David, sometimes you really remind me of Soren, who often says "winning is a part of the development process." Other times, of course, your opinions are nearly the opposite of his. That's what makes it fun!
Really sorry to hear that Tosar is leaving!
But now the biggest question of all: has anyone told "Q" that now that he's become our manager he absolutely has to read your column?!?!?!
I'm still in the hospital from my stroke 2 weeks ago so I'll have to fire up my 810whb app in order to hear you and Soren go at it! I'll do that right after my excruciating and totally necessary physical therapy!
Thanks for the good thoughts. I'm one of the "lucky ones" - I can still do almost everything except walk worth a damn. That's what the PT is for. My equilibrium is completely screwed up and I keep wanting to fall to the right even when I'm just sitting up in bed. I'm confident we'll get that fixed!
The Royals have been on a roll the last 7 years, all downhill. Glass and Co was paid a huge bundle of money to go away, and that was necessary for any change to take place. DM and MM are done in the MLB, but the damage DM and his cronies did to the Royals player development will be with us for awhile yet.
Have faith. GMDM apparently was an overlord. That effect on culture can be vast. Clearly we saw cultural issues. What drove me nuts was the egos getting in the way of accountability. While leadership is followership… it can be bad…e.g. the vax debacle. But signs are good. I look forward to AZ.
A good bullpen can also help protect the starters and give them some space to develop and take some chances. If the bullpen is toast and you're in a position where you _need_ the starter to give you 6 innings, which we've seen, that's tough to get them to use a new pitch or keep their confidence up when their getting shelled and have to stay out there and just take it.
Thank you, David. I really enjoyed this particular edition of Inside the Crown (not that I didn't enjoy almost all of the previous ones). I am really pumped with the new manager and which coaches he will hire. I hope the players are as well. I am READY for Royals Change! Enjoy your weekend.
I'm excited about where this goes from here. We've talked a lot about how much catch-up the Royals need to do in terms of opening up communication, but I'm curious to see if JJ, Quatraro and Sherman have identified areas where the Royals could actually be ahead of the curve.
I wonder quite a bit how far behind they actually are. If, as JJ says, they do have the data and it simply needs to be communicated, I'd say they're likely not as far away from some of the more data-driven teams. Things obviously don't change overnight, but having the right people in place to work harmoniously together can make things move a little quicker than I think a lot of people might expect.
Re: Quatraro's 51/49 point, this is actually something I've thought about a lot. Obviously, making the "right" decision is always better than the "wrong" one, but when a decision is 51/49, that means both options are *good*, even though one is slightly better than the other.
I used to be a television news producer. I would absolutely agonize over what stories to assign to my reporters, so much that it was affecting my ability to do the other parts of my job. I would spend far too much time trying to decide what was "right". Putting together a newscast is easy when you have a couple of big stories to follow, but often you have to put your heads together and come up with some ideas, and deciding which ideas to pursue is where it became tough - who really knew at 2:00 p.m. if Story A or Story B was going to turn out better, assuming both were good ideas to begin with?
Eventually, I figured out that what was more important than getting the 51/49 decision right was to choose one (i.e., just flip the damned coin and go) and then execute that plan as well as we could.
I was blessed to have a really good team around me - maybe the "flip a coin" approach wouldn't have worked if my reporters were less talented - but I think that experience is applicable to the point Quatraro was making, in that you can get away with missing on some of those 51/49 decisions if you are fundamentally sound, if you are focused, and if your team executes to the best of its ability.
So, get those marginal decisions right and leverage the analytical tools to help make that happen, but remember no plan succeeds without great execution.
That's a really good point. I think sometimes people get too caught up in making sure they pick the right side of 51/49 when you can often turn the 49 into the 51 with the proper execution. I'm with you completely.
Should we be concerned that Grifol has already locked up coaches on his staff and our new manager hasn't? With other new managers also looking for coaches it seems like we might miss out on a quality coach?
David, sometimes you really remind me of Soren, who often says "winning is a part of the development process." Other times, of course, your opinions are nearly the opposite of his. That's what makes it fun!
Really sorry to hear that Tosar is leaving!
But now the biggest question of all: has anyone told "Q" that now that he's become our manager he absolutely has to read your column?!?!?!
