Ch-ch-changes

Clare and I have been burning up the literal and figurative phone lines the past two days, what with the Cubs hiring Craig Counsell and the White Sox countering with…the likes of Drew Butera and Jason Bourgeois. I’ll say this about Butera, the new catching coach—he and his dad Sal hung around as backup catchers for a combined twenty-one years. Granted, they hit all of twenty-seven homeruns between them. But teams always need a catcher. And we’re not talking hitting. For that, the Sox hired former big-leaguer Marcus Thames, a ten-year MLB veteran. Thames managed just 450 hits in that span, although 115 of them were homers. So I’m guessing our new hitting coach won’t be teaching anyone to slap. Seriously, I’m willing to give Thames a shot. “He has an incredible ability to relate to all types of players,” new GM Chris Getz told reporters Tuesday. [quote in today’s Tribune] That’s close enough to Bill Robinson for me, for now. Butera, Bourgeois (first base/outfield); Thames; Grady Sizemore (baserunning/outfield); Matt Wise (assistant pitching coach)—what do they all have in common? They’re former major leaguers. And why is that important? Because I’m convinced ballplayers get more from coaches who have been there, as opposed to Kannapolis or Birmingham. I’m also convinced there is or shortly will be a backlash to analytics’ baseball. All things being equal, give me the coach who can read the data and frame it within the context of his own career. Sorry, but if that career never got past college or the low minors, I doubt that coach will have much of an impact on the players he’s coaching. And there’s the rub—through no fault of their own, women coaches lack the necessary MLB experience to draw on. I know how I’d fix it, but no one seems interested. Oh, well, the game’s loss.