What I learned from scouting Rockies-White Sox, Reds-Brewers Spring Breakout Games
PHOENIX — On Sunday, I caught a Spring Breakout Game double-header, as the Colorado Rockies took on the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds faced the Milwaukee Brewers. Below are observations from both games
The Colorado Rockies-Chicago White Sox spring breakout game was dominated by pitching with neither team getting a hit until the bottom of the fourth inning. The final score was 3-1 with hitters reaching base less than 25 percent of the time.
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The most impressive pitcher was easily Rockies right-hander Brody Brecht, Colorado's second overall pick in 2024, who threw an effortless 95-97 mph in his one inning with a slider at 87-88. The former Iowa starting pitcher and wide receiver had trouble with control as an amateur, so it was good to see him throw a perfect inning with seven of his 10 pitches going for strikes.
It is a tiny sample, but the Rockies knew he was a project when they drafted him. Both his delivery and his slider looked better on Sunday than they did when I saw him with Iowa. He's got a very wide variance in potential outcomes, but if you told me that in June we'd be calling him the Rockies' best pitching prospect, I would be zero percent surprised.
The White Sox rolled out their two big lefties to start the game in Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz, with each tossing two hitless innings. Smith was 92-97 with four pitches, the slider above-average at 78-82 and the changeup a little too firm at 88, with below-average command on the day. Schultz was 93-94 on the four-seamer and threw what I believe was a sinker at 89-90 along with three other pitches, showing some good feel for the changeup. He pounded the zone, especially with the fastball, even though his release point seemed to waver across all of those pitch types.
The Rockies made an announcement in July 2023 that three of their top pitching prospects were all undergoing Tommy John surgery, and two of those guys pitched in the Breakout Game. Righty Gabriel Hughes started and was 92-93 on the two-seamer with a 55 slider (on the 20-80 scouting scale) at 86-88 and a hard changeup at 85-88 that you could see him turn over — and I assume hitters could see it too. The fastball velocity is lower than it was pre-surgery and I think his slot might be a few ticks higher. The second, right-hander Jordy Vargas, threw an inning later in the game and was 91-94 with a big, loopy curveball, retiring three batters on 13 pitches, most of them fastballs. The third was right-hander Jackson Cox, who didn't pitch in the Breakout Game, but I was told by a scout that Cox's velocity is back while his command isn't.
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The one big hit of the day came from Rockies second baseman Adael Amador, who got a hanging breaking ball from right-hander Riley Gowens and saw it all the way, knocking it over the right field fence. It was an awful pitch, but Amador has proven over the last year or so that if you make a mistake up in the zone, he will recognize it and pummel it. He also drew a walk, which is his other superpower.
The White Sox lineup managed just three hits, led by a double that catcher Edgar Quero hit the other way past a shifted third baseman off a 96-mph fastball on the inner third while he was batting left-handed. He also flashed a plus arm multiple times, catching two of four would-be basestealers.
Outfielder George Wolkow had a very hard-hit line-drive single to center off a 95 mph fastball that came after he'd whiffed on two straight sliders at his back foot. (Let's just say there was some very questionable pitch calling on both sides of this game.) His other plate appearance ended with a very high flyout the other way to the left field warning track.
Shortstop Colson Montgomery was 0 for 3 with a pair of strikeouts, whiffing on 94- and 96-mph fastballs up and getting caught looking on a 2-2 fastball right down the middle. He did make an excellent throw from the hole even as his body was taking him the other way. Outfielder Braden Montgomery — no relation — was also 0 for 3, putting the ball in play three times and showing above-average running speed on one groundout, although he didn't react well to breaking stuff from Hughes.
White Sox lefty Jake Eder threw an inning in relief, striking out two and walking one, with two above-average pitches in his slider and changeup while his fastball was enough at 93-94. Relief might just be the spot for him, as he has never had close to the command or control to be a starter since he returned from 2022 Tommy John surgery.
I left the White Sox/Rockies game a little early to get to the start of the Brewers/Reds Spring Breakout Game, which was the opposite sort of contest; the Reds won 9-7 and it took nearly two hours just to get to the bottom of the fifth. Neither starter threw strikes, and that got everything off on the wrong foot. Brewers right-hander Jacob Misiorowski was 96-98 with a plus slider and power curveball, but he needed 47 pitches to get five outs. I'm going to say, for the 85th time, that he is not a starter, not with that delivery, certainly not with that lack of control.
