The Yankees made an unexpected hire on Thursday night (11/7), when they filled in there pitching coach vacancy, by hiring Matt Blake to be there new pitching coach. Blake, spent 4 years in Cleveland with the Indians as there head pitching coordinator, and was a big reason why aces like Cory Kluber, Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger have developed to be big-time pitchers in the MLB. Blake also worked as an Area Scout for the Yankees, so he knows there system as well.
This is an improvement from Larry Rotchild who was removed from the coaching job last week.
The Yankees had several candidates step up to the plate, with Diamondbacks minor league coach Matt Hobbs, Michigan coach Charles Ferdete and Hall of Fame pitcher David Cone all throwing there hats in the ring.
In the end, the 33 year old Blake took the cake, because of his knowledge of pitching analytics which has taken over the game baseball and how managers coach them today.
Personally, I love the move because it a young face with knowledge of the game brings a piece of fresh air to the Yankees pitching staff and I can’t wait to see what he does in the dugout next to Aaron Boone.
Also, the reason why I don’t think the Yankees went with Cone is because Blake takes a more analytic approach to pitching and while Cone knows his analytics, he also digs into the “Old -school” metrics a bit which is why I think the Yankees went with Blake.
However, with that being said, I don’t think it was anything against Cone here, my opinion is that Blake was just better suited for this job in terms of what the Yankees were looking for.
YANKEES SIGN CATCHING COACH:
The Yankees signed catching coach Tanner Swanson. He worked with the Twins this past season and will now work with Yankees catching in 2020.
JUDGE, DJ PICK UP HARDWARE:
Aaron Judge And DJ LeMahieu picked up some hardware this week, with DJ winning the “Silver Slugger” award for his monster hitting this season, while Judge took home the “ Wilson Defensive Right Fielder of the year” for his outstanding defense.
UPDATE:
Larry Rothschild is headed to the Padres to be there new pitching coach.
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