Hey Sabermetric Guys, This is the Man You Want to Manage Your Team

In 2006, Torey Lovullo, a 40-year old Southern California native with UCLA roots, was a successful minor league manager that was a finalist in the interviewing process to land the Dodgers managerial position.  This was the job vacated by Jim Tracy and eventually filled with Grady Little.  There's little doubt that had Lovullo been hired, Dodger history would have been much different than it turned out to be.  

You see, Lovullo is a guy that buys in big time to sabermetrics.  He is probably one of the brightest minds in the game.  This year Lovullo served as bench coach to Boston Red Sox skipper John Farrell as they won the World Series.  The Sox think so highly of him that they are reluctant to allow him to leave the organization.  

Theo Epstein of the Cubs loves this guy and it is reported that he wants him as his manager in Chicago.  Unfortunately for Epstein, the Red Sox organization may not allow him to interview for the position, which might stem from bad blood between the organizations after Epstein left the Sox for the Cubs a few years ago.  There are conflicting reports, some say ing that Epstein is restricted from purging the Red Sox organization of personnel due to a contractual agreement made when he moved from Boston to Chicago.  So it's up in the air whether the Reports Bosox are willing to allow Lovullo to interview for the Cubs vacancy.  Most of the time organizations don't step in the way of career advancement opportunities, but his may be an exception.  

(The same thing happened when the Dodgers hired Colletti from the Giants in 2005.  The new Dodger G.M.  wanted to interview Giants bench coach Ron Wotus for the Dodgers managerial vacancy.  The Giants stepped in and did not allow the interview to take place).

Lovullo, was a journeyman utility player during his playing career that saw some major league service time with the Tigers, Yankees, Angels, Mariners, A’s, Indians and Phillies.  He cut his teeth in the managerial ranks in the minors with the Indians and Red Sox organizations.  He was Toronto's first base coach prior to his year in Boston.  Lovullo is a hot commodity in the baseball scene right now.

In 1993, Lovullo had 409 plate appearances in 109 games with the Angels where he played mostly at second base.

To get a feel for how Lovullo sees the game strategically, I highly recommend this fangraphs.com article LINKED HERE . 

Here are some key quotes from Lovullo in the piece that shows his strategic stances when if comes to looking at the game:

On the sacrifice bunt: “...the equation changes depending on things like where you’re playing, who you’re playing against and what you have available in your bullpen. Overall, I’m not a fan of it. I think it’s needed from time to time, but we led the league in runs scored this year and had the fewest sacrifice bunts.

“At times, it can work to advance a guy into scoring position, but by and large, I’ve learned over the years that the sacrifice bunt can be a rally stopper. Every out is precious. You’re playing with 27, so if you give up two or three a game, you’re playing with 24 or 25. You’re giving up an inning’s worth of outs to sacrifice guys into scoring position, and the law of averages shows that just because you’re at second base doesn’t mean you’re going to score. If you’re at first base with no outs, you have a better chance of scoring runs. The numbers show that. That’s what we’re all about. We’re about putting up big innings and scoring a lot of runs...”

On player acquisition and communication with the front office: “That’s something I very much believe in, and it is ongoing here. That’s what’s so great about our front office. From top to bottom, they’re always seeking information and acquiring thoughts about guys. If there is a conversation regarding free agents, they want to get as much input as they can from every area. This past off-season, a bunch of scouts went in and [director of baseball information services] Tom [Tippett] told them the list of candidates they wanted to bring in. Several of them are here.

“I believe in that. I believe in one unit moving forward. I believe in open communication and there being no barriers between the front office and the dugout.”

On lineup construction: “...I think the second hitter should be able to hit a fastball. If your leadoff hitter is your typical leadoff hitter, and is on base, they’re going to be calling for more fastballs, so your second hitter has to be able to handle a pitcher’s best fastball.

“You want your best hitters at the top of the order to give yourself the best opportunity to score runs. Over the course of the season, the ninth hitter is going to get about 150 fewer at bats. You want your best hitters up as often as possible, so if they’re hitting one, two, three or four, they’re naturally going to get more plate appearances over the course of a full season. That’s what every team that wants to score runs should be looking for...”

