변하더라도 자신의 자리가 안전하다는 믿음이 코치에게 있어야

지난 몇년에 걸쳐 일어난 클리블랜드 투수들의 변화를 말하는 이 글에서 눈에 띄는 대목만 옮겨봅니다. (출처 : driveline 페이스북)

“변화를 위해서는 상당한 헌신과 변하더라도 자신의 자리가 안전하다는 믿음이 코치에게 있어야 한다. It takes a lot of commitment and belief that coaches’ jobs are safe if they change.”

“생각이 다를 수는 있다. 하지만 팀이 결정을 하면 (자신의 생각을 내려놓고) 그 결정을 따른다. We can disagree but when the organization makes a decision, we stand behind it.”

Jordan Bastian tweeted yesterday that the “Indians pitching staff set single-season MLB records in WAR (31.8, Fangraphs), strikeouts (1,614) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.1)”

Five years ago the Indians had one of the most conservative throwing programs in MLB. It changed to become one of the most progressive.

Major kudos belong to those in player development who made the path possible from the front office to the pitching coordinators/coaches.

It can’t happen overnight, and this has caused many MLB teams to falter/stop. But a 3+ year plan works, and Cleveland showed how. It’s not easy to do. It’s really hard to steer the ship. It takes a lot of commitment and belief that coaches’ jobs are safe if they change.

Sometimes the popular narrative to the throwing program changes was Trevor Bauer’s arrival, but it was well underway before Trevor got there. Trevor was a part of it, but by no means the only part, or even the majority of it. It started in the minors, like it always has to. In other words it was easier to acquire Trevor BECAUSE of the changes already in motion.

Ken Knutson had a very large role in that as did Eric Binder (Dir of Ops now) and Carter Hawkins (AGM) as well as the coaches/coordinators like Ruben Niebla. Others like Derek Falvey (now president of the Twins) and the recently acquired Matt Blake (Asst. Dir Player Development) were big too. It was a team effort.

No one person can get it done. When I worked with the Indians, motto was “We can disagree but when the organization makes a decision, we stand behind it.”