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The Reds started lefty Adam Serwinowski, whose delivery is even uglier, with a big pause and huge effort to get to 94-97, although he spins a good enough slider that he should crush left-handed batters. He walked a pair and needed 39 pitches to finish his two innings. He was followed by a parade of mostly similar-looking right-handed relievers until the last three innings, when things picked up a little.
Righty Cole Schoenwetter, the Reds 2023 fourth-round pick who had a dismal year in 2024, was 94-95 with some potential to the curveball and a changeup that would be good enough if he got more velocity separation. It's a full windup but then some effort in the delivery and a stiff landing, so it's relief all the way. Then it was the big guns, literally: 240ish-pound Luis Mey threw 100-102 mph with a slider at 87-90, and Zach Maxwell, who might weigh three bills at this point, was 98-101 with a slider at 86, and both of those guys threw strikes.
The hitters were all fighting at the bat rack in this game. Reds third baseman Sal Stewart was the only player with two hits in the game, including a triple to deep center off a curveball that stayed up a little and later a groundball right back up the box off a fastball. He also made a couple of nice plays at third base. Defense is probably the biggest question about his game, as he could easily end up at first base with that build.
Reds shortstop Edwin Arroyo reached base three times, with a walk, a hit by pitch, and a stand-up triple to right-center off a 95-mph fastball, all of which came when he was batting right-handed, before he struck out on a changeup in his last trip to the plate. He took good at bats all day long — and it was a long day.
On the Brewers side, outfielder Jose Anderson just turned 18 in November and hasn't played a game outside of the Dominican Summer League yet, but he hit the game's only homer off a hanging breaking ball from right-hander Luke Hayden. Anderson struck out looking on a 94-mph fastball in his only other plate appearance.
Shortstop Jesus Made led off and was 1 for 3 with a strikeout; the hit was a soft liner that Reds second baseman Leo Balcazar snagged for what would have been a great play, but he couldn't hold on to it. Based just on two games of seeing Made against good pitching — I saw him the other day against Arizona Diamondbacks prospect Cristian Mena on the back fields — my gut reaction is that he's not ready to go out to low A yet. He won't turn 18 until May and hasn't played outside of the DSL yet either. There's no reason he can't start out in extended spring training and go to the Arizona Complex League for at least a few weeks, even with his tremendous showing in the DSL last summer and the attendant hype that has followed. I don't know what the Brewers' plans are for him; I'm just hoping they take it slow.
Right-hander Brett Wichrowski was 93-94 with a slider and changeup that both flashed above-average, along with a curveball that was more of a show-me pitch. It's a rough delivery for a starter and I doubt he'll have the command to stick there, but it's a big-league arsenal already. Also, the Brewers' roster had Misiorowski, Wichrowski, and Josh Adamczewski, while the Reds had Serwinowski Someone needs to start scouting in Poland.
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Brewers right-hander Bishop Letson struggled, retiring one batter and allowing five runs, but the stuff wasn't bad at all — he was 93-96, showing four- and two-seamers, with a slider at 85-86 and changeup at 86. His delivery is pretty good, and he looks athletic, but he didn't have it on Sunday, walking two of the six batters he faced, and an error behind him by Luke Adams seemed to unravel him.
Right-hander Craig Yoho was 90-94 with an above-average changeup that wasn't that consistent, finishing his outing with one slider that he back-doored to a lefty for a called third strike. It's a very long arm action with early pronation, coming from a low three-quarters slot, although the changeup should mitigate the platoon-split issues that often come with that release point. It's a 55 changeup, no more, and it's certainly not 'Airbender 2.0.'
It was great to see Brock Wilken in the game and taking good at bats. He was hit in the face by a pitch last April and didn't hit well after he returned very quickly despite multiple facial fractures. He walked once and took a slider from a right-hander to left for a line-drive single.
Before the Spring Breakout Games, I caught about three innings of a Reds-Dodgers A-ball game on the backfields at Camelback Ranch. Dodgers right-hander Eriq Swan was 95-96 with a plus slider and a hard changeup at 89 with big fading action, but in the second inning he threw two fastballs to the backstop, rubbing and shaking his pitching hand between pitches, and then exited the game.