On platooning: “I’m in favor of platooning. We have great value here in Mike Carp and Gomes, with their ability to go back and forth. I know they’ll hit second and I’ll platoon them there. I know they’ll hit fourth and I’ll platoon them there. We can utilize their abilities in a way that puts them in the best situations to help our team score runs. So I’m in favor of it, as long as the players know.”

On sample sizes and matchups: “I believe that after 25 at bats you’re going to start to see a good sample size. Anything less than that, you can’t really rely on it. If a guy is 1-for-2, he’s hitting .500, but it does nothing for me. If a guy is 12-for-25, that’s a sample size that tells me he’s locked in and seeing the ball well. Slugging percentage is the same way. The more at bats, the more meaningful it is.”

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Frankly I wish the Dodgers were in the position to hire a new manager because Lovullo is a perfect for this team.   A ball club with a manager like this would thrive in an environment where the team has a lot of resources to fill holes, like Los Angeles.

Lovullo trivia: Born and raised in Santa Monica, Torey's father produced the "Hee Haw" television show that was popular in the 60's and 70's.

Random Baseball Stuff that Has Very Little to do with the Current State of the Dodgers

Imagine cleaning out the house and discovering a giant sized Sports Illustrated magazine that is framed, in it is the SI cover showing your grandpa in his hey day, hurling a pitch to the plate during his Cy Young Award winning season, 1960.  Imagine your dismay that your 86 year old grandpa is about to throw it away, because he has no need for it anymore.

I’m glad to see that Dodger prospect, Adam Law, Vernon’s grandson, salvaged that historic piece of memorabilia.  Good ‘Ol Vern still throws a nasty assortment of breaking pitches and is known to throw some to his grandkids these days.  This latest episode that was tweeted by Adam makes me wonder though.  How much more cool stuff has Deacon tossed out over the years?  Someone get over there when spring cleaning takes place and salvage some other pieces of history!

Adam Law ‏@adamlaw217 30 Oct
Came across this poster-sized Sports Illustrated cover of my Papa while moving some of our baseball memorabilia #gem pic.twitter.com/B9VvyjBfnX  stuck behind a freezer at Papa and grandmas place. He was gonna throw it away. #youkiddinme

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This video clip is absolutely hilarious and comes thanks to another tweet by Adam as he linked this video of the San Diego State University baseball team playing their annual Halloween night baseball game in full costumes.  Take a look at this video as you see players dressed as a baby in a diaper, a SD Charger cheerleader, Captain America, the Jamaican Bobsled team, Barack Obama, Peter Pan, A lifeguard with a rubber ducky strapped around his waist and more as they play all out baseball with some great plays as well.

Watch the cheerleader go deep with a shot to left and the baby in the diaper making some great picks over at third base.  Great fun!

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With a lot of eagerness I’m watching Corey Seager for the first time in the Arizona Fall League All Star game.  Corey nubbed a grounder to second base to knock in the Wests second run of the night, by busting it down the line.  He’s the youngest player in the game at age 19 and he looks to have a polished look.  Think about it.  You’re 19 years old and playing in an all star game against the best minor leaguers in baseball, several that will break camp in Spring training on major league rosters.  The kid is poised.  Maybe a bit tired from the rigors of his first full season and overmatched, but this experience will be good for him.  The Dodgers have a gem in Seager.  It’ll be really interesting to watch him at Spring Training in a few months as he continues to progress.

(photo capture from MLB Network)

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Duke Snider Quotes a Day After His Least Favorite Holiday

Halloween has come and gone this year and I must say that no Halloween passes by for me without a memory of Duke Snider going through my mind.  The Duke let it be know that he hated Halloween.  Why?  "Giants Colors,"  he said.  Never mind that Duke finished up his career in 1964 trying to prolong it in San Francisco because nobody else would give him a chance.  But after 16 of his 18 years in the Dodger organization, it's safe to say that he was a Dodger through and through.

