Eduardo Perez Attempting To “Balance” Old School Style and Analytics

When it was announced Monday that Eduardo Perez was a candidate for the Mets manager job it caught everyone by surprise. Perez had never been considered for a managerial job before, nor did he have an extensive coaching career. Instead, he made his name managing teams in Puerto Rico, having short stints coaching in the MLB, and as a long-time ESPN analyst. So why would the Mets be interested in Perez as a candidate?

One reason is his understanding of analytics. In March of 2019, Eduardo Perez was on the State of Analytics panel at the 2019 SABR Analytics Conference long with Baseball Info Solutions owner John Dewan and award-winning baseball writer and sabermetrician Rob Neyer. The panel was presented by MLB and Kinatrax.

“If you’re not into the numbers of the game, if you don’t accept what’s going on, you’re going to be left behind,” Perez said at the conference.

This is great to hear. Today’s game is so predicated on knowledge of analytics, or at the very least a willingness to learn and put some of those principles into practice. The fact that Perez recognizes that is a huge step forward from Mickey Callaway. Callaway of course once said: “We go against the analytics 85% of the time.”

That refusal to use analytics ended with Callaway making one mind-numbing decision after another. At the very least Perez seems to understand that analytics are a big part of today’s game and if you don’t understand them or don’t use them to your advantage then you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Fear not, though, fans of old school tactics, Perez hasn’t forgotten about that side of the game.

“Every organization understands there has to be a balance. … It’s about people being able to understand the numbers … to maximize what they have in their arsenal.”

Perez is saying that yes analytics are a big part of the game today and you need to use them to your advantage, but that’s not the whole story. You need to strike a balance between relying on numbers and old school tactics, that balance is what makes people successful.

However, Perez made it clear he leans further on the analytic side than old school side: “There’s a lot of guys out there who wouldn’t make it to the major leagues if it wasn’t for the organizations maximizing their ability, with the technology they have, to say, ‘You need to be able to throw a curveball 10 percent more.’ … Analytics is a major component of any organization’s success.”

Now all of that was in regards to the idea that analytics has hijacked baseball. It doesn’t show any sort of ability to put those thoughts into practice. Perez talked about that too specifically, he talked about hitters versus pitchers: “In today’s game, the way pitchers pitch, fastball up is the biggest hole for all the hitters … because hitting coaches are teaching launch angle. … So you’re seeing a lot of swings and misses, strikeouts, foul balls. That has to do with velocity, that has to do with spin rate.”

Perez makes it clear that he is looking at the practical use of analytics and how he would coach his players. There are hints of both analytics and old school thinking in that quote. Obviously, Perez leans analytically when he’s talking about pitchers focusing on specific parts of the strike zone and the effect spin rate can have.

However, Perez seems to be against the analytic trend of launch angle swings, something we saw the Mets go away from last year to success under Chili Davis.

Whether you’re analytically minded or old-school Perez has something for you. He clearly has the right mindset to manage in today’s game. He seems to understand that analytics are a huge part of the game, but they aren’t everything. He’s also clearly thought about how he would coach players, and how he would strategize leading up to a series.

Maybe Eduardo Perez isn’t as crazy a candidate as he seemed at first glance. Good on the Mets for digging up a candidate that flew under the rest of the league’s radar.