He and I absolutely agree on a lot and disagree on maybe as much! I'll chat with him later today, so we'll see where we land.
And I just got a new subscriber that's MattyQ@kcroyals.com*, so maybe it's him?
*kidding...we're just on a boring text chain
I'm still in the hospital from my stroke 2 weeks ago so I'll have to fire up my 810whb app in order to hear you and Soren go at it! I'll do that right after my excruciating and totally necessary physical therapy!
Oh man, really sorry to hear that, but keep up that PT!
Thanks for the good thoughts. I'm one of the "lucky ones" - I can still do almost everything except walk worth a damn. That's what the PT is for. My equilibrium is completely screwed up and I keep wanting to fall to the right even when I'm just sitting up in bed. I'm confident we'll get that fixed!
Get well BassPlayerDude!!!! Enjoy reading your comments on here.
Thanks for the kind words, Paul! I absolutely do plan on getting back to 100%!
The Royals have been on a roll the last 7 years, all downhill. Glass and Co was paid a huge bundle of money to go away, and that was necessary for any change to take place. DM and MM are done in the MLB, but the damage DM and his cronies did to the Royals player development will be with us for awhile yet.
Have faith. GMDM apparently was an overlord. That effect on culture can be vast. Clearly we saw cultural issues. What drove me nuts was the egos getting in the way of accountability. While leadership is followership… it can be bad…e.g. the vax debacle. But signs are good. I look forward to AZ.
A good bullpen can also help protect the starters and give them some space to develop and take some chances. If the bullpen is toast and you're in a position where you _need_ the starter to give you 6 innings, which we've seen, that's tough to get them to use a new pitch or keep their confidence up when their getting shelled and have to stay out there and just take it.
Yep, that’s a great point. Having guys you trust allows you to not put a young starter in an iffy spot.
Thank you, David. I really enjoyed this particular edition of Inside the Crown (not that I didn't enjoy almost all of the previous ones). I am really pumped with the new manager and which coaches he will hire. I hope the players are as well. I am READY for Royals Change! Enjoy your weekend.
I'm excited about where this goes from here. We've talked a lot about how much catch-up the Royals need to do in terms of opening up communication, but I'm curious to see if JJ, Quatraro and Sherman have identified areas where the Royals could actually be ahead of the curve.
I wonder quite a bit how far behind they actually are. If, as JJ says, they do have the data and it simply needs to be communicated, I'd say they're likely not as far away from some of the more data-driven teams. Things obviously don't change overnight, but having the right people in place to work harmoniously together can make things move a little quicker than I think a lot of people might expect.
Re: Quatraro's 51/49 point, this is actually something I've thought about a lot. Obviously, making the "right" decision is always better than the "wrong" one, but when a decision is 51/49, that means both options are *good*, even though one is slightly better than the other.
I used to be a television news producer. I would absolutely agonize over what stories to assign to my reporters, so much that it was affecting my ability to do the other parts of my job. I would spend far too much time trying to decide what was "right". Putting together a newscast is easy when you have a couple of big stories to follow, but often you have to put your heads together and come up with some ideas, and deciding which ideas to pursue is where it became tough - who really knew at 2:00 p.m. if Story A or Story B was going to turn out better, assuming both were good ideas to begin with?
Eventually, I figured out that what was more important than getting the 51/49 decision right was to choose one (i.e., just flip the damned coin and go) and then execute that plan as well as we could.
I was blessed to have a really good team around me - maybe the "flip a coin" approach wouldn't have worked if my reporters were less talented - but I think that experience is applicable to the point Quatraro was making, in that you can get away with missing on some of those 51/49 decisions if you are fundamentally sound, if you are focused, and if your team executes to the best of its ability.
So, get those marginal decisions right and leverage the analytical tools to help make that happen, but remember no plan succeeds without great execution.
That's a really good point. I think sometimes people get too caught up in making sure they pick the right side of 51/49 when you can often turn the 49 into the 51 with the proper execution. I'm with you completely.
Should we be concerned that Grifol has already locked up coaches on his staff and our new manager hasn't? With other new managers also looking for coaches it seems like we might miss out on a quality coach?
I wouldn’t be. They can always accelerate the process if one of their candidates is about to be hired.