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AFL Update: Oct. 6, 2023

Scottsdale scored single runs in the 5th and 6th innings to take a 2-0 lead before giving ’em both back in the 7th for a 2-2 tie. The Angels’ Adrian Placencia homered to lead off the 8th to give the Scorpions the eventual 3-2 win.

Trey Lipscomb (pictured above) was the sole Washington National to appear in the game. He played batted fifth and went 1-for-4 with two whiffs while making two assists.

Scottsdale returns home to host Surprise tonight. Thad Ward is not listed as the starter, though it is possible he may start tomorrow if the Scorpions are using a six-man rotation to spread the innings and keep the starters well-rested.



I WILL NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY I HAVE BEEN CONTACTED TO REPLACE THE FIRED P.D. STAFF

As noted in the comments—and reported earlier this week by the Washington Post—the Nationals have let eight more people go from the minor-league operations.

Perhaps most notable among the departures are longtime coach/coordinators Troy Gingrich and Michael Tejera. Both became coaches immediately after their retirement as players following the 2003 and 2010 seasons, respectively.

Four of the eight coaches known to have been fired were on the batting side, which makes sense because most of the affiliates were good candidates to be foster homes because there was so little hitting (*rimshot!*). While cost-cutting in preparation for the sale of the team may still be a factor, it’s hard to argue against the inference that Washington is cleaning house.

Ultimately, there is the chicken-and-egg question: Was the failure because the coaches didn’t improve the players or was the failure due to poor drafting? It’s hard not to notice that 20% of the current Top 30 were drafted by other teams.

But I tend to lean towards the latter being a bit of a copout. Even in the New World Order (where there are fewer roster-fillers), it’s still the job of P.D. folks to make the most of what they’re given. And it’s hard to say that that happened very often.

And to close the loop referenced in the headline, I don’t think my coaching prowess exceeds Charles Le Mar on skiing.

15 Commments

  1. Drafting and international signing have not been good for the Nats under Rizzo. Neither has the development of the guys they did sign. Bringing Watson in 2 years ago was supposed to fix the problem. It didn’t. It is time for the major changes Rizzo is making.

    1. By chance is Danny Haas related to the ole legend Eddie Haas??
      Now in the future maybe in the stands when a homer is hit by Hassell a new dance will happen in the dugout without a Wig era wig : the Hassell hustle ?
      Snarkle , Luke

  2. Troy Gingerich is no loss. He’s been around way too long and obviously they need some new ideas.
    Not sure how Harrisburg ended the season with 10 of the top 30 prospects and still finished in last place. Maybe the change in coaching will help for next season.
    Sad to see De Jon go!

  3. this is not an exact science, perception is very important and as almost always is the case we don’t know what the decision makers are truly thinking. this is not a slam on the organization as it is common practice in the sports world

  4. Lipscomb back at 3B, staying on the left side of the infield.

    In a piece a couple of days ago, Ghost at NatsTalk was adamant that the house-cleaning is due to poor performance, not cost-cutting for sale purposes. Said everything he has heard from within the organization is that this isn’t a cost-cutting move.

    As one who has been vocal about the poor performance in both drafting and development, I’m pleased to see changes, but I’m still shocked at the wholesale nature. (Also, it doesn’t seem fair that all of these folks are getting flat-out fired while one of the worst offenders, Rizzo buddy Kris Kline, merely got reassigned.)

    And while we’re excited about House, Wood, and Crews, and pleased by the unexpected advancement of Alu and Young, let’s face it, there’s a truckload of under performance in the system right now. Two of the highest-profile hitters, Green and Hassell, are a real mess. But so are Cruz, Cox, Infante, de la Rosa, Boissiere, and White, among others. Antuna is a barely-hanging-on org guy. On the pitching side, supposedly talented guys like Lara and Susana haven’t done much, and injuries have claimed so many.

    On the nuts-and-bolts side of the equation, though, it’s going to be hard to refill so many positions with well-qualified people. It’s jarring for the players as well, as the people in the organization with whom they had relationships are gone.

  5. Besides maybe Watson, the guys they’re letting go of seem to be the guys who shouldn’t have great job security. So I don’t find myself particularly surprised or annoyed with any of these departures individually. But the problem is the scope and volume of departures and the sequencing of it all. I think we indeed need to completely overhaul our scouting and player development strategy, but I’m not convinced that right now is the time to announce the departures of certain staff when none of the new leadership positions have been filled. Once Kline’s replacement as the heading of scouting is in position, leave it to him/her to decide whom to keep and whom to let go. Same for the vacancy of Director of Player Development.