A few years back I posted a number of the Duke's great quotes.  They're worth revisiting today as they still ring true.  What a great Dodger and ambassador for the game.

On the modern day player and their higher salaries:

“Man, if I made a million dollars I would come in at six in the morning, sweep the stands, wash the uniforms, clean out the office, manage the team and play the games.”  (Sport Magazine, April, 1980)

On baseball in general and the things that remain the same over the years:

"The sport to which I owe so much has undergone profound changes, but it's still baseball.  Kids still imitate their heroes on playgrounds.  Fans still ruin expensive suits going after foul balls that cost five dollars.  Hitting streaks still make the network news and hot dogs still taste better at the ballpark than at home." (New York Times, January 10, 1980)

On player travel and team bonding:
"Today's baseball players are walking conglomerates.  They have fantastic salaries, multiple investments, but we had one thing they don't have today, the train ride.  We didn't always like it, but those rides kept us close as a team and as friends.  Something you can't get on a two hour plane ride that used to take you fifteen hours on a train." (New York Times, January 10, 1980)

Following the 1953 World Series loss to the Yankees:
"I still say we're the better team. That's the rottenest thing in life, isn't it?  The best team doesn't always win." (The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn)

Here are a few more that weren't shared:

"The field was even greener than my boy's mind had even pictured it.  In later years friends of ours had visited Ireland and said the grass was plenty green alright, but that not even the Emerald Isle itself was as green as the grass that grew in Ebbets Field."

"In the split second from the time the ball leaves the pitcher's hand until it reaches the plate you have to think about your stride, your hip action, your wrist action, determine how much, if any the ball is going to break and then decide whether to swing at it.  Yeah, baseball's not that complicated."

"What a player does best he should practice the least.  Practice is for problems."

"We wept.  Brooklyn was a lovely place to hit.  If you hit the ball in the air, you had a chance to get it out.  When they tore down Ebbets Field, they tore down a little piece of me."

"Swing hard in case they throw the ball where you're swinging."

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Last, this excerpt from Kahn's famous book:

Pee Wee Reese's favorite story.  

Four players rode a car pool from Bay Ridge to the Polo Grounds in 1951, and on Reese's night to drive a motorcycle patrolman stopped them.  Approaching, the policeman burst out, "Pee Wee. It's you. Why you driving so fast?"

"Big series with the Giants, officer. Kind of nervous."

"Don't listen to that, officer," Snider said.  "He deserves a ticket."

"Hiya, Duke," the cop said.  " Gee, fellers.  What a thrill for me.  Good luck, and take it easy, will ya, Pee Wee?"

Snider drove the next night and within a mile of the same spot another policeman sounded a short siren burst from Die Walkure.  Then he took Snider's license and started writing.

"Say officer.  That Edwin Donald Snider is Duke Snider.  I'm the Dodgers center fielder."

Without looking up the policeman said, "I hate baseball."  He handed Snider the ticket for speeding.

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On Tanaka...

On a night where the Boston Red Sox are running away from St. Louis in pursuit of their third World Championship in the past ten years, I write about the foreign player that so many teams covet, Masahiro Tanaka.  Let me just forward my congratulations to the Red Sox though, who certainly were deserving of the World Series victory.  Here's hoping that it'll be the Dodgers turn next year.  Now Boston, please don't destroy your city tonight.

No matter what sabermetricians say about how meaningless a pitcher’s Won/Loss record is, A 24-0 record is indicative of an amazing season.  Scratch that, amazing isn’t the word to use, “historically spectacular” is what it is, and it doesn’t matter what league it happened in either.  You throw Koufax in his prime in the Japanese league (NPB) and he probably doesn’t go 24-0.  He might finish 21-3 or 22-2, but 24-0 is simply out of this world.

