It reminds me of an article I read a couple of years ago about the relatively low numbers of math and science majors in college and one reason given is that many people are not willing to try something and fail, which is a lot of science work. You learn what didn’t work, figure out why, and move on. Sounds like McClure would not be a good scientist.

Research by 3PSports has shown that a MLB hitters average on pitches 4 inches above the knee cap and below is .220. The ground ball % is close to 70%. Now, if you couple that lower part of the zone with the ball moving downhill in a sink, you’ll have more success. This is something Banni was trying to do. But if you start working exclusively down there, you’ll still get hurt because guys adjust. A MLB hitter like Prince or Alex with an uppercut can control the bottom of the zone if you don’t move in and out and up and down as well as add and subtract velo. So, you have to take your strengths and use them in an effective way.

McClure was a guy who did it the way it had always been done. That is evident by the results he generated as a pitching coach and the answers he gave to questions and just casual talk. He was the guy that got by on what other guys said and never figured it out for himself. Now, guys like Wolforth and Jaeger and Cressey are challenging the industry. This is great! The more challenge there is the more things can change and the best results can be established for the players. This was my biggest issue with McClure (and Scott and I argued talked about this several times) was that he wouldn’t change anything. He wouldn’t adjust. This is how I did it and this is how we’ll do it. Now you’ve got guys challenging things like Derek McGowan and seeing incredible results! This is awesome. And guys like this that the Royals draft (Mike Montgomery) are seen as guys who are “difficult” and “won’t listen to their coaches”.

Now you are starting to see why there are issues. I hope more of this continues to come out so we can see how bad it was. Thankfully, GMDM got him out of there.

I’ll check this out. – TL

Dave Duncan and other “good” pitching coaches think of this.

Any front office would be happy to have the proven pitching knowledge of Scobee and McGowan. They need to work on a book, “Scobee and McGowan’s Guide to Coaching Pitchers.” With their resumes and experience, that would FLY off the shelves.

after his “great” 2007. So was his SIERA (but not his tERA, for some reason).

What’s not clear is whether Banny was thinking too much to be an effective pitcher. At first blush, and per this article, it seems like overthinking isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But, perhaps it can be a bad thing if that overthinking is not positively guided/appreciated by a manager and/or coach. That seems like a pretty common sense conclusion regarding the coaching/education of any person.

What’s even less clear from all this, is whether a major league pitching staff can harmoniously co-exist when there is an over-thinker like Banny and the rest of the pitching staff is more simplisitic in their approach. I’d assume that most pitchers do think some, but have gotten to be as good as they are by relying on more simple thought-processes and more on “feel”. Banny’s over-thinking and hyper-analysis could be poisoning the staff by upsetting or challenging their status quo. In other words, if a certain philosophy/style works well for 11 guys, is it a problem to force the 12th guy to adapt to that philosophy?

As this post makes painfully clear, I like to overthink things myself, so I strongly empathize with Banny and wish that guys like Banny could get the training and guidance they need, but he might be a casualty of a system that doesn’t play by his rules.

I read the McClure interview last night and found much of what he said off-putting, but before reading this response I could not articulate exactly what it was about McClure’s comments that were bugging me. I did think several times while reading the original interview things along the lines of, "hmmm, what does he mean by “feel” exactly? And what if a pitcher doesn’t have “feel” yet? Does he just keep telling them to learn “feel?” That would drive me crazy if he were my coach."

I did shake my head in agreement at the part where McClure said he thought Banny might have been over thinking pitching. Obviously I tend to think about things a lot myself, but I also recognize that in areas like sports where you cannot think you way to success. Pitchers have to be confident and skilled enough to execute pitches and no amount of thinking can replace that. During his last year in KC I wondered if Banny was trying to be more clever than proficient. Not like I know what I am talking about. But every time I saw him walk a guy he had swinging and missing on strike two the thought entered my mind.