There are a lot of factors that go into decision-making in a baseball game. Those decisions are magnified exponentially in the postseason. A manager pulling a pitcher too early or leaving him in too long could make or break a game and season.
Veteran MLB pitcher Rich Hill knows a thing or two about that. He gave his thoughts on pitching decisions, how strong communication leads to healthy environments, and the need to trust managers on the Audacy original podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” this week.
“The numbers are absolute so we can definitely hang our hat on that and see that,” Hill said (14:14 in player above). “But we can’t quantify fortitude and you can’t quantify creativity. And you can’t quantify experience, can you? Is there a quantification, is there a way to be able to put a number on experience?”
Hill brought up that there have been a handful of pitchers this postseason that faded under the bright lights after strong regular seasons. The intensity of playoff baseball cannot be replicated so experience is crucial.
Experience is important for not only pitchers but managers as well. In fact, it may be more important for the man guiding the ship.
“The creativity and the fortitude that you have to have to pitch in the postseason is also being generated by the understanding of what the manager sees,” Hill continued. “You see Bochy, you see Dusty Baker, you’re seeing Torey Lovullo and Rob Thomson do their due diligence because of their eyes and their experience of what they’ve seen over the course of their careers in playing and in managing. That matters. That means something.”
Being able to have open communication between players, coaches, and managers should help lead to playoff success.
“I’m sure that those guys … will have back and forths at the table. They’re not afraid to say no. They’re not afraid to push back. I think that’s healthy,” said Hill. “That’s something where it creates an environment that ‘Hey, we’re all in this together. We understand the main goal is to win a World Series, but at the end of the day, if we can’t have a little bit of a back and forth and maybe a disagreement where it’s going to become a problem or an issue, we’re not going to be able to get anywhere.’”
Analytics in baseball have been a polarizing subject over the past decade but especially in the past few years when it comes to starting pitchers. No matter what, though, a balanced approach is best.
“I think if it’s absolute one way or the other as far as how to make that decision to keep a starter in or pull him, that is a disconnect as well. It’s a disconnect between the front office and the analytical department and then a disconnect between the managers, the coaches, the players on the field,” Hill continued. “That is still being bridged throughout the game. I think the places where they are the healthiest environment, they have that congenial back and forth.
“It’s a healthy environment where there’s a disagreement, you can tell each other to go whatever, but the next day or even 10 minutes later, you’re like ‘Oh OK, I see it from your side.’ But the next day you get back to work and it’s over with. It’s not like you hold this grudge walking through the season or into the next day.”
Ultimately, the front office should back up the manager’s decisions in the playoffs no matter what, Hill opined. That’s how they got there and that’s who they should trust.
“The manager is in the dugout seeing what’s going on, reading body language, hearing back and forth, or the pitching coach is telling the manager,” he said. “If the line of communication isn’t open between pitcher, catcher, pitching coach, manager all together in the postseason there’s going to be an issue. The front office is not down there in the dugout to listen to those conversations.”