How Many Coaches Does an MLB Club Need?

Every good baseball team needs at least one coach who can teach this much broader lesson to the talented younger players. Otherwise, little else is going to matter much.

Thanks to our SABR colleague Paul Rogers of SMU Law for pointing out this wonderful column in the June 23, 2017 edition of The Hardball Times by Frank Jackson on what the writer calls “Creeping Coachism” in Major league Baseball. It’s really nothing new. We’ve seen it taking over the halls of government over the past century at an ever-expanding rate and we’ve seen it also making some pretty serious dents in the fattest of corporations in recent times, as well.

Besides, it’s only money, right? How can having too much help at the decision-making level possibly be a problem for anyone – even in baseball?

Here’s the article link:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/creeping-coachism/

Jackson uses the Texas Rangers to exemplify his point. In 1972, the brand new shifted-to-Texas Rangers had four (4) assistant. Today, in 2017, they now have 11, with the forever present question hanging out there awaiting its eventual answer. – Are MLB teams on their ways to having as many non-playing employees in uniform as they are actual contributing players?

In the interest of a little fun, we took the current list of 11 Texas Ranger coaches and added 14 new field administrative positions to bring the total list of non-playing uniformed Ranger assistants up to 25, the number needed to match the 25 names available as players. Of course, when you throw in Rangers manager Jeff Banister (and, yes, by all means, do throw him in – and throw him in hard) to the plan for the expansion of coaching personnel with variable non-playing differential authority over the Rangers. Adding Banister to the mix, uniformed Ranger administrators will then outnumber the uniformed roster players, 26-25, once all positions are filled.

That “(TBNLUA)” acronym which precedes each currently uncreated or filled position, of course, stands for “To Be Named Later Upon Approval”:

The Future 25-Person Managerial Staff of the Texas Rangers

Tony Beasley, Third Base Coach
(TBNLUA), Extra Base Risk Assessor
Josh Bonifay, Field Coordinator
(TBNLUA), Infield Shift Coordinator
(TBNLUA), Outfield Shift Coordinator
Doug Brocail, Head Pitching Coach
(TBNLUA), RH Pitching Coach Specialist
(TBNLUA), LH Pitching Coach Specialist
(TBNLUA), Tommy John Recovery Coach
Steve Buechele, Bench Coach
Mark Connor, Special Assistant, Pitching
(TBNLUA), Coaches Card Games Coordinator
Josh Frasier, Bullpen Catcher
Brad Holman, Bullpen Coach
Anthony Iapoce, RHB Hitting Coach
(TBNLUA), LHB Hitting Coach
Justin Mashore, Assistant Hitting Coach
(TBNLUA), Bunting & Pepper Game Coach
(TBNLUA), Base Running Coach
Bob Jones, Replay Coordinator
(TBNLUA), Foreplay Coordinator
(TBNLUA), Failed Game Plan Assessor
Hector Ortiz, First Base Coach
(TBNLUA), Sunflower Seeds Acquisitions Coach
(TBNLUA), Post-Game OF Victory Dance Coordinator

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If you see any improvements or additional positions that ought to be considered by the Rangers, please post your suggestions here in the comment section that follows each of our columns.

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