Of course, it's the Dodgers, so the next inning's pitcher was Brooks Auger, who was throwing 96-97 with tremendous ride on the pitch along with a mid-80s slurve that had good tilt to it. The Dodgers took Auger in the sixth round last year off a spring when he was mostly a reliever for Mississippi State in his first year back from Tommy John. He's 23 now and hasn't pitched a ton, but that is a starter look all the way and he might be able to do some fun things with the fastball alone.
I was there long enough to get two at-bats apiece from Kellon Lindsey, Chase Harlan, and Joendry Vargas, who batted 1-2-3 in that Dodgers lineup. Lindsey is still very fast and I really want to see if he can hit Low-A breaking stuff. Harlan hits the ball extremely hard; he fouled a ball off the metal fence that was just exceptionally loud, and then struck out. Vargas has a furious swing with great bat speed and doubled off the outfield wall against a lefty (he's a right-handed batter) in his second at-bat after striking out in the first, and he looked fine at shortstop in a brief look with a 50 or 55 arm.
(Top photo of Hagen Smith: Tracy Proffitt / Four Seam Images via Associated Press)
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New York Times
28 minutes ago
- New York Times
For Rockies lifer Warren Schaeffer, turning around the majors' worst team is personal
Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season MLB column that focuses on both the timely and timeless elements of baseball. When Jake Bird pitched in Triple A for the Colorado Rockies, his manager, Warren Schaeffer, noticed him playing chess on his phone. Schaeffer engaged him for a few games, and it wasn't close. Advertisement 'He's a lot better than me, and he took it to me,' said Bird, now a setup man for Schaeffer in the majors. 'He's just really smart. He's willing to see what guys like, willing to learn and communicate.' Schaeffer, 40, has spent 19 years in professional baseball, all with the Rockies, half a lifetime in checkmate. He replaced Bud Black as manager on May 12, and the Rockies lost 17 of their next 19 games. Winning baseball has always been elusive in Colorado, where — as Sports Illustrated's Steve Rushin once wrote — the team wears the colors of a bruise. For the folks who take pride in working there, this is the biggest challenge yet. 'This is extremely personal to me,' Schaeffer, a former minor league infielder, said before a game in New York last weekend. 'It's all I think about, day and night. I've only ever been a Rockie, and the Rockies have never won the West. The Rockies have never won the World Series. These are all things that are very, very important to me, and I think the opportunity is ripe at the moment to start building for that.' A few hours later, against the Mets, the Rockies led off by striking out on a pitch-clock violation. After a homer, the next 17 batters went down in order. The lopsided loss closed out May and clinched the team's 22nd losing series in a row, a major league record. The Rockies fell again the next day, becoming the first team ever to lose 50 games before winning 10. But that game was more competitive, the sixth out of seven losses decided by one or two runs. Losing is never acceptable, Schaeffer emphasized, but with actual victories in short supply, it helps to recognize moral ones. 'Well, we need to, because if you're just determined by the letter at the end of the game, we'd all be crushed,' said Clint Hurdle, who led the Rockies to their only pennant in 2007 and returned in April as a coach. Advertisement 'I mean, this is rare air. We were in an Uber the other day in Chicago and the driver had a White Sox hat on. We were having a conversation and he goes, 'By the way, will you guys start winning some games? Because it took us 60 years to beat the record last year, so people would actually talk about us for a little bit.'' The Rockies could still smash the 2024 White Sox's modern record of 121 losses in a season; they will greet the Mets at Coors Field on Friday with a 12-50 record, which works to a 131-loss pace. But things finally started turning this week in Miami, where the Rockies swept a three-game series from the Marlins. Schaeffer saw it coming. 'We're going through a gauntlet of a schedule right now,' he said. 'It's just — the difference is in the margins, the in-game execution on a more consistent level to take those one-run games and flip them. Honestly, I don't think we're far off from winning games because the past two weeks we've been playing good, solid baseball.' This is the Rockies' seventh losing season in a row since 2018, the last time they reached the playoffs. The last two years were the worst in franchise history, each with more than 100 losses, but there was reason to expect at least some improvement. Three veteran starters — Kyle Freeland, German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela, who make $38 million collectively — were all finally healthy. They've made all their starts but gone 4-25 with a 6.37 ERA. Some young position players offered hope; shortstop Ezequiel Tovar and center fielder Brenton Doyle won Gold Gloves last season and first baseman Michael Toglia slugged 25 home runs. 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But Hurdle, who guided Pittsburgh to three playoff berths in the 2010s and re-joined the Rockies in December 2021 as a special assistant, concedes that it's a valid point. 'There's too much information out there, there's too many other teams doing things well in areas that we could use improvement to not knock on some other doors,' Hurdle said. 