Sunday Notes: JBJ, Bridich, Wallace on Britton, more

Like many of us, Jackie Bradley, Jr. has been watching and enjoying the NFL playoffs. I asked the Boston outfielder for his thoughts on the contests, as well as some of the primary protagonists.

After acknowledging that there were some exciting games, Bradley made note of Pittsburgh wide receiver Antonio Brown’s surreptitiously live-broadcasting a video as head coach Mike Tomlin addressed the team. He doesn’t condone what happened.

“There’s always been an unwritten rule about that,” Bradley told me. “What goes on in the locker room stays in the locker room. Nobody from outside of the locker room should know what goes on inside the locker room. It’s like a family in there — it’s a tight-knit group — and it should stay that way. You wouldn’t want anything broadcast out of there, no matter what it might be.”

As for the quarterbacks playing later today — Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Matt Ryan — Bradley demurred on which he feels would have been most successful had he pursued a baseball career. He did opine that the foursome wouldn’t necessarily have worked off a mound. As he put it, “There are guys with arm strength who aren’t pitchers.”

Bradley is among them, as this video clearly shows. And while he hasn’t pitched professionally — “Not yet” — he did so in high school, topping out at “94 or 95” MPH. He feels he could probably throw harder now.

“I’m more developed,” explained Bradley. “I was 160-something (pounds) in high school, and I’m 200-plus. My lower half is a lot stronger.”

What kind of velocity could we expect if he converted from centerfielder to flame-throwing reliever?

“There’s only one way to find out,” said a smiling Bradley.

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Jeff Bridich was a bit bolder than Bradley when asked the quarterback-baseball question. He wasn’t definitive with his opinion, but he did suggest it might be the star of his favorite football team. Colorado’s GM grew up in Wisconsin, rooting for the Green Packers.

“It seems like what separates Rodgers — guys like him and Brady — is the way their brains work,” said Bridich. “They seems to be intelligent people, and intelligent athletes, and those aren’t always the same thing. A lot of times, intelligent athletes that are really baseball smart end up doing really well in the sport. So it wouldn’t surprise me if it was Aaron Rodgers. But you never know. Roethisberger is a huge human being, and he might have been a good power-hitting corner.”

Bridich didn’t cite Ryan in his response to the question, but he was highly complimentary of how the Atlanta Falcons — the team hosting the Packers this afternoon — built their roster. What he said on that subject, and much more, will appear on these electronic pages in a few days.

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In an interview that ran in September, Baltimore closer Zach Britton said he “definitely could have been successful as a starter” had he commanded his sinker as well as he has since moving to the bullpen. Dave Wallace, who served as Orioles pitching coach for each of the past three seasons, doesn’t necessarily agree.

As Baltimore fans well remember, Britton struggled as a starter before becoming a shutdown reliever. In his original role, the southpaw logged a 4.86 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP over 46 appearances. Wallace — now a special assistant with the Atlanta Braves — believes he knows why.

“Buck (Showalter) hired me in 2013, and we went out to UC Irvine and heard all about Zach Britton,” Wallace said recently. “We met him, Chris Tillman, and a few other pitchers. My bullpen coach, Dom Chiti — as good of a pitching guy I’ve ever known — and I talked to Zach in the outfield.

“Zach had been tried as a starter, and he couldn’t do this, and he had flashes of brilliance. When you talk to Zach… he was one of those guys where it was almost paralysis by analysis. He wanted it to be, ‘My right foot there, my left foot there.’

“He doesn’t have the… I wouldn’t say mentality, but the wherewithal to navigate. When you’re a starting pitcher, and you give up a run — give up something — you have to maintain your composure and still make pitches, knowing you have quite a bit of the game to go. A lot of guys can’t do that, and he was one of those guys.”

Wallace, who was speaking at SABR event in Boston, wouldn’t say much about Showalter’s not using Britton in last October’s loss to Toronto. Ditto Grady Little’s sticking with Pedro Martinez too long in the 2013 ALCS, when Wallace was Red Sox pitching coach. He did address the situations indirectly, with a story about another game.

“The manager has the last call, and you respect that,” said Wallace. “Bobby V. (Valentine) in the 2000 World Series. We were down three games to one with Al Leiter pitching. Luis Sojo was up in the top of the ninth. Al had something like 130 pitches. He was struggling like hell. Bobby said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘He’s done; we have to get him out.’

“We had Turk Wendell, John Franco, Armando Benitez, and Dennis Cook — four really good guys in the bullpen. Bobby left him in. Sojo gets a hit, and we lose. They win and the World Series is over.

“The first thing Bobby says to me is, ‘Hey, don’t forget now; you’ve got to cover my ass.’ That’s OK. He’s the manager. You can agree and disagree on everything. Hindsight is always 20-20.”

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In early December, we reported that the other Dave Wallace — Baseball America’s 2016 Minor League Manager of the Year — would be changing jobs within the Cleveland Indians organization. At the time, his new role had yet to be defined. Now it has. The 37-year-old Wallace will be a special assignments coach, and he described his duties as follows:

“I’ll help out in a few areas, but I’m most excited about exploring the creation of a coaches development program,” Wallace told me. “Better coaches equal better players.”

