Back in the 90’s when the Braves had Glavine, Maddux, and Smoltz, Leo Mazzone was hailed as a genius. When he went to the Baltimore Orioles, not so much. Rick Peterson was a genius with Hudson, Mulder, and Zito. With the Mets, he was a scapegoat. He was replaced with Dan Warthen. 

Now that the Mets have Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Noah Syndergaard, Warthen has gained some notoriety. We now hear about the “Warthen Slider.”  As is the case, when you get a trio of young aces, all the fame is going to come your way. They point to certain things you do that makes great pitchers great. Typically, pitching coaches get a lot of praise when they have great pitchers. Warthen, who had survived two GMs and two managers, is no different. How good is he really?  Perhaps, we are about to find out. 

This past offseason the Mets traded Jon Niese. He was once regarded well enough to receive a five year contract extension with two additional team options. Overall, Niese was somewhat disappointing.  He’s had shoulder problems. He was 61-61 with a 3.91 ERA and a 1.361 WHIP. I believe it’s fair to say the Mets expected more and didn’t receive it. Now, Niese is a Pittsburgh Pirate where he is now joined with well regarded pitching coach Ray Searage.

Searage is fast developing a reputation as a pitching guru. Unlike most pitching coaches, it’s not because of who he has, but what he does with what he has. Here’s an example of some of his success stories:

Francisco Liriano 

• 2012 Twins/White Sox 6-12, 5.34 ERA, 1.468 WHIP
• 2013-2015 Pirates 35-25, 3.26 ERA, 1.241 ERA

A.J. Burnett

• 2011 Yankees 11-11, 5.15 ERA, 1.434 WHIP
• 2012-2013 Pirates 26-21, 3.41 ERA, 1.228 WHIP
• 2014 Phillies 8-18, 4.59 ERA, 1.409 WHIP
• 2015 Pirates 9-7, 3.18 ERA, 1.360 ERA

J.A. Happ

• 2015 Mariners 4-6, 4.64 ERA, 1.408 WHIP
• 2015 Pirates 7-2, 1.85 ERA, 1.026 WHIP

As noted above, Searage’s next project is Niese. He’s coming off of what might be perhaps the worst year of his career where he went 9-10 with a 4.13 ERA and a 1.398 WHIP. Searage has his work cut out for him, especially with a head strong pitcher like Niese. For his part, Niese is seeing an opportunity for improvement with a superior Pirates defense. Is the Pirates defense Searage’s equivalent to Warthen’s slider?  Who knows?  

At the end of the day, it’s a results based business, and Searage has done something with his pitchers to coax better results than they have elsewhere. If that continues, Niese is about to have the best year of what has so far been a very disappointing career. It’ll be another pitcher that Searage has been able to reach that other pitching coaches couldn’t. 

If that’s true, it doesn’t make Warthen a bad pitching coach. Rather, it shows that like this who have come before him, his perceived skill is more closely tied to the skills possessed by his pitching staff.