'And I think we're doing more of that. We have added to the R&D staff, because three years ago it was pretty much non-existent and now we've got (about) 20 people and it's become more real. We put ourselves probably behind the pack in some areas and it's made it tough. Now we're catching up, and it is tough to play catch-up, initially.' Institutional knowledge can be important, of course, and Schaeffer — technically the interim manager, as Hurdle is an interim hitting and bench coach — managed several of the Rockies in the farm system. Only one manager in the majors, the St. Louis Cardinals' Oli Marmol, 38, is younger than Schaeffer, who looks as if he could still play. 'He's just a super hard-working dude who gets the most out of players,' outfielder Sam Hilliard said. 'Guys want to play hard for him, guys want to work for him and win for him. And he always makes it clear, like: 'This is the standard we want to hold you to. I know we've lost a lot this year, but we can't get into that rhythm of, 'Oh, we lost again, it's OK.' It's never OK.'' Every team needs outside ideas to grow, Schaeffer said, but he'll fiercely defend the purple and black. He said he would always be grateful to owner Dick Monfort for paying the minor league staff in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to the season's cancelation. And he's still a bit astonished that the Rockies hired him in the first place; Schaeffer hit just .214 in their system, then became a Class A hitting instructor. 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Johnson, by then, was pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team he represents in the Hall of Fame. 'He had written a nice letter asking if he could wear the number 51, knowing that I had worn it for 10 years, and I had no problem: 'Wear it and enjoy it,'' Johnson said on Monday. 'And then he went on to have a Hall of Fame career. But there really was never any significance to me wearing the number 51.' The Mariners will actually retire the number twice: first for Suzuki on Aug. 9, after his ceremony in Cooperstown. That's how Johnson wanted it. 'I know the significance of Ichiro and his accomplishments, and I didn't want to interfere with his Hall of Fame induction this year or his number retirement this year,' Johnson said. 'And so the one contingent factor that I had was that if this was going to happen, that I didn't want to take away anything from his deserving day, and it would have to be done a different day, a different year.' Advertisement Johnson, who wore 51 with Arizona, switched as a New York Yankee because Bernie Williams already had it; his children suggested 41, to match his age at the time. He also wore 57 briefly with the Montreal Expos and pitched two games for Seattle while not wearing 51. Mired in a five-start losing streak in July 1992, Johnson reversed his digits and wore 15 for a start at Yankee Stadium. He walked nine that day, lost again, and switched back to 51. The next season, he wore No. 34 for a start at the Kingdome on Sept. 26, when he reached 300 strikeouts in a season for the first time. Johnson wore 34 that day to honor Nolan Ryan, who had suffered a career-ending elbow injury on the same mound four days earlier and was instrumental in turning around Johnson's career. During that frustrating 1992 season, Texas Rangers pitching coach Tom House invited Johnson, a fellow USC alum, to watch Ryan throw in the bullpen before a game. Ryan demonstrated the proper way to land in a pitcher's delivery — on the ball of your foot, not your heel — and Johnson used the tip to streamline his momentum to the plate and finally harness his overpowering stuff. After leading the majors in walks in 1990, 1991 and 1992 (each time with at least 120), Johnson never walked 100 again. He went 75-20 over the next five seasons and was on his way to becoming the last pitcher to earn 300 victories — maybe ever. 'I think if someone's going to do it, it'll be Justin Verlander,' Johnson said. 'And then after that, I don't think you'll probably see that happen again.' Verlander, 42, is winless in 10 starts for the San Francisco Giants this season and is on the injured list with a strained pectoral muscle. He has 262 career victories. Wade Miley returned to the majors this week for the 15th season of a highly eventful career. 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I didn't necessarily love it, but that's what we thought would be the best. It was weird, being able to do that for a warm-up and get to a decent intensity, knowing I'm starting the next game as well. There was a fine line of how hard I went at it.' Throwing a no-hitter for the Reds in 2021: 'What stands out about that was the excitement it brought everybody, the way the team embraced me afterwards and how it was so special for them. I'll never forget turning around, watching Kyle Farmer throw across the diamond, Tucker (Barnhart) just being in my lap. I couldn't believe how soon they all got to me.' Advertisement Pitching an immaculate inning in Arizona on Oct. 1, 2012: 'I don't even remember doing that. Where was that?' You're excused, Wade. Nobody else seemed to notice, either. The broadcasters weren't even narrating the action: The Marlins have employed 114 first basemen in their 33-year history, from Jeff Conine (1,014 games) to Jack Winkler, who made his major-league debut last week. Only one earned a measure of infamy simply by catching a foul ball. That was Peter O'Brien, who played for seven teams as a pro but reached the majors with only Arizona and Miami, hitting .209 from 2015 to 2019. As the Marlins' first baseman on Sept. 29, 2018, O'Brien had the distinction of ending the career of the Mets' captain, David Wright. With his career effectively over because of spinal stenosis, the 35-year-old Wright returned to the Mets for two games at the end of the 2018 season. In the last, he was scheduled for two plate appearances and walked in his first. When he came to bat again, the 43,298 fans rose from their seats at Citi Field. Wright took a ball, then swung at a high fastball, lofting it toward the first base stands. O'Brien drifted over, unsure of how close he was to the wall. He stuck out his glove and snared it, as the crowd howled. 