Professor Maddon–Manager of the Year
In the coming weeks, one of the best stories to emerge from Tampa Bay will be that of Joe Maddon, the quiet, bespectacled professor.
A strong favorite to win AL Manager of the Year, Maddon is a commodity on the rise and those are difficult to find in today’s market place. He took over as manager from Lou Piniella–likely to receive NL Manager of the Year consideration–to start the 2006 campaign, and since then Maddon has had a paltry .467 winning percentage. But the trend line is all to the good and this year the Rays will likely turn last years’ 66-96 record upside down.
Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg Times called Maddon the “Not So Nutty Professor” this week. All of the articles about Maddon acknowledge the intellect of the man. Wearing his signature Clark Kent glasses, he certainly looks the part. But it is no costume. Joe Maddon graduated from Lafayette College in 1976 with a degree in economics. Lafayette is a top tier liberal arts college and Maddon might have gone to Princeton, but given his working class roots in Hazelton, PA, the full scholarship to the small, close-to-home school was more attractive. Maddon’s mom still works at the Third Base Diner in Hazelton and her son has not outgrown his perogi beginnings.
Maddon had a brief career after college as a minor league catcher, playing A-ball in the California League for three seasons. After his abbreviated playing career, he moved into the Angels organization where he was part of what he calls the best player development system in baseball. He moved up through the Angels organization to LA where he served as interim manager several times in the late 1990’s, but settled in as the bench coach for Mike Scioscia.
What has marked Maddon’s career from the start has been an ability to work successfully with young players. He played a pivotal role in developing the young talent that led the Los Angeles Angels to their first World Series in 2002. In LA Joe Maddon saw how this movie can end. No one has written the ending for the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays yet, but they better start working on it. Listening to the talk about their nutty professor, there could be some surprising twists ahead of us.
In a New York Times article, one of Maddon’s prized pupils, B.J. Upton said of his manager, “He let’s us have fun.” It is definitely a loose and unconventional clubhouse with inspirational quotes from Albert Camus on the walls. The players don’t know who Camus played for, but they trust Maddon. Scott Shields has emerged as a staff ace under his professorial manager and he credits the calm manner of his mentor, one that avoids loud out busts of frustration, but offers informed support.
Maddon may not be the fiery leader type, but his players credit an angry lecture with saving the season after the youthful Rays slipped badly before the All-Star break. In the team meeting he impressed on his players how close they were to the threshold of something very special and sold them on their ability to take the next step. In Alan Schwarz’s New York Times article he quotes Maddon as emphasizing the special nature of the position the young Rays were in, and the need to treat it with “respect.” The Rays took the lesson to heart and since the break the Rays have been winning at a .621 clip, the best in the majors for that stretch.
The book on Maddon is that he is unconventional, but not Billy Beane. His is a team built around young talent and like Beane, Maddon eschews free outs via intentional walks. But he emphasizes the running game and his team leads the league in steals. He has power in his lineup with Evan Longoria–who just had his first three-home game–and Carlos Pena, but the Rays still have to manufacture runs to compete with the Red Sox and Yankees. The newest feature of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays is not their new name and uniforms, but their ability to hold a lead when they get it. Maddon has built the first solid bullpen the Rays have ever had.
It is coaxing this higher level of performance from a collection of castoffs for the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings that should earn Maddon top manager honors. Tampa has never had a successful closer and starters like Shields, Garza and Kazmir had grown accustomed to watching their leads evaporate in the final innings. St. Pete reporter Shelton says that Maddon’s approach in the pen has been less than conventional as well, putting more emphasis on getting the right reliever in for the crucial out whether it comes in the sixth or ninth inning.
Maddon has relied on 39-year old Troy Percival as a traditional closer, but it is his application of Grant Balfour, Dan Wheeler and the rest of newly resurgent pen that has won the day. It is the turnaround by the bullpen that is the most startling statistical evidence for the difference between 2007 and 2008 in Tampa Bay. In 2007 the top five relievers pitched to a 5.56 ERA, whereas in 2008 they allowed only a 3.04 ERA.
It is surprising that the Ray’s fairy tale story has not drawn the attention of other similar rags to riches scripts like the ‘69 Mets. It does not have the NYC press to flaunt it, but the miracle will be of equal proportion if Tampa Bay even gets close to the World Series. In a few weeks Maddon could be exchanging lineup cards with Piniella to start the Fall Classic in what would be one of the greatest matchups of under-dogs and overachievers ever.
The networks will swoon at each step lowly Tampa-St. Pete makes into the playoffs. The micro-market, the depressing stadium with the catwalks and moon roof will not play well on the wide screen, and the odds are against it. But Tampa’s odds have been long all year. They have never wilted, never been intimidated. Much of the credit for that has to go to their manager, Joe Maddon. He has never quit believing in his young charges, never quit teaching to the moment. And when you look at the talent he has in his classroom, you realize that Joe Maddon is truly smarter than the rest of us. He just has too many gifted students for a good teacher to fail.
