Baker Looks to Blend Experience with Analytics in New Cubs Front Office Position

Feature Photo by Mark Shreve

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John Baker, C, Seattle Mariners, 2015 (Photo by MLB)

John Baker began his professional career as part of a draft class that would become a symbol for the changing approach that major league front offices were taking towards player evaluation. Now retired after a 13-year career as a catcher, Baker hopes to continue to be a force for change as he transitions into a career in the Chicago Cubs Baseball Operations department.

Although not part of the famed Oakland A’s 2002 first-round draft class, Baker – the A’s fourth-round pick that year – is mentioned twice in Michael Lewis’ book MoneybalI as one of the players identified by then A’s assistant general manager Paul DePodesta as a draft target. Baker spent five years in the A’s organization before being traded to the Florida Marlins in 2007. He made his major league debut with the Marlins in 2008 and spent parts of the next seven seasons in the big leagues with the Marlins, Padres, and Cubs. Baker signed a free agent deal with the Seattle Mariners in 2015 and played at Triple-A Tacoma, but retired after being released by Seattle mid-season.

While Baker spent the majority of his big league time with the Marlins, he is probably best known for his 2014 season with the Cubs. Although Baker appeared in only 68 games for Chicago, he spent the entire season as the Cubs number two catcher and developed a cult following among Cubs fans who appreciated Baker’s good humor and his leadership role on a young team. Baker’s popularity grew considerably when he threw a scoreless 16th inning and then scored the winning run in the bottom half of the frame in 4-3 win against the Colorado Rockies at Wrigley on July 29 – also becoming the first position player in Cubs history to be credited with a win.

Baker’s Twitter feed (@manbearwolf) was a must-follow for Cubs fans during the team’s 2015 run to the post-season, as Baker posted insight into the match-ups and how players may react in certain situations.

Post-retirement, there is no doubt that Baker could have pursued a career in the media. Dating back to his days with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats when he had a regular radio spot in that market, Baker has always had a talent for talking. Over the past year, he was a guest host with Rick Tittle on SportsByline USA radio. However, when the Cubs offered Baker a chance to work in their Baseball Operations department, he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to pursue a dream he has had since the early days of his career – bringing a ballplayer’s perspective to player development and team construction. Under the tenure of  Theo Epstein, president of the Cubs, and manager Joe Maddon, the team has a reputation for encouraging new ideas in player development and instruction, and that environment presented a perfect fit for Baker and his experience.

“The opportunity to work for the Cubs was too good to pass up,” Baker said. “They are a group of people that I really respect. This job stood out as the most exciting, most interesting and most challenging.”

Baker’s official title with Chicago for 2016 is baseball operations assistant. He plans to spend the year working in all aspects of the organization to get a better feel for where he thinks he will ultimately fit best. Baker says his long-term future may lie in coaching, but he looks forward to learning the nuances of building an organization through his front office role with the Cubs this year.

“I’m very interested in how things work off of the field because so much of my time was spent on the field practicing and playing and competing and so little of my time was spent thinking ‘how is this team constructed? Why were these moves made?’” Baker said. “I never thought about things that didn’t help me play, so now I am excited to have the opportunity and the space to think about how teams are constructed and what financial concerns are in there and how do we put the best 25 guys on the field and how to we construct a playoff roster? Those are the things that I am excited to learn about while working with some of the best minds in baseball”

Baker says that the game has changed significantly since the release of Moneyball. While the A’s weren’t the only team using analytics in 2002, Lewis’ depiction of how the A’s approached player evaluation brought the use of analytics in baseball to a mainstream audience, and inspired a whole new wave of people to become interested in working in the sport.

While analytics have become a huge part of the game, players have often expressed their dismay over “new age” numbers. Baker understands why players are often resistant to exploring analytics while they are playing.

“As a player, we were always taught to run away from looking at our own numbers,” Baker said. “As a hitter, understanding that if you go 5-for-your-next-12 will get you to .300 doesn’t help you hit the ball when you are batting. We are taught to be so resistant to those numbers that players sometimes lump sabermetrics or advanced analytics into another stat that they are not supposed to look at.”

Baker is looking forward to seeing up close how front offices are using analytics to assign value to players and construct more efficient rosters. He points to the way the Kansas City Royals used analytics to construct their championship roster – in particular their outfield – as a strong example of the impact analytics are having on the game.

“I heard the Royals analytics department talk in Boston [at the MIT Sloan Sports Conference] and they spoke about how they have their own algorithms written up that talk about the range of the outfielders,” Baker said. “When they add up what Alex Gordon can cover and what Lorenzo Cain can cover and then specifically tailor that to Kauffman Stadium, they knew that all sorts of free agent right field options can open up. It doesn’t even matter if the guy can run because they know that all he has to do is run 15 feet to his left and catch anything over there and the rest of the outfield ground is covered.”

