Mazzone not a candidate for Pitching Coach

Brian Cashman still doesn’t know who his pitching coach will be, but he knows who it won’t be. Anthony McCarron has the story from today’s NY Daily News:

Cashman refused to identify other candidates. But when asked specifically about former Braves and Orioles pitching coach Leo Mazzone, who has said he’s interested in the job, Cashman said, “No, we’re not going to interview Leo. Leo turned down the Yankee job once. He was offered the job before Gator (Ron Guidry) in 2006 and he went to Baltimore.”

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In all seriousness, Mazzone’s pitching philosophy doesn’t mesh well with that of the Yankees. He believes in throwing more often, that the more you throw the stronger you get. There’s loads of medical research that contradicts that theory, which is why teams ‘baby’ pitchers the way they do nowadays. The Yanks pay their pitchers tons of money, they’re not about to hire a Pitching Coach that going to upset the way they do business. He may have had someone pushing for him within the organization back then, but it sure sounds like it wasn’t Cashman.

Further, Mazzone was a bit exposed in his stint with the O’s. Some folks thought he was a genius when he was in Atlanta coaching Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine (who all raved about him) but his 06-07 stint with the Orioles produced little in terms of results. They were 10th in the AL in team ERA the year before he arrived (05) and fell to 13th each of his two seasons as Pitching Coach. The human metronome will have to seek employment elsewhere.