    Rizzo is assuming a huge responsibility for something he’s not exactly been very good at in his career: creating, growing and leading a large scouting and player development set up. Let’s hope he can – very, very quickly – hire the right people to do this, because I’m not even sure who’s left at this point after laying off several dozen coaches, scouts, assistants to the GM, VPs and other staff. Speaking of rebuilds, Rizzo’s got a meta-rebuild on his hands now.

    2. Well, he’s pretty much available since other teams seemed to have little to no interest in his services after he was let go by the Nationals. He spent one year in independent ball before being let go (by the West Virginia Power) and then coached in Taiwan for nine months. More recently he was picked up by the Royals (perhaps the least analytical organization in MLB, although the Rockies are in that conversation as well) last January as a “pitching advisor for player development.”

  7. In the last 10 years, an amazing amount of analytical biomechanical tech (Driveline, TrackMan) has been developed. The Astros have been able to weather George Springer, Carlos Correa, Dallas Keuchel, Charlie Morton, Justin Verlander, and Gerritt Cole leave via free agency. They have had high draft choices taken away and all the while having late round draft choices. Despite losing Cy Youngs and top notch hitters, they’re trying to extend a streak of 6 straight AL Championship appearances which they’ve won 4 times to get to the World Series. They’ve been able to find value where others do not.

    And how do the Tampa Bays Rays keep winning with zero payroll and near zero fans? There are lessons to be learned from other teams that we are ignoring.

    Those teams have not done “rebuilds” like the Nats. Our farm system was drained of talent after 2019, from poor drafting & development and trading prospects for vets (Robbie Ray, Giolito, Luzardo).

    Have the Nats have incorporated any slow motion capture cameras in any ballpark for use in biomechanical analysis? I doubt it. In a 2019 article Dave Sheinen quoted a head of Driveline who said:
    “Naturally, Driveline’s methods and philosophies have their critics, from old-school organizations that don’t buy fully into the data-driven approach (Boddy names the Washington Nationals as a “bottom-five” franchise in terms of progressiveness) . . ..”

    It’s time for the Nats to join in the 21st century.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/05/23/velocity-is-number-one-thing-this-high-tech-biomechanics-lab-is-changing-baseball/

  8. It seems to me that the whole org. is still operating in an archaic way when it comes to coaching ( player development).

    Have they embraced technology and analytics at all? I know there was some admission that they only started to do it recently, but it still seems they are way behind the curve and still too old school.

    And it starts at the big league level too. I swear if I have to hear Davey’s enlightened guide to great pitching as “pitching down in the zone “ and “ don’t walk guys “ and “ throwing first pitch strikes “ I think I’m gonna cry. ( and is it me or do they attack each hitter the exact same way?)

    I read articles on pitching in other orgs and it’s night and day in their approach. The pitchers talk about how they use numbers and technology to expand (or decrease ) their repertoire, to get the right arm extension, ball movements, spin rates, pitching planes, specific hitter strategies…

    Maybe I’m totally wrong, but who knows since there is apparently a gag order on interviewing Hickey and the pitching coordinators ( or anyone else for that matter other than Rizzo and Davey)

  9. Not that anyone here will believe it, but a couple of years ago the Nationals started pouring more resources into technology and analytics and hiring new people to use that data. My take is that it’s quite possible that the cleaning house on the scouting side is a continuation of that change. It’s already produced some results, as Jake Irvin credited his rise to MLB to a tweak to his mechanics ID’d by analytics folks and communicated through the coaches.

    1. I believe you. That’s definitely the way they need to be going. It’s just the wholesale nature of the change that’s shocking.

      It’d be curious to know what finally convinced Rizzo to blow things up. Maybe he suspects that the rebuild isn’t as far along as he wanted/hoped. And of course we won’t know if he’s truly seen the light until we see who he hires.

      Re Menhart, the blackballing of him by U.S. pro baseball truly is bizarre. I really don’t think the Nats would have won the World Series without him. He seems to have been Stras’s guru, and Corbin sure hasn’t been the same since he left. Menhart also got a lot more out of Voth than anyone else did, among others. Maybe he’s too “old school” for what the Nats need now with all the young pitchers, but he certainly did a lot better than the guy who replaced him has.

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