In order to get the most out of a new generation of ballplayers, managers in Major League Baseball are changing the ways they’ve traditionally run their clubs.
Those changes include familiarizing themselves with the advanced statistics that have become rampant in baseball which millennial players use to inform their choices on the mound or at the plate.
Joe Maddon, who manages the Chicago Cubs, decided to read Managing Millennials for Dummies after his team struggled to finish the season and ended up losing to Colorado in the NL Wild Card Game.
“The big takeaway is that they’re no different than anybody else,” Maddon said. “When you break it down and you go back to your own childhood we all had inefficiencies as young people. The biggest takeaway I think are two things; that the propensity to be inclined to utilize technology, which is wonderful because I’ve done that anyway, and then, they as a group like wanting to know why.”
Maddon, 65, is the oldest manager in baseball. He is almost 30 years older than 37-year-old Rocco Baldelli, who became MLB’s youngest manager when he was hired by Minnesota in October.
“Quite frankly, when I started doing this in the mid-80s, I thought it was important to tell my players why,” Maddon said. “You want to know why, I don’t feel offended. I think sometimes it’s, when people ask you why there’s a defensive component to that that some people don’t like. I don’t mind it. So when they ask me that, why, I should be prepared to tell them why.”
Considering the Cubs did not extend his contract after the season, Maddon’s job could depend on it.
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