And most of those in Cooperstown have 2 or more World Series rings.  Sparky Anderson ranks as the #2 winningest manager in the Hall with 3 World Series titles.

But one of the most interesting comments I read was Leyland’s quote about needing to call Joe Torre to thank him.  Torre is a close friend and was on the election committee.  How much did he influence the voting? 

It once again raises the question, as several NY papers recently wrote, that Hall of Fame elections have become buddy-driven.  Discussions have pointed to the election of Harold Baines as a prime example. He was said to have a lot of friends on the voting committee.

Looking at it a different way, it makes sense that players who are quiet/introverted and don’t build their baseball networking are overlooked when it comes to receiving the necessary votes for the Hall.

We naturally think of Lou Whitaker who has a large number of top stats for 2Bers yet has never seriously gotten enough votes to get in. Once again, he was left off the latest ballot and his next chance will come in 2025.

It’s inexcusable that someone, when compared with the 20 2Bers currently in Cooperstown, ranks #7 in that group.

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From managerial nice guy to a former player who turned out to be not-so-nice. 

Eduardo Rodriguez.

No one should be surprised that his words about loving Michigan and not wanting to be on the West Coast (or near it) were empty ones at that.

As it turns out, all of the teams on his no-trade list were west coast/western ones, including his new team, the Diamondbacks.

In the end, it’s almost always about the money.  And that’s perfectly fine.  Baseball is a career and everyone wants to make as much money as they can.

But it’s how you go about it that really matters.

Don’t offer these silly stories about how much you love the team, fans and city.  And expect fans to accept your explanation.  It’s insulting and insinuates fans are stupid enough to believe it.

Instead, I’m waiting for a player to say that he’s going to take everything into account – his career needs, extended family situations, the needs of his immediate family and the best fit.  Don’t box yourself into a corner because when your actions don’t match your words, you will look disingenuous.

Honesty, couched diplomatically, is always the best policy.

A great question to ask is whether there were any mid-western or eastern teams interested in ERod.  And if so, were their offers comparable to the D-backs?

It’s interesting to note that neither the Tigers nor the Dodgers were interesting in engaging in talks with him.

We know the reason why.

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Quick Hits:

– We finally heard from Jeff Greenberg this week.  He was in charge of the lottery draft.

– For the first time since 2012, the Tigers did not select a Rule 5 draft player.  Under Al Avila, the Tigers selected 1 every year since 2015.  None of them have stayed with the Tigers except for Akil Baddoo who is widely expected to be traded this winter.

– The numbers for Shohei Ohtani’s contract reached obscene levels – $700 mill without incentives.  But consider this…. When teams are putting together numbers, they aren’t just thinking about the number of wins he will bring.  They are also working estimates for expected revenue from broadcast rights, ticket sales, advertising, concessions and merchandise. 

In Ohtani’s case, we know that he is going to bring in well above-average revenue which will mitigate much of his contract numbers. And don’t be surprised if LA also promotes his now-famous dog and markets him as well. It will bring new meaning the term “Dodger dog” – which used to solely refer to their hot dogs.

Which one of these stories resonated the most with you?

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