REPORT: Neil Allen to be Hired as Pitching Coach

Dave Martinez is likely available for bench coach keeping with the Rays theme.

There's nothing wrong with pounding the zone, but ever pitcher needs a reliable out pitch - something he can throw to miss a bat when it matters. The Twins pitchers have largely lacked that for years.

I know it's not because their minor league coaches and managers don't believe it's important. I've heard enough of them talk about how important that is.

I guess I'm hoping Allen and Guardado can somehow help the current and future Twins pitchers to develop that kind of pitch.

  On 11/22/2014 at 11:43 PM, Winston Smith said:

Dave Martinez is likely available for bench coach keeping with the Rays theme.

Not to go off topic, but last I knew, the Cubs have a bench coach opening. I suspect Martinez is more likely to end up there than in Minnesota.

I'm still wrapping my head around the Neil Allen hire. I find it kind of fascinating that Molitor and the Twins have hired a guy that their new manager has no history with at all. That just seems... odd (but not necessarily in a bad way).

I honestly expected a pitching coach hire from outside the Twins immediate organization, but with some kind of historical relationship with Molitor. I'm very curious to see how this turns out.

Mike Berardino now Tweeting that source close to Allen insist he has not yet been told he will be the new Twins pitching coach.

You just kind of have to laugh, don't you?

This is SO "Twins Way."

I don't know if the Strib just found out Willis had been told he didn't get the gig so they assume Allen did (not an unreasonable assumption, I suppose, but it's dangerous to make any assumption when you're dealing with the Twins FO) or if Allen was told by the Twins that if he leaked the decision before the Twins announced it, they would pull their offer. With as super-secret as the Twins are with everything they do, I could honestly see that being the case.

It's all just kind of amusing.

Allen has no ties to the organization. The only thing that could have set him apart is the Twins perception of his skill in coaching pitchers. Encouraging.

The thing I hate most about sources, is they can be anyone. Levelle or Berardino for example can quote A source close to a team, which  could be Phil Miller who said something or even tweeted something. He's close to the team, and he said it, so they can say it. Information like this can become a chasing your own tail effect. 

I do massively respect the work Berardino been doing the last couple years. When trying to figured the "second finalist" for the pitching coach job it looked like he was contacting anyone he could think of just trying to see if they'd been approached by the Twins for an interview. He didn't  just wait around for a Twins exec to feed him information, he was being a reporter.  

I have absolutely no problem with this, and am very intrigued by the choice. I don't care if he doesn't have ML coaching experience yet. No-one has ML coaching experience until they get their first shot. He's been around some, and most recently worked with an organization that has a reputation for producing some quality pitching talent.

I would have been happy with Mason for the same reasons. As well as Willis based on reputation I've heard and the ML success of his pupils. Also wondering if Glynn had something to do with a recommendation here. I believe there has been a shift in philosophy with the Twins the past few seasons in regard to drafting and trading more power arms. This is an area, ML pitching coach wise, where I was in favor of that "outside" voice. All 3 of these guys could have provided that. Excited to see what affect he brings.

  On 11/23/2014 at 3:07 AM, Seth Stohs said:

When did the Twins have guys that finished guys off consistently? Santana (who was a Rule 5) and Liriano (who was a throw-in in a trade). Pretty sure Anderson loved having them pitching in his staff.

 

Pitching coaches, simply, need to work with what they've got. 

Rick did get results from the very talented Santana, but the very talented Liriano was a different kind of animal. We received 2 good years out him in his tenure with the Twins, that's what? - 2 good years out of 6. I do not view Anderson as some kind of pariah or a nincompoop, but after a while the crackers get stale and you need to throw them away and buy a new box.

A crispy new cracker is always better in the long run, especially if you are dipping them into your soup, and it is eventual this box, if not finished will get stale, and we will have to buy a new one.

I prefer to not protect stale crackers as I prefer new, crispy, fresh ones.

  On 11/23/2014 at 12:23 AM, TheLeviathan said:

I don't think there is a dissonance.  As pitchers you want to be ahead in the count and not walking people and as hitters you want to avoid swinging at pitches out of the zone.

 

The problem is that the Twins' pitching philosophy became too overzealous and there wasn't enough "good" strikes and guys able to miss bats in the zone.  "Pitch to contact" was all about enabling weak contact and staying ahead of hitters, something all great pitchers do.  We just started to believe any old schmuck could accomplish that if they had "good control".

This.

The entire "pitch to contact" philosophy is sound. Absolutely nothing wrong with the general job Anderson did over the years as PC for the Twins, especially in the dome with the budget available. What would you have your pitchers do? Not throw strikes? Dance all day around the strike zone? My thinking though, somewhat alluded to here already, is that intentionally or not, all pitchers, their stuff and approach, became pigeon-holed in to the directive.

  On 11/23/2014 at 4:04 AM, TheLeviathan said:

 It was almost like the Twins were trying to target a market inefficiency but went too far.

Good take; I've always considered this as well.  They reversed Oakland's supposed thinking, believing that BB/9 was more obtainable/teachable than BB% (OBA - AVG).  But that thinking just gets you subpar pitchers that stop living up to their measurables as they begin to face elite talent.

  On 11/23/2014 at 3:26 AM, Seth Stohs said:

To be fair, I've used "Sources close to..." before too, and it's because the Twins aren't ready or just haven't said anything. It's nerve-wracking after you put yourself out there until the team confirms. But, speaking only for myself, I've never "broken" any news without being really, really confident in my source. And frankly, if you tell anyone publicly who your sources are, you'll lose those sources in a hurry. Reputation matters.

That said, when I wrote up this article, I was sure to credit the Strib for being the ones to break it. 1.) They deserve the credit in this case (Berardino in 96% of other cases), and 2.) if it turns out untrue, people know where it came from.

That's something I've always respected about Twins Daily, is staff and posters giving credit to who broke the story or found the latest bit of info. Seth you in particular when you "break something" give the credit to Twins Daily as a whole.  That doesn't go unnoticed.