Baker hopes to blend what he is learning about analytics with his experiences during his career to bring a unique perspective to the Cubs front office. He says that communication is one of the most important aspects of developing players and often an area that is neglected in the game.

John Baker playing for Sacramento River Cats (AAA) in 2006 (Photo by Chris Lockard)

“I would have loved as a player – especially in the lower levels of the minor leagues – to have an outline for practice when I got home,” Baker said. “A checklist: these are the areas where you are deficient. These are the areas where we think you can improve. Here are some ideas [on how to make those improvements].

“It was one of the things I really liked about [former A’s manager] Ken Macha. When Macha sent me down in spring training, he had a list of things to work on: these are the things that you did well, here’s where you can improve. He’d be in the office going through his footwork, trying to show me things about throwing. Those are the people that really stuck with me and those are the moments that stuck with me.”

Baker also pointed to longtime minor league manager Tony DeFrancesco as a coach who used “tough love” effectively to get Baker to improve.

“I used to hate Tony DeFrancesco,” Baker said. “He drove me crazy my first year in Sacramento [in 2005]. He would drive me crazy when I left the field because of the things he would say to me. I’d have a good game and I thought he was always trying to tear me down like he was mad at me because I wasn’t performing that well. I didn’t have a very good season at the plate. It bugged me all of the time. I came back the next year and it sort of started off the same but I was playing better. All of a sudden, all of the things I was doing that he was getting mad at me about, I stopped doing. I made the All-Star team that year.”

Baker says that learning from failure was one of the most important lessons of his career. It’s also a lesson he hopes to impart on players as they move through the Cubs’ minor league system. He now cites DeFrancesco as one of his favorite managers.

“Maybe it was a tough way to learn things, but it was the way that I needed to hear things,” Baker said.

Clear communication can come from the top of an organization, as well, says Baker.

“I think the number one value that I looked for [from the different organizations he played for] was transparency,” Baker said. “In the game, a lot of decisions are based on statistics and statistical analysis, but a lot of time the players don’t see the ‘why’ a thing happened. The thing that I appreciated playing for the Cubs – and I think also playing for the A’s and dealing with [A’s director of player development] Keith Lieppman especially – was that kind of transparency. ‘This is what we want you to do and if you do this, this is where you are going to be.’

Baker said there was nothing more important to his time with the Cubs then being told exactly what he needed to do to make the major league roster out of spring training in 2014, and having them follow through on that promise based on his performance.

Giving players the freedom to capitalize on their strengths is another area that Baker believes organizations can improve on. He points to the way the Cubs handled 2015 NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta after he was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles as a prime example of how coaches and players can collaborate to get the most out of a players’ talents.

“Jake was taught a philosophy of pitching in the Orioles organization that did not match his talent. It was counterintuitive to how he thought he should pitch,” Baker said. “[The Orioles] wanted him to throw four-seam fastballs and curveballs. Establish the fastball and throw the breaking ball and shy away from that slider/cutter that he throws, maybe because they were concerned about a possible arm injury later. They wanted him to straighten out his delivery path to the plate and not throw across his body as much. They took away all of these weapons from him. They wanted him to fit into a mold and the clay that they had was simply too big for the mold.

“The best thing that happened to him in coming to the Cubs was that they were intelligent enough to give him some freedom. He was 27, 28 years old, and pitching coach Chris Bosio, bullpen coach Lester Strode and catching instructor Mike Borzello let him be himself and let him be the guide in re-shaping his career. In that process, Arrieta developed a ton of confidence because he always had that electric 92 mph slider and 96 mph sinker and 88 mph changeup with some depth. He always had the individual pieces. He was just never able to put them together. When the Cubs gave him the freedom to pitch how he wanted to, it all came together.”

The Cubs will enter the 2016 season with World Series expectations that haven’t been associated with the organization in more than a decade. Baker says that Maddon’s leadership style will help the young team not be overwhelmed by those lofty expectations.

“[Maddon] keeps the team excited about coming to work everyday,” Baker said. “When I had a chance to talk to those guys last year, they talked about how much fun they were having. Joe mixes it up in a way that he keeps it fun and he keeps it fresh. The season doesn’t feel like a six-month grind. It feels like a bunch of week-long events to keep you interested. That’s a smart way to approach managing.”

Baker’s first official assignment with the Cubs was a trip to the Dominican Republic to watch post-season Caribbean League action and meet several members of the Cubs’ organization. He hopes it is the start of a bigger journey as he looks to make a lasting impact on the game he loves.