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Prior to becoming the pitching coach in Minnesota, Neil Allen served in that capacity at the Triple-A level, in the Tampa Bay organization. This past summer, I asked Allen about the conversations he’d have the with the club’s minor-league pitching coordinator.

“The first thing we’d talk about was that night’s pitcher, which was someone who had already achieved fastball command in order to get there,” Allen told me. “By that stage, we’d be talking about his breaking ball and his changeup, and about percentages — how many we need to throw, and how many we need to throw for strikes.”

Fastball command, and how best to develop it, were among the things Allen emphasized in the interview that ran here a few months ago.

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Jake Odorizzi has plenty of experience working with pitching coordinators. The Tampa Bay right-hander spent six seasons in the minors, with three different organizations. Originally Brewers property, he was in the Royals system before coming to Tampa.

“The coordinators were pretty hands-on,” Odorizzi told me this past summer. “In spring training, most everything we got was from them, and then once the season started, the coaches would keep conveying what they’d been saying. They’d make their appearances during the season, but for the most part, they filtered things to us through the coaches. It was a group effort that way.

“They’d talk to us about philosophies — things they’d like us to do, things they’d want us to establish. Some pitching coordinators want everybody to throw from this side of the rubber, or they want no two-seams, or one of your first three has to be a changeup. There are certain things they want you to learn, because the minor leagues are all about development, and they’re the ones in charge.”

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Gordon Edes abstained from filling out a Hall of Fame ballot this year. He didn’t do so to make a statement, nor was he running away from his responsibilities. The longtime Boston baseball scribe did so because he’s now employed by the Red Sox as their official historian. He remains eligible to vote, but feels it would be a conflict of interest to do so.

In Edes’s view, filling out a ballot and checking off Curt Schilling’s name would be seen as an obligatory home-team vote. Conversely, not checking off Schilling’s name would be seen as, “See, even the Red Sox people don’t think he’s worthy.”

As for how Edes’s stepping away impacts alleged PED candidates, he’s previously voted for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and the no-longer-on-the ballot Mark McGwire.

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Jose Ramirez flew under the radar in 2016. The Indians infielder/outfielder began to make a name for himself in the postseason, but he was nonetheless overshadowed by the likes of Francisco Lindor, Corey Kluber, and a bullpen led by Andrew Miller. Outside of Cleveland, Ramirez remains mostly a mystery.

His manager knows who he is.

“Everybody talks about Lindor, as they should, but (Ramirez) had almost the same numbers,” Terry Francona said on Thursday. “He plays everywhere, too. He’s a pretty good player.”

Francona undersold the underrated youngster’s numbers. They were better than the ones put up by the All-Star shortstop.

Lindor slashed .301/.358/.435, and had 48 extra-base hits and 19 stolen bases. Ramirez, who started games at five positions, slashed .312/.363/462 and had 60 extra-base hits and 22 stolen bases. He also topped his emerging-superstar teammate in ISO, wOBA, and wRC+.

Ramirez turned 24 in September and is 14 months older than Lindor.

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Red Schoendienst managed the St. Louis Cardinals for 12 full seasons, and parts of two others. Before that, he enjoyed a long and prosperous playing career. A second baseman, Schoendienst made 10 All-Star teams — nine as a Cardinal and one as a Milwaukee Brave — while manning the position from 1945-1963. He was later inducted into the Hall of Fame by the veterans committee.

There was a notable speed bump along the way. Following the 1958 season, Schoendienst was diagnosed with tuberculosis and underwent surgery to remove part of a lung. Undeterred, he returned to the playing field in September 1959 and went to hit .300 in part-time duty for the Cardinals in 1961 and 1962.

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

Over at WBUR.ORG, Only a Game’s Karen Given explained how a young Syracuse University graduate brought Uganda to the Little League World Series, and why their chances of returning are uncertain.

At Behind the Boxscore, Julian Assouline looked at The Fall of the Swingman.

According to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, eliminating catcher’s interferences could be key for Jacoby Ellsbury.

At The Miami Sun Sentinel, Tim Healey took A look inside the Miami Marlins’ year-old analytics department.

The order in which teams pick in the 2017 amateur draft is now set. Mike Axisa has the details at CBSSports.com.

RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Omar Vizquel (3,727) had more total bases than Edgar Martinez (3,718).

Joey Votto has a higher career stolen-base success rate than Bryce Harper. Votto is 67 for 95 (71%). Harper is 58 for 84 (69%).

From 1980-1985, Red Sox outfielder Tony Armas had 187 home runs and 160 walks, 28 of which were intentional.

In August 1972, San Francisco’s Jim Barr retired the last 21 batters he faced in a complete-game shutout against Pittsburgh. In his next start, he retired the first 20 batters he faced in a complete-game shutout against St. Louis.

On October 3, 1943, John Dagenhard of the Boston Braves allowed two unearned runs in a complete-game win over the Chicago Cubs. Five days earlier, he’d thrown two scoreless innings against the St. Louis Cardinals. Those were his only big-league appearances, Dagenhard finished his career with a 0.00 ERA.

In 1918, 20-year-old left-hander Ralph Worrell went 25-10 for the International League’s Baltimore Orioles. That winter, he died in the Spanish Flu Pandemic that ended the lives of over 50 million people worldwide.