Former Angels manager Joe Maddon continued on his crusade against the way analytics have flooded the game of baseball, including expressing frustration in the way he and the Angels front office worked together before he was fired in June.
Maddon, 68, spoke for more than an hour to Jayson Stark, a Hall of Fame writer, and Doug Glanville, a former player and current analyst, in a podcast released on Tuesday morning by The Athletic.
Many of Maddon’s comments were about the general state of analytics in the game, echoing points he made the day he was fired and again last month in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. Maddon believes that modern front offices have taken too much of a role in on-field decisions, by managers, coaches and players, burdening them with information that’s not necessary. In his interview with The Athletic, Maddon specifically mentioned “Perry and Alex,” referring to Angels general manager Perry Minasian and assistant general manager Alex Tamin.
“I’m not arguing against analytics and information,” Maddon said. “I’m arguing against the methods and the imposition with coaches. Because at the point it is right now … every day we’d get ready for the game and Perry and Alex would come in and they would start talking about how I should use the bullpen that night. Like I haven’t done that for the last 40 years. When you do that, when these people do that, the game becomes cloudy. You’re in the dugout, you know what you’d like to do. But these people have come downstairs prior to the game, and they load you with stuff that’s not necessarily helpful.”
Minasian did not immediately respond to a message about Maddon’s comments on Tuesday morning.
Maddon first suggested that there was an issue over analytics between the manager’s office and the baseball operations department when he was fired in June, although he quickly backed off that to clarify that he was speaking about baseball in general, and not specifically the Angels. Before Maddon’s clarification, Minasian said that he didn’t feel that issue existed with the Angels.
“There was never any disconnect mentioned,” Minasian said. “Joe made the lineup. Joe made the pitching decisions. I’m a big believer that’s the manager’s job. It’s not the front office’s job. We present information. We have a great group. We have a hard working front office. Our (research and development) group is extremely detailed. Anyone who had a chance to sit in our advance meetings would agree with that. Joe and I had a great relationship. If that was his perspective and he did say that, and I haven’t seen that, that was never expressed to me.”
