Brian Bannister: Auditioning for General Manager Job on 810 WHB

I logged on to 810's website today to listen to their reaction to last night's bullpen collapse (again) and Trey Hillman-san's post-game semi-meltdown ("You guys are grilling me on every point in the game!").  Before I listened to Soren's podcast I tuned in to Rany's radio show tonight. 

They played a clip of Brian Bannister after last night's game where he talked about how he's re-made himself into a solid pitcher again. The more and more he talked, the more I realized that he may very well be the smartest guy in the organization---and the most qualified to run this team. Seriously.  Listen to his interview and forget the context of him being a player. Doesn't he sound like a smart GM/Front office type?

Basically what he said is that he's used the Pitch F/X data now available online to track/study his pitches and their break. He basically scrapped last year's plan of trying to throw more 4-seamers in an effort to get more strikeouts after last year's disaster of a season, mainly because the results weren't there...and he was giving up too many fly balls.

Instead he's gone to primarily throwing a cutter (which "baseball men" had said a righty can't throw as his primary pitch as a starter) and the "power change" he learned from RamRam and James Shields. He says these pitches have more downward break...and even though there isn't that classic speed differential between fastball & changeup that you normally see (he's only got a 2-3 mph difference on them), the movement on them is what's allowing him to get a lot more groundballs than in the past.  He references Derek Lowe and Brandon Webb's pitches as being similar to some of the break he's got on his pitches now.

He even mentions his FIP this year being much better, whereas in his 2007 the insane BABIP kept his ERA down, but left his FIP lacking.  He also mentions how he knows the game from an offensive standpoint and where it's headed with regard to OBP, etc....

Honestly, it's refreshing to see a guy take statistics/analysis to help himself become a better pitcher, while not being afraid to scrap last year's plan when it was obviously not producing results.  (Insert Dayton's "trust the process" joke here).  I shouldn't have been stunned listening to the Banny interview since we've known he's a smart guy who is into sabermetrics, but everything this guy was saying was just gold Jerry....GOLD! 

Anyone else crafting up a "Banny for GM" paperbag to wear to the game---complete with replica Trey moustache?

Listen to the Banny interview on 810whb.com  Go to Podcasts....and it's at the bottom under "additional programming" for 7/23/09.  Trust me........it's a must listen.

**Banny's interview comes on at about the 33:00 or 34:00 minute mark.......the first half hour is railing on Hillman's use of the bullpen this weekend.  

http://www.810whb.com/podcasts