Organizational Review: Process and Results

Shortly after becoming the Director of Pitching Initiatives and Pitching Coordinator, the Senior VP of Player Development - Eric Lee - and I met during First-Year Player Camp to set responsibilities, expectations, and chain of command in the Cincinnati Reds. Before taking the position, it was made clear to me that the Director role would be a front office position while the Pitching Coordinator role was an on-field position, and that I would have separate responsibilities for each job title. Details on each role are broken up in the navbar and explained further below.

The broad overview of results we achieved can be summarized as follows. Further breakdowns and supporting data can be found in the Director/Coordinator Work pages.

Opportunities for Each Role

As the Director of Pitching Initiatives, I had a broad mandate, backed by our Director of Pitching, Caleb Cotham. Caleb had previously identified a number of areas he wanted to see improved on the minor league side, and gave me the bandwidth to solve the problems as I saw fit with the limited budget we had available to us. We also outlined the strengths of the organization, which were:

1. Strong Mandate for How to Act as Members of the Cincinnati Reds - Authentic, Connected, Relentless (ACR)
2. Strong Middle Management in Player Development Who Desired Change (Mark Heil, Eric Lee)
3. Flexibility in How to Perform Our Duties
4. Key Performance Indicators Jointly Set by Farm Director and Pitching Leadership

It was not immediately apparent to me how valuable many of these strengths were; over time, I became incredibly gracious for the strong mandate provided from the top by Dick Williams and Eric Lee.

After several productive meetings between Caleb Cotham, Eric Jagers, and myself, we came up with the following areas of improvements to tackle on the player initiative side in the first two years:

1. Very Poor Depth of Pitching in the Minors
2. No Biomechanical Coaching Capabilities (Details in Projects: Sports Science)
3. Poor Minor League Advance Reports
4. No Minor League Postgame Reports
5. Out of Date Rehab Throwing Program

Advance reports, postgame reports, and rehab throwing programs are not detailed in this portfolio, but were three major initiatives our department were responsible for. Details are available in an interview setting.

On these topics, I was to work closely with the existing Analytics and Sports Science divisions to bring our capabilities up to speed. The analysts were excited about the new direction that was set, as previous leadership in Pitching Development did not take a data-driven approach to coaching their players.

Meanwhile, on the Pitching Coordinator side, Eric Jagers and I identified the procedural areas that needed to be improved with the group:

1. No Standardized Communication Platform or Methology
2. No Organizational Guidelines for Pitchers
3. No Defined Standards for Coaching Excellence
4. No Educational Resources to Upskill Coaches

In these areas, we would take the lead and attack these opportunities autonomously.