Welcome to the Baseball Bench Coach!  We keep hearing the same themes in professional sports.  NFL is king with its domination of the television networks and seemingly endless coverage of its combine and draft.   The NBA is on the rise, especially with all of the off the court drama of its superstar players and free agent signings.  And yes, poor baseball, our national pastime, it is dying.

This blog is here to tell you to forget all that noise, and focus on what truly matters, the games being played.  If you are one of those fans, like me, who continue to find the intricacies and strategies of baseball to be your relaxation getaway, you have found a home every Monday during baseball season.

So what is a bench coach in baseball?  Of all the coaches who support the manager of your favorite team, the bench coach might hold the key to your team’s success.  Standing beside your manager, he provides in-game guidance on how to make the decisions that impact the outcome of the game. What kind of defensive alignment should we employ?  What’s the better matchup pitcher vs. hitter? Should we sacrifice here or play for the big inning? He’s your Radar O’Reilly from M*A*S*H*, one step ahead of your manager and hopefully two steps ahead of your opponent.

And who is your “Baseball Bench Coach” every Monday this season?  He is a baseball outsider, who loves the game, watches a ton of it, and wants to share and discuss everything that makes baseball truly great “between the lines”.   He will cover all 30 major league teams and find in-game strategies and topics for the baseball purist.

The Baseball Bench Coach will take a close look at players who might not make that day’s headlines or dominate the stat line but actually made the heads-up play to win the game.  We won’t worry about any WAR (wins above replacement) numbers or launch angles. Rather, our focus will be on run production, on base percentage, RBIs and runs scored. We will examine today’s 13-man pitching staff and how important a pitcher’s walk ratio is to his team’s success. We will even explore the lost art of pinch-hitting, a roster spot which has arguably gone away.

For this to work, the Baseball Bench Coach needs you!  Chime in when you see an in-game situation that merits discussion or a player who deserves a shout out.   Relax and enjoy the game of baseball, and when you need that friend or outlet to share a nuance that you think maybe only a select few might appreciate, you will have this blog as a resource.

The Baseball Bench Coach also needs games being played.  All 30 MLB teams will be in action on Thursday, March 28, with a full slate of games throughout that weekend.  And so on Monday, April 1st, we will be ready with the opening pitch of the Baseball Bench Coach.   I hope you find your baseball home here.