'Part of me felt bad for O'Brien as I walked back to the dugout, staring at my bat, a goofy grin on my face,' Wright wrote in 'The Captain,' his memoir with Anthony DiComo. 'Most of me was just stunned. Was that really it?' It was. But at least O'Brien got a cool souvenir from it. A Marlins clubhouse attendant scrawled a note on a baseball, ripping O'Brien for making the catch — and adding Wright's signature. When O'Brien found it at his locker and learned it was a prank, he sent the ball to the Mets' clubhouse for the real Wright to sign. Wright did, and added an inscription of his own: 'No, really. You should have let it drop.' Don Drysdale worked 3,270 1/3 innings in his 1957-68 prime, the most in MLB in that stretch. It's also about 1,200 more innings than the major-league leader in the dozen seasons before 2025, Max Scherzer, who threw 2,073 1/3. As you may have noticed, times have changed. Drysdale, a towering figure who spanned the Dodgers' Brooklyn and Los Angeles eras, is the subject of a riveting biography published earlier this year: 'Up and In: The Life of a Dodgers Legend,' by longtime Orange County Register columnist Mark Whicker. This week marks the 57th anniversary of the sixth and final shutout in Drysdale's 58-inning scoreless streak. Advertisement Another Dodger, Orel Hershiser, broke the record in 1988 with 59 scoreless innings to end the regular season and eight more to start the playoffs. Both pitchers paid dearly with their shoulders: Drysdale was finished in 1969, at age 33, and a shoulder reconstruction saved Hershiser's career in 1990. Here's Drysdale cashing in on his streak with a cheeky ad for Vitalis in 1968, co-starring San Francisco Giants manager Herman Franks. It plays on Drysdale's reputation for loading up his turbo sinker. Cheating used to be so fun. 'Vitalis has no grease, and spreads easily through your hair,' the announcer intones. 'If we all used Vitalis, we could help put an end to the greaseball.' (Top photo of Warren Schaeffer: Dustin Bradford / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Lisa Bluder believes culture is bigger than one person. Coaching Caitlin Clark didn't change that
The Athletic To Lisa Bluder, even the best performers have room for improvement. It's why, when she recruited Caitlin Clark, she didn't highlight Clark's strengths but instead pointed out her weaknesses. Advertisement Bluder, the longtime basketball coach at the University of Iowa, helped mold Clark from an intense, young recruit into one of the most impactful athletes of her generation. Bluder retired in May 2024 as the winningest coach in Big Ten history, following four years in the spotlight as Clark's head coach. Together, they grew. And so did Iowa's team. Bluder believes all of it was special, but she doesn't deny how much work it took to navigate the unique situation. I wanted to talk to Bluder to understand more about that. How does a leader handle a truly elite performer and maintain a program-wide culture? In sports, or in the workforce, sometimes leaders are given a very rare, talented person to work with. They are tasked with not only guiding them but with making them even better. You have experience with this, obviously, with Caitlin Clark. How do you approach that situation? When you recruit a star into your organization or into your team, you have to communicate with them beforehand that they're not at their peak. You want them to want to get better. And Caitlin always wanted to get better. Advertisement So what we did, first of all, was identify her weaknesses, not her strengths. She knew what her strengths were. We all knew what her strengths were. But you identify and find what the weaknesses are. And so we could kind of chip away at those and make those better. That's how you make a person or an athlete better. Not just incorporating their strengths into your system, but also helping them develop their weaknesses. What did that process actually look like? During the recruiting process we talked about our player development. Because we had proved that we could develop players like Megan Gustafson. She came in and was ranked around 100th in the country and left as the Naismith National Player of the Year. So we had that. You know, proof is in the pudding, as they say. But what we did then when she came here was, we would show her film. We would meet with her and kind of show how her improvements in those areas could really help not only her success, but the team's success. Advertisement I remember you've said before that Caitlin was the right person for you and you were the right person for her. And that's why it worked. Can you explain that? If a person doesn't want to get better, if they think they know it all already, those are the people that I didn't want to coach. I want people who are confident but also who are willing to learn and willing to hear constructive criticism. We talked a lot with our team about how holding people accountable is the same thing as accepting criticism. I'm talking