Haren, Badenhop among new wave in front offices
“They’re perfect conduits to get a message from high theoretical guys down to guys who are just used to grinding it out on the baseball field.”
Back when he was still playing, Burke Badenhop didn’t think his interest in pitch data was anything unusual. To him, it was information any pitcher would find useful. Why wouldn’t you want to know exactly how much your fastball moves?
“Every pitcher’s dream is be able to play catch with themselves,” Badenhop said. “This was as close to that as possible.”
His stuff in decline late in his career, Dan Haren knew he would need to adapt, to find new ways to get hitters out. As he began digging into numbers and having success, he realized not only was he good at it, he also enjoyed it.
“I found it fun my last couple of years,” he said. “You’re really putting together the puzzles of how to get guys out.”
Badenhop’s curiosity and Haren’s ingenuity perhaps foreshadowed their new positions in the Diamondbacks’ front office, the former in a still-beingdefined role in the club’s analytics department, the latter in position in which he’ll help pitchers devise plans of attack.
They also represent the latest in a new hiring trend with major league teams. For decades, front offices were populated almost entirely by former players who embodied the game’s old-school mind-set. Then came a wave of analytical minds, Ivy Leaguers and business-world types who embraced baseball’s data revolution.
The latest is a sort of blend of the two: ex-players with a fluency in numbers, guys who serve as bridges between the old school and the new school and whose on-field experience lends credibility to their messages.
“I think it’s the next generation of player,” Chicago Cubs General Manager Jed Hoyer said. “A lot of these guys are coming up in baseball and that dialogue is normal to them. I think we’re going to see more and more of that because the more these guys are exposed to the information, the more that subset is going to gravitate toward it. I think that’s the first wave of those guys. I think we’re going to see a lot more.”
The list of ex-players who fit the description grows by the year. The Red Sox have Brian Bannister and Dave Bush. The Rays have Jeremy Sowers and Cole Figueroa. There’s Tommy Hottovy with the Cubs. And Haren and Badenhop joined the Diamondbacks this past offseason, brought in after the front office was overhauled.
Many of them have unusual titles. Bannister is the Red Sox’s vice president of pitching development and assistant pitching coach. Hottovy, a lefty who pitched parts of two seasons in the majors, is the Cubs’ director of run prevention. Haren is the Diamondbacks’ pitching strategist.
They each seem to be tasked with different responsibilities, but it’s becoming increasingly clear front offices value their contributions. In many cases, the ex-players help connect the front office to the clubhouse.
“They’re perfect conduits to get a message from high theoretical guys down to guys who are just used to grinding it out on the baseball field,” said San Diego Padres manager Andy Green, who, in his own way, is another such explayer in that he’s numbers savvy. “Unless that message gets translated where a guy speaks both languages, it usually ends up falling on deaf ears.
“It can be the perfect game plan laid out by the front office, but if it doesn’t run through one of those conduits, it tends to, one, not be understood or, two, not be implemented at all or maybe even spurned altogether.”
Bannister is perhaps the first to transition into such a role, and his success has been far reaching, including helping turn Rich Hill from a journeyman into one of the better starters in baseball by convincing him to use his curveball more.
Hottovy is an example of how a conduit can work well. He helps put together game plans for Cubs pitchers, and he says his experience as a pitcher has helped him connect with players.
“It’s some instant credibility,” he said. “That being said, you can play 20 years in the game, but if you can’t answer the questions that players are asking now when it comes to analytics and data and stuff, then you’re going to lose credibility there. It helps that I’ve played, but it’s even more important for me to be adept and ready for the questions I might get asked, and I’m not too proud to say I don’t know everything.”
Haren is hoping to have the same kind of impact. He believes part of the appeal his role might have to pitchers is in the fact that he isn’t giving them an opinion – he’s giving them facts based on the way they’ve performed or the way hitters they’ve faced have performed. And he’s coming at them from the perspective of someone who managed to get hitters out using the same data, doing so with somewhat pedestrian stuff.
“If a guy is throwing 97 (mph) and I’m throwing 85 and I’m successful and the person throwing 97 isn’t successful, what’s missing there?” Haren said.
Badenhop will work with the Diamondbacks’ new analytics director, Mike Fitzgerald, likely in a role that involves targeting potential player acquisitions. He’s also expected to be involved in the club’s ventures into the sports science world. He sees his position – and those like it – as less about players getting smarter than as a logical result of a data-heavy world.
“The hierarchy of what a front office is and what player development staffs look like, it’s been pretty standard for a decent amount of time,” Badenhop said.
“Maybe, with all the data in the game, it’s time for a shakeup. Maybe these roles are going to become more prominent.”