Joe Maddon On Analytics: 'Players Don't Need All This Information'
Count potential Texas Rangers managerial prospect Joe Maddon among the managers who are casting a leery eye at the use of analytics lately.
Maddon, fired by the Los Angeles Angels earlier this season, spoke with The Athletic’s "Baseball Show" podcast. Maddon, long considered one of the game’s innovators as a manager — especially the Tampa Bay Rays team he led to the 2008 World Series — told the podcast that “players don’t need all this information.”
The context is important, however.
Maddon talked about how analytics was creating longer player meetings and putting more data in their heads than he felt was necessary. He also said that Major League teams are in a rush to be the "best" when it comes to analytics and that operations people are too involved in the day-to-day preparation of the team.
He said “their authority is exceeding that of a coach.”
“It gets to the point where the pregame is a meeting every day,” Maddon said. “And it’s an elongated meeting. And players don’t need all this information, quite frankly. They need nuggets. They don’t need dissertations.”
Maddon said he still wants analytics, but he said that he wants those analytics presented to the coaching staff and to allow them to determine what to implement.
The firing of Chris Woodward in Texas created an opening this offseason. Maddon, to many, would be a likely candidate for an interview with Texas, based solely on his credentials.
Along with the 2008 World Series, he helped keep the Rays relevant for several years after that on a small-market budget. Analytics were a big help for that franchise and Maddon credited the Rays former director of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, with giving him the latitude to use the data as he needed.
With the Cubs he helped them break the "Curse of the Billy Goat" in 2016 and win the franchise’s first World Series in more than a century.
Things didn’t work with the Angels, but the Rangers budding farm system is much better equipped for a manager like Maddon. He’s also won more than 1,300 games.
The question now is whether his stance on analytics will hurt his job prospects in 2023.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
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