11/21/24
August 21, 2006
No one ever talks about the assistant coaches.: A head coach is always important, but what about the support staff? For every great coach, there is a Defensive Coordinator, a Goaltending Consultant, or a Pitching Coach who goes largely unrecognized. Here's a list of the top 10 second fiddles in sports.
posted by Samsonov14 to general at 12:49 AM - 7 comments
I'm surprised that, this late in the season, nobody is calling out the myth that is Leo Mazzone. Orioles 1995 team ERA: 4.56 (23rd in majors) Orioles 1996 team ERA: 5.31 (29th in majors) Not one starter on the Orioles has significantly better numbers than he had last year, and several are much, much worse. Having Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz on your roster sure can make you look like a genius. Maybe Mazzone and Cox really were Wonder Twins, powerless when divided, because the Orioles staff is awful and the Braves aren't going to the post-season for the first time since the president's father was in office.
posted by BullpenPro at 01:54 PM on August 21, 2006
Are you in some kind of time warp, BPP? 1995 and 1996?
posted by bperk at 01:57 PM on August 21, 2006
No. Just patently stupid. Please adjust to 2005 and 2006. Everything else I guarantee to be 100% ackrut. I think. (Thanks, bperk.)
posted by BullpenPro at 02:11 PM on August 21, 2006
Actually bp, the only Orioles starter that is much, much worse than last year is Rodrigo Lopez. All the others are having years quite similar to the ones they have had in the past. Granted Mazzone had some excellent pitchers when he was with Atlanta, but he was also the coach when Russ Ortiz won 21 games, something most people would think unheard of right now. He also worked wonders with Jaret Wright, someone I think you should be quite familiar with. I think one of the biggest impacts on Mazzone's success is that his pitchers are facing the Red Sox and the Yankees instead of the Nationals/Expos and the other weak hitting NL East teams.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:57 PM on August 21, 2006
Good post. How many playoff games has The "Big Tuna" won without Bill B.
posted by bo_fan at 07:42 PM on August 21, 2006
YYM: let me see if I can get the years right this time... Bruce Chen (2005): 13-10, 3.83 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, .248 BA against. Bruce Chen (2006): 0-7, 6.62 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, .331 BA against. Three-thirty-one batting average! Chen is much, much worse. So, that's two. I said "several," and that is too strong, I'll grant you. Cabrera is worse, but not "much, much worse." Bedard is slightly better. Ponson was replaced with Benson. So, out of five starting pitchers, 2 are VERY worse, 1 is kinda worse, 1 is marginally better, 1 is N/A. Not a good percentage. As for the competition effecting Mazzone's success: I wasn't comparing his Braves staff of last year to his Orioles staff this year. I was comparing apples to apples. The Orioles' competition hasn't changed since last year. Bottom line: the Orioles staff as a whole is doing worse since Mazzone showed up, not better. Much worse. Three-quarters of a run per game worse. That's bad.
posted by BullpenPro at 08:31 PM on August 21, 2006
.... Including people here, apparently.