Masahiro Tanaka pitches during the 2013 World Baseball Classic. (photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)

There’s no arguing that 24-0 is a statistical anomally and certainly a lot of luck and decent run support is needed in order to achieve such a record, but there’s no hiding the career marks of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 24 year old pitcher Masahiro Tanaka.  His record is 99-35 with a lifetime 2.30 ERA including 53 complete games over 6 seasons.  Add to that 18 shutouts, an 8.5K/9 rating and less than 2 walks allowed per 9 innings.  He has a 1.108 lifetime WHIP and a 2013 season WHIP of a microscopic 0.943.

So when the word from the hot stove is that the Dodgers may consider trading a slew of prospects for David Price or opt to pay a bunch of cash for Tanaka, the decision to make is a no brainer.  You keep what you have of the farm system intact and get the young phenom from Japan. 

With the Dodgers recent history of delving into the bidding wars of foreign players, it looks as if the organization has figured out that this is the way to build the franchise on the major league level without decimating the farm system in the process.  Puig, Ryu and now Alexander Guerrero have joined the forty man roster without the cost of giving up one prospect.  It would be foolish for the Dodgers to change their tactics and start peddling off the likes of Zack Lee and Josh Pederson for an expensive player like Price.

For a team with gobs of money, this is the way to go as posting fees don’t factor into the luxury tax penalty equation either.  The Yankees are certainly going to bid high and attempt to lure Tanaka to the Bronx, so Colletti and his team have their work cut out for them in attempting to land this extraordinary talent.

One thing is certain though and that is a rotation made up of Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, Tanaka and Beckett will be easily the most formidable in the major leagues.  Dodger management has to be extremely enthused about the prospect and eager to get this done.

Factor in that Tanaka has won two more post season games and that record of his is 26-0 on the season now.  There are those that say his stuff is inferior to Yu Darvish, and that may be true, but one thing that can’t be denied is his pinpoint control and footage of him shows that he can throw strikes in specific regions of the zone with Maddux-like precision.  His fastball is sitting at around 93 MPH with high velocity ranges of his four seamer at 95-96.  His splitter has been rated with a score ranging between 68-72 on the scouts 20-80 scale measuring stick.  It is extremely effective with late downward action that fools hitters into thinking it’s a fastball.  He also throws a slider and an effective curveball as well.  There is one report that lists a forkball in his arsenal that he’ll use against left handed hitters only.  His changeup is there too, but is seldom used.

Interestingly as Tanaka’s strikeout rate has reduced the past two years, his win totals have risen substantially.  As he has matured, he’s learning how to pitch more efficiently and get outs off of batted balls instead of relying on the strikeout.  Here is an interesting assessment from a month ago from an anonymous U.S. scout based in Japan:

 “He is better than Darvish because he’s a strike thrower.  Overall, Darvish’s stuff might be a little better, but this guy knows how to pitch.  He is like Kuroda, he has a lot of guts. He throws four pitches, but when it gets to (stone)-cutting time, it’s fastball and splitter.”  (Link to Scouting Report found HERE).

There are scouts that claim Tanaka throws that splitter with the exact same arm slot and arm speed of his fastball, but it comes in at 84-87 MPH vs. the 92-94 MPH that his two seamer is.  His mechanics are solid and generate maximum velocity.  Though he has a lot of innings on that arm through 6 seasons, it is suggested that his proper mechanics have paid dividends in keeping Tanaka injury-free. 

Tanaka celebrates his 21st consecutive win, an NPB record (photo by Kyoto News/AP)

Like many Japanese pitchers, he has that quirky delivery.  He starts slow, then almost comes to a stop before finishing quickly.  It’ll take time for major leaguers to adjust to that.

An excellent assessment on Tanaka’s skillset is found at THIS BLOG, that deals primarily with Asian talent and their MLB potential.  

If the Dodgers are able to pull off this acquisition over the Yankees, it may be as big as the Ryu and Puig acquisitions from last year of not bigger.  Steve Dilbeck of the LA Times reports that Tanaka prefers the Yankees or the Dodgers as his ultimate destination.  Perhaps the Dodgers and their recent success and roster primed to make a run for a championship will be the tipping point that brings Tanaka to Los Angeles.

