Craig Albernaz continues "trusting his guys" despite mixed results

With the rise of analytics, there has been a corresponding drop in the number of times that you see a pitcher talk his manager into letting him stay in the game. With the information that these front offices have and the way the coaching staff can see real-time data on how a pitcher's pitches are performing, there just isn't much wiggle room for a pitcher to argue that he's "got this" when it's been decided that he doesn't "got this".

It hasn't gone completely extinct. Last season, Max Scherzer famously gave his manager the death stare when it looked like he was about to be pulled from the game, but the fact that that moment made headlines only highlights just how rare that sort of thing is now. Over the past 10 years or so, fans have come to expect that if the pitching coach goes to the mound, it means no pitching change, and if the manager goes to the mound, it means a pitching change. Which is why it has been so interesting to see Craig Albernaz so frequently venture out of the mound and return without calling to the bullpen.

Craig Albernaz is trying to pair the old school with the new school

In just two months as a big league manager, he's done it a number of times. It's a little tricky to keep track of exactly how many times because Statcast isn't tracking this yet, but if you've been watching Orioles games this year, you've undoubtedly seen Albernaz go to the mound late in a game, usually with runners on and talk things over with his pitcher and then head back to the dugout to let things play out.

It's not just on the mound. Plenty of starters and relievers have made some comment along the lines that they were consulted about how they felt and talked themselves into another inning. The results have not always been great.

On Sunday, Albernaz came out and talked to Bradish after he walked a batter in the seventh. He left the mound and allowed Bradish to finish the inning. A run did end up scoring, but the Orioles were up nine, and finishing seven innings likely meant more to Bradish than the difference in a nine-run or eight-run lead. So no harm, no foul. On Friday, Rogers talked his way onto the mound for the seventh and quickly gave up four runs without getting an out, and the Orioles went on to lose. Both Rogers and Albernaz referred to the incident as a "learning experience".

When a learning experience results directly in a loss against a divisional opponent, it's easy to point fingers and demand that things be done in a more conventional way. In this way, analytics can act like a shield for a manager. As long as a manager always does what the analytics would suggest, he's never going to really get in trouble. He can always use the excuse that he was doing what he was told to do. What Albernaz has done so far this year is stick his neck out for his guys.

In these situations, he's made it very clear that he's taking into account what his players want and trusting them if they say that they can handle the situation.

Again, "ERA post conversation with the manager" is not yet tracked, so it's hard to put a number on how effective this has been. As with many bold strategies, the bad moments, like blowing the game on Friday night, stand out. But who knows how many times a pitcher has convinced Albernaz to let him go out for another inning, then pitched a flawless frame, went back to the dugout, and didn't tell anyone because a scoreless inning isn't news, the way blowing a five-run lead is.

The potential upside is that Albernaz is attempting to create a culture where the players feel like they are seen as human beings and not just chess pieces. What they want and how they feel is being taken into account the same way as their SIERA vs left-handed batters.

Whether it can be proven or not, Albernaz clearly believes this is valuable, and when you think about it, it's hard to disagree with him. In a game where the players are asked to play almost every day through the ups and downs of a six-month season, how a player feels about the way they are perceived by the people they are playing for has to matter. If the players feel like their thoughts and feelings matter, then you're going to get a different level of commitment than if everyone feels like a computer in the warehouse is making all the decisions.

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