9-24-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter
Nuance and social media have come to not often enjoy each other’s company. Everything tends to boil down to the harshest of outcomes. Fire Him! Extend Him! You know what I mean.
Vote for the wrong person you’re either a Nazi or a Communist. Like the wrong chicken sandwich and you have no taste buds.
Point out a positive aspect on a coach or coaching staff that most have long since decided weren’t good and you’re a bootlicker or blind, or simply thinking that one positive thing must mean you have no negative feelings about them at all right? Them’s the rules out there I believe.
Well, never let it be said I’m aiming for popularity.
The Pirates 2023 coaching staff has done some good things to go along with the bad. So what I want to do today is go through the good and the bad of Derek Shelton. I’ll still wind up thinking moving on from some of these coaches would be wise, but by looking at the good and bad, at least I won’t be stuck solely dwelling on what I see wrong.
Derek Shelton
The Good Stuff
The Locker Room Loves Him – Hey, it’s not the most important thing but when it’s a problem it never stays hidden. Talking to guys, you can tell when a dude is trying to not say something vs when they genuinely just let it fly. Ask any player you run into if they like playing for Derek Shelton and it’s hard to get them to stop telling you how great he is to work with. Despite my personal feelings that an upgrade at manager would help this team, I can honestly say a move would be taken poorly in that room.
The Players Play Hard & Never Quit – This isn’t always easy to achieve. I could be talking about an incredible 9 run comeback win, but in many ways, I’m more impressed by how he got kids to give everything they have play after play while simultaneously getting a crotchety old bastard like Rich Hill to pitch deeper than he had in years, and wear being an example to younger guys about not only wanting the ball, but demanding it. To get a 37 year old Carlos Santana to anchor his lineup, play every day, sacrifice his body, play the best defense of his life at first base and leave nothing in the tank. He even got a 20 year age gap to not only learn to ignore the outbursts of a Rich Hill, but appreciate them as “competitiveness” by accepting and supporting all the different ways those kids themselves like to show the same trait.
When He’s Sold on a Guy, They’re Set it and Forget it – Derek’s lineups have been a constant source of frustration, and in the negatives, I’ll mention that aspect, but right here, I have to acknowledge, when he is satisfied he’s found a spot for a guy, they rarely move. Reynolds, Hayes, Cutch, Santana, for the most part, they all stayed put. Injuries and trades forced moves, but even then, there is little movement with who is available. As this team evolves, it feels like we’ll see more consistent lineups, he just needs to truly believe in the everyday abilities of more guys than he currently does.
He’s Managed an Underwhelming Pitching Staff Well – Almost from the very beginning of the season Derek Shelton had 200+ innings taken out of his quiver. Like him or don’t, JT Brubaker ate innings, and coupled with Vinny and Mike Burrows, that’s a lot of counted on innings to cover. Now add in Luis Ortiz and Roansy Contreras backsliding to the point the team decided to go 2/3 bullpen. I know he makes choice that set you off every now and again, but he didn’t just guide them through it to run out the string, he guided them through it and the team excelled relative to the roster’s on paper appearance.
The Bad Stuff
Over Patient – Only on occasion. This isn’t even just a Derek Shelton thing, most managers have guys that for whatever reason they just do or don’t believe in. Hurdle had Sean Rodriguez and Erik Gonzalez. Shelton has had his share too, for instance, it’s been statistically proven out that defensively speaking, Jason Delay is only marginally less back there, but was at least positively contributing with the stick sometimes. But Austin Hedges was his guy, they believed in him, and what he did and quite frankly he held on too long to the frequency he was used. You can think of others, some like Josh Van Meter I’d honestly assign more to the number of at bats Shelton was directed to ensure he received by Cherington, but even so, it didn’t endear anyone to him did it.
Prospect On Boarding – This might be more organizational, but I have to go with the fall guy here. Almost every prospect that has made the jump has struggled. Carmen Mlodzinski maybe being the lone exception. Part of this is due to his reluctance to introduce them. This isn’t for everyone, but can you say he’s used Canaan Smith-Njigba when he’s been called up? Enough to actually show what he can do? Should it feel like Joshua Palacios (as good as he’s been) was given more leash? Maybe, but maybe not too. I don’t have to have a solution to recognize that a team dependent on kids driving the improvement has to get better at on boarding kids.
Messy Pitching Moves – There are times when he uses guys in roles they simply don’t belong, and most of the time, I can easily excuse it. Last night for instance, Colin Selby pitched in the 8th up 4 runs after an epic comeback and promptly leaked away 2 runs. I saw fans angry he was in there, but Holderman is hurt, Carmen Mlodzinski was going to close this one out, Borucki had pitched in 3 straight games and a 4th is just unheard of, especially this late in the game. I mean at some point, a manager has little choice but to say hey kid, you’re here cause we think you’re good enough, go do your job. Sometimes though, I can’t. Holding on to the dream that a guy can do something while watching it rarely work out when you have options irritates me and I’m quite sure, you. How many games during that awful mid-year slump did Dauri Moreta sit there while DeJong and Underwood tried? Again, has to share the blame with the options provided, but sometimes, it felt stubborn to me.
Conclusion
I’ve probably been a bit hard on Shelton through the years, and I still can’t shake before this whole thing plays out they’ll need a different type of coach to kick it over the edge (if they ever actually get that talented), but overall, for a young team, I think he’s done well to get through 4 years and have an almost unanimously positive room.
People follow leaders with bad ideas, that’s a fact. They get caught up in an idea or a mantra and before you know it you’re there, in it, believing what they’re preaching, backing their movement if you will. So immediately, the locker room liking him or playing hard for him has every chance of being wrong even if truly and honestly passionate at the moment.
What I can say is this.
Derek Shelton was brought here to do a sure fire hard thing to do. Shepherd the dismantling of an already mediocre team, help sift out what was worth keeping from that group, and manage to keep them happy, hungry and forward thinking while the walls melted around them.
Every year they’ve added players to that list of guys, looking forward, happy, hungry, and it’s culminated in now a roster full, or at least close to a roster full.
Now, I may not have liked every decision on the way here, in fact, I definitely didn’t, but it’s pretty clear that to this point Shelton has at the very least met the expectations of his boss. They didn’t expect him to be in the playoffs at this point, but they have to be pleased with how late in the season (September 23rd) they were finally eliminated.
I feel pretty good saying I think he deserves a chance to win with what he helped build.
Steel City Pirates 