A Baseball Town Getting Prepared for a Massive Baseball Championship Celebration

(photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Boston is a baseball town, and arguably the greatest one in America.  Looking from a distance, it doesn’t make sense that it is.  The weather isn’t conducive to Baseball for much of the year.  It's not like kids can play baseball from October through May in New England as we do in Southern California. They have had only two or three homegrown talents in the sport that made it big.  How many California talents have they had over the decades?

Then there are the other sports where Boston has dominated, and they aren’t sports that are ignored by the national sports landscape.

The Celtics have been the premier organization in the NBA scene for much of its history with the most titles of any franchise.  They’re the Yankees of basketball.  Eight championships in a row and 11 out 13.  That’s domination on a massive scale.  And then even after their 1960s domination, they won titles in the 70s, 80s and 2000s. Granted, they have their following and rabid fans, but it’s nothing like the Red Sox.

Then you have the recent success in the past 13-14 years of the Patriots with three World Championship victories and two other Super Bowl appearances.  Quite the accomplishment.  The Patriots are a football franchise recognized as one of the top five in the NFL each year.  The Patriots have a loyal following too, but compared to the Red Sox, it's not even close.

For the Red Sox the words world champions wasn't even in their vocabulary.  For 86 years they fell short of winning the World Series, but still they were the city’s darling sport franchise.  This was the team that that broke their fans hearts year after year.  The elusive girlfriend that would break up with you every year and then entice you back into the relationship, only to dump you for another guy just when things were getting serious again.  That ballclub that would fall short in pennant chases after big leads or would uncork the wild pitch or see a ball squirt through a players legs in a World Series clinching game.

Red Sox celebrate AL pennant clinching win against Detroit. (photo by Charlie Reidel/AP)

The Red Sox were the franchise cursed by an ownership group that failed to integrate until they were so far behind other teams that it took them years to recover.  They had a player in Ted Williams that many consider the greatest hitter to play the game, and he couldn’t get a championship because the pieces around him weren't insufficient.  While their hated rivals in New York chalked up dozens of championships, the Red Sox were remembered as the franchise that always fell short to them and additionally the team that traded them Babe Ruth in exchange for money to fund a Musical comedy.

The comedy turned out to be the Sox flopping on the field for decades.  A loveable team that got good in some years but ALWAYS fell short.  That was until magic occurred in 2004 and a miraculous team came back from 3-0 deficit to defeat the Yankees in four straight to win the ALCS, and eventually win the World Series.  Now they are the premier franchise in the game.  A team always considered a favorite to win the while thing.

So tomorrow, October 30, 2014.  A full 96 years since they last won a World Series Championship at home against another team that would be known for even greater futility,  (the Cubs), Boston is on the verge of hosting what might be the greatest home field celebration in the history of the game.  How they'll keep their fans from storming onto the field and dancing away will be a feat requiring a lot of planning and massive law enforcement strength.  Then again, who can blame the Boston PD if they join in with the fans in the celebration.

For years, home field championship celebrations were massive on field events in which fans jumped on the field and partied, but security in all major cities have succeeded in keeping fans off fields for the past 30 plus years with a large police presence combined with mounted officers to deter the activity.  I’m not so sure that the Boston Police force is big enough to stop Bostonians from storming the field if the Red Sox win either game six or game seven.  They weren't successful in stopping tea partiers from dumping the tea in the harbor 230 years ago.  Good luck keeping fans from dancing on the pitchers mound.

A home field World Series championship in Boston will be quite the spectacle.  The Sox removed that 86 year old monkey off their backs in 2004, so the hex is long gone.  If they are able to win this thing at home tomorrow, even against Cardinal October star Michael Wacha, Boston will prove to the world that they are and will always be a premier baseball town in their hometown clinching.  Frankly those fans deserve it.  They suffered a long time and a home field celebration will be a just reward for their patience.  Hopefully the city is still standing when November rolls around.

Holy Ed Armbrister! Obstruction Call Decides Game Three of the Series

(AP Photo)

In one of the most bizarre World Series game finishes ever, the Red Sox found themselves on the wrong side of a base runner obstruction call, costing them game three of the World Series, putting them behind St. Louis 2 games to 1.

