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Reply to "Old School Baseball “Too Old to Fight that Fight”"

@Smitty28 posted:

I agree Fenway, it seems he lost his passion.  But the fact is that every industry is in a constant state of change and evolution.  I started in the computer business when the original IBM PC was how you got your work done, now computing is in the cloud or in the palm of your hand.  Baseball is no different.  My son is amazed when he watches broadcasts of old games from the 80's (sorry, but we've seen 1986 Game 6 of Mets vs Red Sox more times than I can remember).  He points out how different things are today - bunting style, how outfielders catch, but mostly how they swung the bat back then.  I don't know why Price has such a problem with this, complaining about launch angle swings for example.  But if he has in fact lost his passion and is unable to give 100% it's probably best he walk away.

I think his issue is less the changes of the game but that he can't make his own decisions anymore.

The data driven methods mean a manager or pitching coach can't go as much by gut feel anymore but the data and front office tell him what to do.

I'm pro data but I can understand that an old school coach feels kinda castrated when he can't really make decisions on their own anymore but are essentially just a mouth piece of the front office and analytics department.



There simply has been a power shift, not that a manager or pitching coach has no power anymore but he has given up decision power to the analytics department.

That is quite a change. I think Kyle boddy described that in an article he wrote, he said that teams had analytics departments for quite some time now but it used to be more of a suggestion and some coaches would delete the analytics emails without reading them. That has changed and now front offices of successful teams are enforcing that managers follow the analytics suggestions or they lose their job.

That is the real issue that those old school baseball people have, it is not old men yelling at clouds because of launch angle and bunts but it is about an actual loss of power and being able to make your own decisions.

For a guy that used to be able to make decisions to get degraded to a glorified mouth piece of the front office is a tough thing.

But it is the way every business goes, away from charismatic leaders and daring decision makers to data driven process oriented management

Last edited by Dominik85
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