more about peer to peer now, athlete to athlete. So we talked a lot to our athletes about that. You have to learn how to accept somebody holding you accountable because that's the only way you're going to get better and our team is going to get better. If you don't accept it, you're going to quit getting that feedback and you're not going to reach your full potential. Caitlin wanted to be her best. She wanted to be coached, as well as any of the really good players that I've been around. Every one of them, they weren't know-it-alls. They knew they could get better and continued to get better. Advertisement Are they willing to put in the work required to be great? Because there are a lot of people who want to be great without really working hard at it, especially in today's society. Caitlin Clark didn't start out by shooting logo threes. She started out by shooting layups. And people have to remember that. It's a process. And so I want that work ethic, but I also want a positive attitude in my players. I think having that person in your huddle who's always negative, it just wears on people. And so having a positive attitude was really important to me. I can see where it could become tricky, when there is someone in the spotlight as much as Caitlin was, but at the end of the day, you are a team. How would you advise someone on navigating that kind of situation? When there is someone who receives a ton of attention but you have a full team of great people and great players? You can't ignore it. If you ignore it, you're in trouble. We would tell our team a lot: 'Hey, when Caitlin's light shines, it shines on all of us. We all reap the benefits from that. So instead of being jealous about it, let's enjoy it.' It was getting the rest of the team to buy into that. On any good team, you give up your own personal agenda for the betterment of the team, and they were able to do that because they understood that Caitlin was bringing us to new levels. And instead of hampering that, they encouraged it because they wanted to go to those new levels with her. Advertisement Did they always encourage it from the start? Or were there challenges to get there? Oh, it was a challenge at first. Like her freshman year, Caitlin didn't really understand how to work with other people as much because she was always the show. She could do it by herself. But when you get to a Power Four conference and you're competing at the highest level, you realize, 'Oh, I can't do this all by myself.' So it was a realization that she needed her team as well as they needed her. Building that trust was really important early on. But there were a couple of players who transferred after her freshman year because she was hard at first. She learned how to develop her leadership skills. She learned how to become more inclusive. And some people, she rubbed wrong and they left, and that's OK. She got better, but I also wanted people who wanted to be challenged and wanted to be their best. Again, giving up your own personal stuff sometimes is really, really hard. How did you help her develop those leadership skills after her freshman year? Well, we started meeting weekly and having leadership meetings. I would have her read some leadership books and we would kind of go through the chapters and talk about them afterwards: 'What did you learn from this?' Advertisement And then we would bring in sports psychologists to work with our team so that she understood. I would have them meet with her individually and then meet with the team. Some of those things helped with her leadership. We would show her a video of herself. I mean, Caitlin is very passionate. She's not the only person I've done this with. I've had other players whose bench decorum or their reaction affects the team in a negative way. You have to show it to them because they don't understand. They don't know it. They're living it. They're so into the moment that they don't understand how they're affecting other people. And showing real-life examples away from the court, and after the emotion is over, is a good thing. Can you explain how that progress she made then impacted everything else? She then understood that she had to trust her teammates and build relationships with her teammates, and so that completely changed. Then I think her on-court body language got a lot better. It was give and take, too. She is expressive, and you can't take it personally when she is expressive. She is very passionate. So I feel like that just evolved and it became something our team almost got protective of with her. Advertisement If the opposing team was trying to impose their will upon her, so to speak, or fans were yelling things, our team got really protective of her. I think that really is a culture builder, right? When you have people who are looking out for each other. But I also think sometimes people think culture is … I don't know, people think, 'Oh, we got Caitlin, so we got a good culture.' No, we had a good culture, and that's one of the reasons we got Caitlin. So it's a work in progress all the time. Because you have to reestablish that culture every single year. You can't just assume it's going to happen again. Some people say, 'How did you get such a good culture on your team?' Well, it's not a slogan you slap on the wall. It's a continual effort every single time you're together. That's how culture is built. I remember you said that you read Phil Jackson's book 'Sacred Hoops.' Because you thought his experience with Michael Jordan had some similarities to your own. Did you end up applying anything to your own life from that? Yeah, I read that