It was a gutsy call by the umpiring crew.  The call was correct.  There wasn’t intent to obstruct Allen Craig by Middlebrooks, but it was instruction nonetheless.  All would agree that it was a lousy way for a game to end, but sometimes that happens.   Kudos to Jim Joyce for calling the call that he probably didn’t want to make.

For a fan that can’t stand either team, maybe it was the ideal way for this game to end.  The Red Sox lost, and that’s a good thing AND the Cardinals won in the lamest fashion available.  I guess that’s about as good as we’ll get in this series.  Thirty-eight years after being on the wrong side of an obstruction no-call in the '75 World Series at Cincinnati, the Red Sox find themselves being hard luck losers on an obstruction call in St. Louis.

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Recent news indicating that Tim Wallach is a finalist for the Detroit Tigers managerial vacancy has many wondering what his loss will mean to the Dodgers.  I see it as significant, as Wallach has been with the Dodger organization for the most part since 1993 with a year or two off.

That’s longevity that has endured through four ownerships, eight managerial changes, seven general managers and countless scouts and coaches.  All this time Wallach has been a Dodger, and a loyal one at that.  There’s no doubt he deserves a shot at taking the helm of a major league club, but it would have been nice to see him do it in Dodger blue.

The Tiger job is a good one though and being matched up again with Dave Dombrowski is a good fit for Tim.  Aside from the Dodger managerial position, could he have asked for a better ballclub with Shertzer and Verlander on the staff and Cabrera and Fielder swinging the bats?   With a tweak here or there, the Tigers could easily be the favorites to win the American League pennant next year.

Few remember Wallach’s contributions to the 2004 Dodger club where he served as the hitting coach.  That was Adrian Beltre’s breakout season.  The one where he hit like a fiend while hobbling with bone spurs in his ankle.  Wallach played a role in turning Beltre into the offensive hitter that he is today.  He also has groomed several current Dodgers when he was their Triple A manager in Albuquerque.

There are those that are quick to attack Wallach’s decisions as a third base coach, but those skeptics don’t know the game.  Wallach has had his share of runners thrown out at the plate as a third base coach, but when you factor in such things as the percentages of a runner scoring on a play with two outs vs. the probability of the next hitter batting him in, Wallach was an astute third base coach who seldom made a move that should have been questioned.

Wallach was a finalist for the Boston Red Sox vacancy last season.  If he lands this job, the Tigers will be in good hands for years to come.  What Dodger fans might wonder is if he'll be able to purge the organization of others that he'll select to work on his coaching staff.  That could have some substantial ramifications.

That June 11th Brawl with the Diamondbacks, the Aftereffects in Arizona

The June 11th beanball war and resulting brawl had a lot of old-timers grappling with each other (photo by Gary A. Vasquez/ USA Today Sports)

When the Dodgers and Diamondbacks brawled back on June 11th, the result of a beanball war that many consider to be the event that solidified the Dodger team together, the coaches and managers involved in the melee looked like a 1980s/early 90s who’s who of baseball stars.

For the Dodgers’Don Mattingly and Mark McGwire, Tim Wallach, Ken Howell and Davey Lopes.  The Diamondbacks countered with Kirk Gibson and Matt WIlliams, Charles Nagy, Steve Sax, Don Baylor and Alan Trammell.  In four short months, that D-Backs coaching staff is now completely dismantled.

Hitting coach Don Baylor has moved to Anaheim with the Angels where he won an MVP award in 1979.  Sax and Nagy were both fired.  Only Trammell along with Gibson remain, though it’s hard to believe that both Gibson and Trammell aren’t tempted to move back to their former team, a talent laden Tiger ballclub in Detroit.

Gibson has assured Arizona management that he will remain loyal and stay put, but the opportunity has got to be attractive to him.  Recently with Diamondbacks G.M. Kevin Towers questioning the fortitude and fight of his team in late season contests with the Dodgers, you’d think that Gibson would be highly offended.  Gibby is anything but “soft” as a player and a manager.

