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  • REPORT: Neil Allen to be Hired as Pitching Coach

    Seth Stohs

    By Seth Stohs

    The Star Tribune is reporting that the Minnesota Twins will select Neil Allen as their next pitching coach.

    Last week, we learned that the Twins search for a pitching coach had narrowed to just two: Carl Willis and Neil Allen.

    On Saturday night, the Star Tribune beat writers reported that the team had selected Neil Allen as Paul Molitor's pitching coach.

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    The 56-year-old Allen played for five big league teams from 1979 to 1989. He went a combined 58-70 with 75 saves in the big leagues.

    Following his career, he quickly became a pitching coach in independent leagues. He coached in the Blue Jays system starting in 1996. In 2000, he moved to the Yankees where he was a pitching coach through 2006, with the exception of 2005, when he was the big league bullpen coach with the Yankees.

    Since 2007, he has been a pitching coach with the Rays AAA team where he has worked with many of the young hurlers who proved ready for the Rays.

    Though he has never been a big league pitching coach, he has been a coach for over two decades. Many thought that the Twins would select a pitching coach with big league experience, though it certainly wasn't necessary.

    One thing many fans were looking for was an outside voice, someone from outside the organization. Allen has no association with the Twins, and really little interaction with Molitor. Gene Glynn was a scout for several seasons with the Rays, so maybe that's a connection?

    Molitor's coaching staff is nearly complete. Tom Brunansky was quickly named the hitting coach. Soon after, they announced that Gene Glynn (3B coach) and Rudy Hernandez (assistant hitting coach) were named. Last week, a report surfaced that Eddie Guardado would be named the bullpen coach, though at this time that has not been confirmed.

    With the reported addition of Allen as pitching coach, the open coaching spots appear to be bench coach and first base coach.

    What are your thoughts?

    Seth Stohs has been blogging about the Minnesota Twins since May 2003. A founder and owner of Twins Daily, Seth has been a Twins fan for 40 years and has a passion for covering the minor leagues and prospects.
    Follow Seth Stohs on Twitter: sethtweets

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    Featured Comments

    stringer bell

    stringer bell 12,723

  • Community Leader

    • Posted

    I mostly agree that the pitching coach can't make chicken salad out of chicken s$#t. However, it seems that Anderson wasn't able to get expected performance out of a lot of guys recently. Perhaps he was too locked into his "pound the strike zone" philosophy, perhaps he wasn't able to communicate with his pitching staff, perhaps he didn't keep up with the way the game has changed. It was time for a change. Is Allen up to the job? Time will tell.

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    Monkeypaws

    Monkeypaws 3,289

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Trying to make all pitchers conform to a single philosophy sounds like a bad idea. I'd like a coach to try to maximize the strengths of the individuals, even if it involves two entirely different approaches with two different pitchers.

     

    It's like trying to make David Ortiz hit the ball to the opposite field.

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    Mike Sixel

    Mike Sixel 41,021

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

    Interesting hire, if true. Completely not their normal mo. I have no idea if he can coach or not. I do find out odd they have no on that has run a staff before. I would have expected them to hire a bullpen coach that had that to fill in the gaps. Maybe Glynn it's going to help with that.

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    Seth Stohs

    Seth Stohs 23,732

  • Owner

    • Posted

    Interesting hire, if true. Completely not their normal mo. I have no idea if he can coach or not. I do find out odd they have no on that has run a staff before. I would have expected them to hire a bullpen coach that had that to fill in the gaps. Maybe Glynn it's going to help with that.

     

    Allen has been a pitching coach for most of the last 20-25 years. I think it's fair to say he's "run a staff before." Pitching coach in the minors isn't (or shouldn't be) any different than at any other level.

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    DocBauer

    DocBauer 14,431

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Allen has been a pitching coach for most of the last 20-25 years. I think it's fair to say he's "run a staff before." Pitching coach in the minors isn't (or shouldn't be) any different than at any other level.

     

    Valid point.

     

    And partially to that end, does his reputation and the reputation of the Rays do anything to enhance the Twins as a destination place for FA pitchers?

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    ashbury

    ashbury 48,546

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

    I think Gardy-Andy's idea of a "good strike" was the low strike. As if simply keeping the ball low kept the ball in the park.

