All you really need to know about baseball you learned in Little League

Or so it seems if you look at what Cincinnati GM Dan O’Brien did this past off season with Pitching coach, Don Gullett. He decided that to improve the pitching staff, the most economical investment they could make is to walk less people! According to an article in ESPN Mag (6/21) their thinking went like this:

“Better to force hitters to swing the bat and allow the defense to make plays than to pitch tentatively and put runners on base!” Wow. I can see them talking now (with all due respect to Guinness Beer commercials.)

OB: Joe I have a new idea that will save us millions and lower our ERA!

Gullett: Brilliant! What is it?

OB: We are going to tell our pitchers to give up less walks!

Gullett: Brilliant. How do we do that? Did we get new players?

OB: No, we have the same ones. You just tell them to throw more strikes, attack the hitters and get ahead in the count. Gullett: Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that!

OB: That’s why they pay me the big bucks, Don.

Gullett: Brilliant!

Question. What do the following coaches have in common with the highly paid GM of Cincinnati.
Al ‘Buttermaker” Conway – former Little League Coach

Doug “X-man” Exley – former Junior High Baseball Coach

Rodger ‘Doger” Adams – former HS JV Baseball Coach

Mark “Hey” Abbott – former HS Varsity Baseball Coach

“Iron” Mike Davis – former college baseball coach.

They all told me and my teammates that walks are not a good thing and if you walk guys they are going to score and we are probably going to lose the game if you walk too many guys!

Brilliant! Seems simple enough, but apparently all the talent that these major leaguers have, and all the money that players and coaches are paid does not make up for the fact that they often fail to adhere to basic principles of baseball.

Current Reds pitcher Cory Lydle sums it up best, “People assume that because you are a major league pitcher, you know what you are doing. But sometimes, you don’t know what you want to do with a hitter.”

When did the game get so dam confusing? Keep guys off balance. Get ahead in the count. Go after them to make them swing. DON”T WALK GUYS. But hey, what do I know? What does anyone really know these days?

Brilliant!

Ray Lauenstein is a writer and speaker specializing in sport psychology, college recruiting, and sport and performance related topics. He is the author of two books, including Baseball Playing Outside the Lines – A guide for college bound players and their parents.