With the offseason slowly creeping along, one of the Giants’ biggest moves thus far was not the acquisition of a player.
Matt Daniels of the Driveline Baseball Program has been hired to work with Giants pitchers and pitching coaches in an effort to incorporate data-driven, analytical player development.
Incredibly thankful for the past four years. It’s time for a new life chapter. Go @SFGiants pic.twitter.com/MOJrYhAhjs
— Matt Daniels (@OneGun45) January 15, 2019
Yesterday on KNBR Tonight, Giants beat writer from the S.F. Chronicle, Henry Schulman, called in to talk about the offseason and the recent acquisition of Daniels to the Giants staff.
“He’s a guy that was a pitcher himself, so he understands the competitive aspect of it,” Schulman said. “I get the sense that what he’s going to be is that guy that translates all this wealth of new information that’s coming in. He’s going to sort of be the Rosetta Stone when he translates it for the pitchers and pitching coaches.”
With the Giants hiring Farhan Zaidi as their VP of Baseball Operations, they’ve made it clear that they want to head in a new direction when it comes to analytics. A hire like Daniels should help the Giants find the balance between old school baseball and today’s analytics.
“I think one of the important things on teams where they’re analytically bent is that they provide the information to the players and coaches, and the players and coaches get to take and use what they can and not use what they don’t want,” Schulman said.
What has made Matt Daniels and Driveline Baseball so successful?
“For the players, teams feel it’s important to have someone that can explain it to them and work with them and show them how the changes they can make can benefit them because it’s benefitted others before. Not just guys at Driveline, but guys like Adam Ottavino for example, who really turned it around this past year.”
With the personnel additions the Giants have made this offseason, Schulman wonders if the club will continue to embrace the analytical side of baseball and the offensive equivalent to Matt Daniels.
“One thing I’m really curious to ask the Giants about is if they’re also going to hire a coordinator of hitting analytics as well,” Schulman said. “Someone who is that bridge between the number crunchers in the office and those guys who really know what it takes to be a hitter from experience.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Schulman on Daniels, start from 8:56