book a long time ago and quite honestly my husband said when Caitlin was a freshman or sophomore, he said, 'You need to reread that book. Because of Michael Jordan.' And I said, 'You're right.' So I read it and I highlighted parts and shared those with Caitlin. On road trips and stuff when you have a little more downtime, I would meet with her and maybe have her read a portion of that book and see what Michael Jordan was doing. All those little things that you do add up, I think. Advertisement Looking back at this whole experience and your career, what do you think is most important for someone to know when they're leading a group of people? As a leader, you have to decide what you want your product to look like. You have to decide what you want your team to look like or your company to look like. You have to have that vision of what it is you want it to be first. And then you've got to find the right people to fulfill that vision. But you also have to be able to be an effective communicator. You can explain what that vision looks like to them and, through communicating, get them to buy in. To me, that's what a really good leader needs to be able to do. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa Hawkeyes, WNBA, Sports Business, Women's College Basketball, Peak, Sports Leadership 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Lisa Bluder believes culture is bigger than one person. Coaching Caitlin Clark didn't change that
Editor's note: This story is a part of Peak, The Athletic's desk covering leadership, personal development and success through the lens of sports. Follow Peak here. To Lisa Bluder, even the best performers have room for improvement. It's why, when she recruited Caitlin Clark, she didn't highlight Clark's strengths but instead pointed out her weaknesses. Advertisement Bluder, the longtime basketball coach at the University of Iowa, helped mold Clark from an intense, young recruit into one of the most impactful athletes of her generation. Bluder retired in May 2024 as the winningest coach in Big Ten history, following four years in the spotlight as Clark's head coach. Together, they grew. And so did Iowa's team. Bluder believes all of it was special, but she doesn't deny how much work it took to navigate the unique situation. I wanted to talk to Bluder to understand more about that. How does a leader handle a truly elite performer and maintain a program-wide culture? In sports, or in the workforce, sometimes leaders are given a very rare, talented person to work with. They are tasked with not only guiding them but with making them even better. You have experience with this, obviously, with Caitlin Clark. How do you approach that situation? When you recruit a star into your organization or into your team, you have to communicate with them beforehand that they're not at their peak. You want them to want to get better. And Caitlin always wanted to get better. So what we did, first of all, was identify her weaknesses, not her strengths. She knew what her strengths were. We all knew what her strengths were. But you identify and find what the weaknesses are. And so we could kind of chip away at those and make those better. That's how you make a person or an athlete better. Not just incorporating their strengths into your system, but also helping them develop their weaknesses. What did that process actually look like? During the recruiting process we talked about our player development. Because we had proved that we could develop players like Megan Gustafson. She came in and was ranked around 100th in the country and left as the Naismith National Player of the Year. So we had that. You know, proof is in the pudding, as they say. Advertisement But what we did then when she came here was, we would show her film. We would meet with her and kind of show how her improvements in those areas could really help not only her success, but the team's success. I remember you've said before that Caitlin was the right person for you and you were the right person for her. And that's why it worked. Can you explain that? If a person doesn't want to get better, if they think they know it all already, those are the people that I didn't want to coach. I want people who are confident but also who are willing to learn and willing to hear constructive criticism. We talked a lot with our team about how holding people accountable is the same thing as accepting criticism. I'm talking more about peer to peer now, athlete to athlete. So we talked a lot to our athletes about that. You have to learn how to accept somebody holding you accountable because that's the only way you're going to get better and our team is going to get better. If you don't accept it, you're going to quit getting that feedback and you're not going to reach your full potential. Caitlin wanted to be her best. She wanted to be coached, as well as any of the really good players that I've been around. Every one of them, they weren't know-it-alls. They knew they could get better and continued to get better. Are they willing to put in the work required to be great? Because there are a lot of people who want to be great without really working hard at it, especially in today's society. Caitlin Clark didn't start out by shooting logo threes. She started out by shooting layups. And people have to remember that. It's a process. And so I want that work ethic, but I also want a positive attitude in my players. I think having that person in your huddle who's always negative, it just wears on people. And so having a positive attitude was really important to me. Advertisement I can see where