    I suspect it sounds so bad because it doesn't reflect the full philosophy.  After all they had Parmelee, reputed to not handle the high fastball very well, to look at anytime they might lapse into thinking low strikes solve everything.  Nobody would be pitching coach if he advised every pitcher the same way, or advised them to treat all batters the same.

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    James Richter

    James Richter 208

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

    Another problem with the rigidity of the "pitch to contact" mentality is that it's success is heavily dependent upon the quality of the defense. When you've got Span & Gomez in the OF and Adam Everett & Nick Punto in the middle IF, sure, put it in play. But when the defense has all sorts of plodders & guys playing out of position, maybe it'd be a better strategy to have the pitchers try to get guys to chase...

     

    I'm hoping the new coaching staff will have a better idea of how all the pieces fit together.

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    jokin

    jokin 4,237

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted (edited)

    Another problem with the rigidity of the "pitch to contact" mentality is that it's success is heavily dependent upon the quality of the defense. When you've got Span & Gomez in the OF and Adam Everett & Nick Punto in the middle IF, sure, put it in play. But when the defense has all sorts of plodders & guys playing out of position, maybe it'd be a better strategy to have the pitchers try to get guys to chase...

     

    I'm hoping the new coaching staff will have a better idea of how all the pieces fit together.

     

    One thing is definitely going to change, and that is, I'm sure we'll be seeing much more defensive shifting from Molitor, this should gel nicely with the Allen hiring, who has worked in an organization that has pioneered modern shifting strategies.

    Edited by jokin
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    Mike Sixel

    Mike Sixel 41,021

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

    Allen has been a pitching coach for most of the last 20-25 years. I think it's fair to say he's "run a staff before." Pitching coach in the minors isn't (or shouldn't be) any different than at any other level.

    Ah, I rea the earlier comments wrong then. Thanks for the update.

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    Rosterman

    Rosterman 3,922

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    If it is confirmed I think it's a good hire. I'd like to see Marty Mason get a promotion to bullpen coach. Alex Meyer seems to like him.

     

    http://twinsdaily.com/articles.html/_/minnesota-twins-news/minnesota-twins-minor-leagues/alex-meyer-reflects-on-2014-looks-forward-to-2015-r3213

    I think Eddie is on board as the bullpen coach. Which is fine. I like the idea of basically two pitching coaches rather than the bullpen coach being an old catcher. The Twins have TWO good guys who will work well with the youngsters coming up, and if you look at the Twins pitching as a whole, now, besides Nolasco they are basically VERY VERY young...once the bullpen changes out names.

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    Willihammer

    Willihammer 4,021

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

    I suspect it sounds so bad because it doesn't reflect the full philosophy.  After all they had Parmelee, reputed to not handle the high fastball very well, to look at anytime they might lapse into thinking low strikes solve everything.  Nobody would be pitching coach if he advised every pitcher the same way, or advised them to treat all batters the same.

    You would think not. But if you read the links in Parker's article, you'll find no mention of working up in the zone, in a positive way. Its always down down gotta stay down. Even for Scott Baker, who was more successful up in the zone.

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    bird

    bird 6,083

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    You would think not. But if you read the links in Parker's article, you'll find no mention of working up in the zone, in a positive way. Its always down down gotta stay down. Even for Scott Baker, who was more successful up in the zone.

    If you carefully read the articles linked in Parker's article, you'll also find very very little mention of working down in the zone, or up in the zone. I think we're overplaying this notion regarding some sort of mantra about staying down in the zone. In those articles, there are at least a half-dozen other concepts stressed repeatedly other than the over-simplified concepts of pitching up or down in the zone. And you certainly won't find any mention of avoiding ever pitching up in the zone.

     

    I wonder if we're falsely attributing Blyleven's predictable lazy commentary ( "he left that pitch up" ) to the Twins.

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    Willihammer

    Willihammer 4,021

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

    If you carefully read the articles linked in Parker's article, you'll also find very very little mention of working down in the zone, or up in the zone. I think we're overplaying this notion regarding some sort of mantra about staying down in the zone. In those articles, there are at least a half-dozen other concepts stressed repeatedly other than the over-simplified concepts of pitching up or down in the zone. And you certainly won't find any mention of avoiding ever pitching up in the zone.

     

    I wonder if we're falsely attributing Blyleven's predictable lazy commentary ( "he left that pitch up" ) to the Twins.

    No, we're not.

     

    Read the links.

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