Showalter had his eyes on analytics before ‘Moneyball’ became MLB Bible
BUCK Showalter would read the rulebook annually like a theological honor student tackling the Bible. He would devour media guides — player and umpire — to unearth tidbits to find connection to people. He carried a little black file box and, among other things, would persistently update the index cards within with matchup information and results.
This was Buck Showalter three decades ago, before you had ever heard the term “Moneyball.”
He was so addicted to accruing information to gain an edge that he had his wife, Angela, chart Florida State League games in 1987 so he could shift his Single-A defense accordingly — a story he retold with Angela sitting beside him Tuesday during a Zoom press conference.
So while much of Showalter’s introduction as Mets manager dealt with how he would handle the analytic wave, understand that if this is the Mets’ biggest problem in 2022, then they will win roughly 110 games. Showalter might have an issue with how information is presented, he definitely will question the person bringing it to explain and defend it and he will bristle if second-guessing comes from it. But he will never want less.
“If you think I’m going to let someone beat us by having better analytic information …” Showalter (as he often does) meandered a bit from there. But the point was if you think Showalter is ever going to want fewer ways to gain an edge on a baseball field, then you are not acquainted with his curiosity, and certainly not with his competitiveness. And analytics — despite all the branding positively and negatively — is just information. And Buck Showalter is a baseball information junkie.
“My and Buck’s whole career we have tried to gather as much information as possible,” Tony La Russa said by phone. “The more we can know about our opponent and process it, the better we are able to compete.”
Showalter talked to many folks while preparing to try to land the Mets job. But two keys were La Russa and Dusty Baker. Both were older managers who had a gap before their most recent jobs — La Russa for a decade before becoming White Sox manager after the 2020 campaign, Baker two years before taking over the Astros after the 2019 season.
Both have enjoyed success in their 70s upon their returns. Showalter, 65, has not managed since 2018 and wanted to delve into what he should know about returning after time away at this age. Baker said in a text that they had talked, but was on vacation in Hawaii and did not want to go further. La Russa spoke for a halfhour about Showalter, offering that “Buck will walk in and be as good as any manager working today.”
La Russa said that is because Showalter remains curious and adaptable, but also because of his leadership and expertise. He said, “When someone checks every box, that guy is going to be as good as can be. That is what I feel about Buck.”
La Russa is regularly depicted these days as a baseball curmudgeon. But there was a time when as the youngest manager in the game with the White Sox, and certainly after being hired in Oakland by then-GM Sandy Alderson, that La Russa was the progressive who drew scoffs from older baseball personnel. Showalter, when he was the majors’ youngest manager with the Yankees, looked to emulate La Russa’s hunger to gain an edge.
In May 1992, Showalter (his first managerial season) and La Russa nearly came to blows behind home plate during an A’s-Yankees game. Showalter, feeling La Russa was attempting to intimidate his team, was trying to get respect for himself and his Yankees. Alderson revealed Tuesday that when La Russa left Oakland after the 1995 season he tried to hire Showalter (who went to Arizona) because of Showalter’s curiosity and adaptability. Those qualities remain, according to the Mets team president — that would be Alderson, who said Showalter “came as close as anybody in baseball possibly can” in being a managerial 10 on a scale of 1-to-10.
The other question about older managers is whether they can connect with today’s players. In Showalter’s case, he was raised as a boy on Bear Bryant and in the Yankee organization came under the wing of Billy Martin. For his part, Showalter mentioned how vital it is “to evolve” and that central to the job is figuring out “what do the players need from me.”
But I think players, for the most part, want to be surrounded by leaders who make them better and elevate the chances to win. La Russa, from his days working in the Commissioner’s Office traveling in spring from camp to camp, cited a cutoff drill run by the Orioles that sticks with him because of “how much fun Buck was making it for the players while communicating exactly what was needed to be done on each play.”
In the end, La Russa said, “You change with the times but you don’t change how you earn respect and trust.” That is about staying true to philosophies about how to approach the game and treat teammates and compete. It is about emphasizing the final score as the most vital stat of all and using every resource — from your spouse drawing different colored lines on a piece of paper to the most modern sports science — to positively impact that stat.