OC Register: Alexander: Joe Maddon’s Angels will be a hybrid of old school and new school

[AngelsWin.com]

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  New Angels manager Joe Maddon does an interview with MLB Network after his introductory press conference on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels general manager Billy Eppler, left, and team owner Arte Moreno, right, introduce Manager Joe Maddon during a press conference on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels General Manager Billy Eppler, left, and team owner Arte Moreno, right, help new manager Joe Maddon don a jersey during a press conference at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  General Manager Billy Eppler during a press conference announcing Manager Joe Maddon at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Joe Maddon address the media and Angels employees during a press conference introducing him at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Joe Maddon address the media and Angels employees during a press conference introducing him at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Past Angels player, including Rod Carew, center, Mike Witt and Jim Abbot, attend a press conference introducing Joe Maddon as the team’s new manager at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Joe Maddon address the media and Angels employees during a press conference introducing him at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  New Angels manager Joe Maddon points to General Manager Billy Eppler as he talks about them working together during a press conference introducing Maddon on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  General Manager Billy Eppler during a press conference announcing Manager Joe Maddon at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Joe Maddon address the media and Angels employees during a press conference introducing him at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels owner Arte Moreno after a press conference introducing Joe Maddon as the team’s new manager at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Joe Maddon address the media and Angels employees during a press conference introducing him at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels manager Joe Maddon chats with Albert Pujols after a press conference at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Joe Maddon after a press conference introducing him as the new team manager at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Joe Maddon does an interview with MLB Network after a press conference introducing him as the new team manager at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  New Angels manager Joe Maddon waits to begin another interview following his introductory press conference on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Joe Maddon chats with visitors to a press conference introducing him as the new team manager at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Angels Manager Jaye Maddon, left, wife of new Angels Manager, Joe Maddon, General Manager Billy Eppler and Angels owner Arte Moreno during a press conference introducing Joe Maddon as the team’s new manager at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  General Manager Billy Eppler during a press conference announcing Manager Joe Maddon at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Oct 24, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  ANAHEIM, CA – OCTOBER 24: Joe Madden walks on to the field for a press conference to be introduced as the new manager of the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on October 24, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

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  New Angels manager Joe Maddon speaks to the media during his introductory news conference on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

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  Jaye Maddon applauds as her husband Joe Maddon is introduced as the new manager of the Angels during a press conference on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

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  New Angels manager Joe Maddon takes more questions from the media after his introductory news conference on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

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  New Angels manager Joe Maddon takes more questions from the media after his introductory news conference on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

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  New Angels manager Joe Maddon does an interview with MLB Network following his introductory news conference on Thursday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

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ANAHEIM — I’ve often wondered, while watching the 2019 version of baseball, what it would look like if an organization decided to go completely counterintuitive. No more waiting for home runs, no more pulling a pitcher after two times through the order. Lots of stolen bases, hit-and-run plays and bunts, and pitchers built up to pitch 200 innings in a season and occasionally finish what they start. All-in on old school baseball, in other words.

We probably will never see such radical zigging in a world where others zag. But as Joe Maddon takes over the helm of the Angels, this might be as close as we come.

The term he used Thursday, during his introductory news conference at Angel Stadium, was “data vs. art.” The definition: The numbers, the raw analytics that inform so many decisions on so many teams, have to be weighed alongside the human element, the heartbeat.

“I believe there’s a balance to be stricken right there,” he said. “If you could use both of those things to your advantage, then you should never ever want to disassociate one or the other. To just be all analytically inclined or all heartbeat inclined, you’re gonna lose. You’re not gonna be the best version of yourself.

“Today’s game, everybody’s working off the same sheet of music. I think there’s a reason why fans have been turned off a bit by our game, and that’s because the game looks the same regardless of where you go. I want us to re-establish our own identity here, (where) we’re playing the analytical game but I want us to also play the Angels’ game, and for all these guys, who you are as a human being matters.

“I’ve gone through this the last 15 years, I guess, between Tampa Bay and Chicago,” Maddon added. “And I know one thing when I talk to my guys: They do not want to be viewed as a number, and I don’t blame them. Ask any one of these guys (pointing to a number of Angels alumni sitting in the audience) how you would feel under that set of circumstances, where you’re only viewed as a mathematical equation.”

This is going to be a tremendously interesting journey, even beyond the heartstring-tugging scenario of Maddon returning to the organization he called home for 31 seasons or the challenge of turning this situation around the way he did in his previous managerial stops with the Rays and Cubs.

As owner Arte Moreno noted, “If you want people coming into the ballpark and you want people watching or listening, or reading, you want to be able to put a product out there. … We need to perform so when people come here, they have fun.”

It will, of course, be tempting for baseball’s new school cognoscenti to go ballistic when Maddon says things like, “We’re gonna bunt this year, guys,” as he did Thursday. But it’s worth a reminder that Maddon was dabbling in analytics in this organization long before every franchise had its own Research and Development division.

The difference: Few of those R&D types have the myriad of experiences Maddon has had as a minor league player, scout, on-field instructor, bullpen coach, first base coach and bench coach.

And how many of those analysts understand the inefficiency of changing a team’s approach every time there was a manager or general manager change? Maddon lived it. We’d talked about it years ago, and he repeated the story at the podium Thursday, about how as a minor league instructor he had to tell players every few years that the way they’d been doing things was now changing. That ended when Mike Scioscia came in as manager in 2000 and brought with him a detailed blueprint.

I asked Maddon how much input a manager these days had over such organizational philosophy, understanding that he now has a lot more clout in this organization than most managers do with their teams.

“The on-field stuff, the manager has a lot to do with it,” he said. “You talk about fundamentals, whether it’s team defenses, cutoffs and relays. The offensive side of the thing, we’re kind of joking with the bunting, but there still is a time to bunt, there’s still a time to hit-and-run, there’s still all these different times to do different things.

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“In the spring trainings with the Rays and Cubs, I was able to really incorporate a lot of my teachings I’d gotten from here in the past and put them into both of those situations. It turned out pretty well in both places. But the stuff that I’ll bring here is the stuff that I learned here in the late ’70s and the early to mid-’80s.”

In other words, the Angel Way is back.

“Today’s game, you talk about it being analytically heavy, and that’s wonderful,” Maddon said. “But analytical dudes don’t know how to teach the game. They know to provide you information, and then it’s up to good coaches to be able to teach the game. I don’t think people talk about that enough.”

There is another trait that should serve Maddon, and the team, well.

“The fearlessness,” General Manager Billy Eppler said, recalling his observations when Maddon was at Tampa Bay and Eppler was an executive with the Yankees. “He wasn’t afraid to step outside of convention. It’s funny, because I know I used the word ‘edgy’ in my intro of him … but he had conviction in what he was doing, he had a rationale behind it, so he could back it up.”

Fearlessness encourages you to zig when others zag. That alone will make Maddon’s Angels far more interesting.

jalexander@scng.com

@Jim_Alexander on Twitter

Maddon: "I want us to re-establish our own identity here. While we're playing the analytical game, I want us also to play the @Angels game."@MaddHalos • #FOXSportsWest pic.twitter.com/2LLrgEiRun

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Relationships Trust Success @MaddHalos • @Angels pic.twitter.com/QlCBGs4TOU

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Aggressiveness. Fearlessness.

The new @Angels way. pic.twitter.com/oQwCbqVCX2

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