Absolutely loved this interview with Leo Mazzone in The Atlantic today.
An Old-School Pitching Coach Says I Told You So by Michael Powell
No one knows, objectively, what’s best for the health and longevity of baseball pitchers, and there’s certainly something to be said for all the new fangled metrics we have to measure pitch effectiveness like spin rate and movement, etc. But, as a fan, I so miss the days of the dominant starting pitchers who could go 7, 8, 9 innings at a time and put a whole team on their back in some of the most important games1. Mazzone is, from a coaching perspective, one of the best representatives of the 1990s iteration of that era of dominant starting pitching. At the time, I hated his Braves teams–but even then I couldn’t help but respect the impressive rotation and pitching staff that they’d put together. Mazzone no doubt had a big hand in that. And he sure can provide a good quote.
Here’s one of the better stories from the piece, featuring the great John Smoltz.
In 1987, the Braves traded a fine but aging starting pitcher, Doyle Alexander, for John Smoltz, who came from the Detroit Tigers’ Minor League system. People chattered that the Braves had been fleeced. Take the kid out back to a pitching mound, then–General Manager Bobby Cox told Mazzone, and tell me what we’ve got. Scouting reports suggested that the 20-year-old Smoltz had a lively but erratic fastball. Mazzone and the kid walked to a back lot in the Braves training complex. “I told Smoltzy to just throw natural,” Mazzone recalled. On the fourth or fifth pitch, Smoltz shook his head and muttered,: “This ain’t right.” “What ain’t right?” Mazzone asked. “Well, my left leg has to go here, and my right leg has to go there,” Smoltz said. “When I was in Detroit—” Mazzone cut him off. “You’re not in fucking Detroit. Throw natural.” Smoltz—who has recalled their conversation similarly—calmed down and tossed one fastball after another across the plate, beautiful as could be. From there, Mazzone worked on developing Smoltz’s off-speed pitches. A year later, Smoltz reached the majors at age 21. A year after that, he pitched more than 200 Major League innings. “I said to myself, Damn, this was too easy,” Mazzone recalled.
The whole thing was a really fun read and, if you’re a baseball fan who’s nostalgic for those starting pitchers of yore, I encourage you to check it out.
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Even as a Pirates fan who had to suffer through the “Madison Bumgarner game” in 2014. Watching Bumgarner throughout the rest of that postseason was almost worth falling victim to his dominance in the Wild Card round. ↩︎