it could become tricky, when there is someone in the spotlight as much as Caitlin was, but at the end of the day, you are a team. How would you advise someone on navigating that kind of situation? When there is someone who receives a ton of attention but you have a full team of great people and great players? You can't ignore it. If you ignore it, you're in trouble. We would tell our team a lot: 'Hey, when Caitlin's light shines, it shines on all of us. We all reap the benefits from that. So instead of being jealous about it, let's enjoy it.' It was getting the rest of the team to buy into that. On any good team, you give up your own personal agenda for the betterment of the team, and they were able to do that because they understood that Caitlin was bringing us to new levels. And instead of hampering that, they encouraged it because they wanted to go to those new levels with her. Did they always encourage it from the start? Or were there challenges to get there? Oh, it was a challenge at first. Like her freshman year, Caitlin didn't really understand how to work with other people as much because she was always the show. She could do it by herself. But when you get to a Power Four conference and you're competing at the highest level, you realize, 'Oh, I can't do this all by myself.' So it was a realization that she needed her team as well as they needed her. Building that trust was really important early on. But there were a couple of players who transferred after her freshman year because she was hard at first. She learned how to develop her leadership skills. She learned how to become more inclusive. And some people, she rubbed wrong and they left, and that's OK. She got better, but I also wanted people who wanted to be challenged and wanted to be their best. Again, giving up your own personal stuff sometimes is really, really hard. How did you help her develop those leadership skills after her freshman year? Well, we started meeting weekly and having leadership meetings. I would have her read some leadership books and we would kind of go through the chapters and talk about them afterwards: 'What did you learn from this?' And then we would bring in sports psychologists to work with our team so that she understood. I would have them meet with her individually and then meet with the team. Some of those things helped with her leadership. We would show her a video of herself. I mean, Caitlin is very passionate. She's not the only person I've done this with. I've had other players whose bench decorum or their reaction affects the team in a negative way. You have to show it to them because they don't understand. They don't know it. They're living it. They're so into the moment that they don't understand how they're affecting other people. And showing real-life examples away from the court, and after the emotion is over, is a good thing. Advertisement Can you explain how that progress she made then impacted everything else? She then understood that she had to trust her teammates and build relationships with her teammates, and so that completely changed. Then I think her on-court body language got a lot better. It was give and take, too. She is expressive, and you can't take it personally when she is expressive. She is very passionate. So I feel like that just evolved and it became something our team almost got protective of with her. If the opposing team was trying to impose their will upon her, so to speak, or fans were yelling things, our team got really protective of her. I think that really is a culture builder, right? When you have people who are looking out for each other. But I also think sometimes people think culture is … I don't know, people think, 'Oh, we got Caitlin, so we got a good culture.' No, we had a good culture, and that's one of the reasons we got Caitlin. So it's a work in progress all the time. Because you have to reestablish that culture every single year. You can't just assume it's going to happen again. Some people say, 'How did you get such a good culture on your team?' Well, it's not a slogan you slap on the wall. It's a continual effort every single time you're together. That's how culture is built. I remember you said that you read Phil Jackson's book 'Sacred Hoops.' Because you thought his experience with Michael Jordan had some similarities to your own. Did you end up applying anything to your own life from that? Yeah, I read that book a long time ago and quite honestly my husband said when Caitlin was a freshman or sophomore, he said, 'You need to reread that book. Because of Michael Jordan.' And I said, 'You're right.' So I read it and I highlighted parts and shared those with Caitlin. On road trips and stuff when you have a little more downtime, I would meet with her and maybe have her read a portion of that book and see what Michael Jordan was doing. All those little things that you do add up, I think. Looking back at this whole experience and your career, what do you think is most important for someone to know when they're leading a group of people? As a leader, you have to decide what you want your product to look like. You have to decide what you want your team to look like or your company to look like. You have to have that vision of what it is you want it to be first. And then you've got to find the right people to fulfill that vision. But you also have to be able to be an effective communicator. You can explain what that vision looks like to them and, through communicating, get them to buy in. To me, that's what a really good leader needs to be able to do. (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
