Leo Mazzone is letting the Phillies know he would like to coach in Philadelphia. The longtime pitching coach of the Atlanta Braves during the Bobby Cox era took to Twitter Monday morning to say as much.
@Phillies I would be very interested in being your pitching coach. #championshipball
— Leo Mazzone (@LeoMazzone54) November 4, 2013
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With the Phillies possibly missing out on some of their targets, as Beer Leaguer notes, perhaps it might be worth checking in with Mazzone to see what ideas he has for the Phillies pitching staff. In all seriousness, what is the worst that could happen?
Here is the thing. We know that Mazzone for along time had a pretty easy job when he had Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz on his pitching staff, and that will not quite be the case if he were to start rocking back and forth on the bench in the home dugout at Citizens Bank Park. Sure, he would have Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee, but the rest of the pitching staff will be made up of some younger arms. That is not necessarily a bad thing if Mazzone can connect with the younger pitchers and help them develop. Watching the Phillies the last couple of seasons, developing those younger arms has been a problem.
I would be very curious to see what Mazzone could do to help take some of these younger pitchers to the next stages of their careers. I would also like to see what he would do with Hamels, who has spent the best days of his career under Rich Dubee as his pitching coach. Given the players Mazzone has worked with before, I am left dreaming of what the Hamels-Mazzone combo would turn out.
Many Phillies fans seem to think Jamie Moyer would be a perfect fit as a pitching coach, and I do not necessarily disagree. But has there been any indication Moyer is looking to get in to the coaching game? He can have some good conversations and shed some wisdom with younger players, but does that automatically mean he can translate to the role of coach? More importantly, if Moyer was looking to get in to coaching, wouldn't we have some idea of it by now?
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