The reality is though that the D-Backs actions in games against the Dodgers did seem to be a tad “soft” following the fight in June that resulted in numerous ejections, fines and suspensions.  There is little doubt that the Diamondbacks probably reflected on the L.A. brawl and realized that they went over the line of decency with their head-hunting pitches on that June night.

(photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP)

The usually reserved Don Mattingly and Mark McGwire were mad enough to tear heads off after both Puig was hit in the face and Greinke near the head.  Baseball etiquette had been breached in the Dodger’s view as Greinke had retaliated earlier for the Puig beaning by hitting D-Back catcher Miguel Montero flush in the back.

The teams met in 11 games following the June 8th brawl.  There essentially weren’t any incidents until the final series in Phoenix when on September 18th and 19th, Dodger pitchers hit five D-Back hitters and the Arizona team failed to retaliate at all.  The culprits were Stephen Fife, Carlos Marmol and Ricky Nolasco, three players that weren’t even present when the June brawl took place, so the likelihood that they were acting in retaliation for the brawl months prior was low, but Kevin Towers felt that actions should have been taken to “right the ship.”

The Dodgers September 9th drubbing of the D-Backs at Dodger Stadium where six homers were hit and Dodger celebrations included the Uribe/Puig/Hanley banana eating  clowning in the dugout incensed the Arizona G.M. to the point that he called out his manager and pitching coach for not ordering  a “jack-knifing” of Dodger hitters with inside stuff to back them off the plate.  The brawl from a  few months previous was probably on their minds, as a repeat of that in the final weeks of a pennant chase would not be seen in a positive light by MLB brass.

“They panned down to the dugout, and they were jamming bananas in their mouths and really just making a mockery of us," Towers said. "I just said if I had a carton full of balls sitting next to me, I would have thrown it in their dugout. I was just tired of getting beat up," said Towers in a mlb.com interview weeks later.

Kirk Gibson and Kevin Towers (photo by Jake Roth/US Presswire)

There hasn’t been much mention of what was actually talked about by Gibson, Nagy and Towers in private following that game on September 9th , but certainly the effect of the earlier brawl had to have influenced them.  The dismissal of Nagy at season’s end appears to have been a direct result as the Dodgers 5 HBPs against Arizona in the final season series didn't result in one retaliatory pitch.  Then there was the division celebration and pool party on clinching night.  All a recipe for some 2014 antics to come.

What to expect from the D-Backs next year is anyone’s guess, but knowing Gibson’s history, he’ll want to send a message, and that isn’t that he’s got a “soft” side.

The Diamondbacks declined options on Gibson’s contract that would have extended him to through the 2015 and  2016 season.  He’s guaranteed a contract through the end of 2014, and it would seem that the timing of a move to Detroit would be appropriate, but Gibson’s a stubborn breed.  “I like where I am,” he told the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro.  “I’m motivated to finish what I started here.”

He’ll have to do it with a new coaching staff, and Brett Butler, the Triple A manager at Reno (Arizona’s affiliate), has left the organization as well.  Both Gibson and Kevin Towers have spent the past few days in Prescott, AZ, mulling over the changes that their franchise needs to make to put a division winner on the field next year.  You’d think with the public criticism from Towers of Gibson’s staff, that the two would be at odds with each other.   Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall claims it’s the opposite of that.

“They were out walking together this morning talking about their plans.”  He said earlier this week.  A restructuring of the coaching staff is probably the first order of business, which would include a fiery approach to the 2014 season.  It’s anyone’s guess who Gibson and Towers will select to fill out the staff, but it’s relatively certain that they’ll be hardcore baseball guys that won’t allow their team to be pushed around.  No Gibson team could ever be considered “soft.”  That’s a certainty. 

Watch for the D-Backs to attempt to make a statement early in the 2014 season, and that is that not only will they be a contender, but a team that will play with passion and fight.  A football mentality to the game is to be expected from any ballclub led by Kirk Gibson.  He knows no other way.