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Chicago Cubs: Appreciating Mike Borzello and his secret scouting reports
Chicago Cubs associate pitching, catching and strategy coach Mike Borzello is one of the unsung heroes of the team’s recent run of unprecedented success.
Mike Borzello is so much more than just a catching coach. Heading into his ninth season as a member of the Chicago Cubs coaching staff, he’s a jack-of-all-trades – a behind-the-scenes presence whose fingerprints are all over every game you watch.
His duties entail working with pitching coach, Tommy Hottovy and the Cub pitchers. This includes game planning with each pitcher on scouting reports and pitch sequence. Borzello can be seen in the bullpen but also in the video room trying to find ways to expose opposing hitter’s weaknesses. The clip you’ll see near the end of this piece from Cubs Productions titled “Between Starts” shows Borzello working with Kyle Hendricks on connecting the tendency of opposing hitters with Hendricks’ pitch repertoire.
Entering his 25th season as a big league coach, Borzello has had an incredible career thus far. He received four World Series titles as a bullpen catcher for the New York Yankees and worked in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization for four seasons. He’s known as a coach who is direct and not afraid to confront pitchers on what they need to do to improve their skillset.
Chicago Cubs: Borzello hones in on the mental side of the game
Certain people around the league find him to be “harsh,” but the people who really know him understand that his primary goal is to help players get better. He’s worked with Hall of Famers like Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera and future Cooperstown inductee, Clayton Kershaw. His ability to connect his pitcher’s strengths to the opposing hitter’s weakness is his greatest asset.
“He has an innate ability to break down hitters or break down swings, why this pitch is going to work on that guy: If you do it…the guy’s got no chance,” said former Cubs skipper Dale Sveum.
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Expect Borzello to be even more involved in the day-to-day team activity because former catcher and new manager David Ross will heavily rely on his knowledge. Tommy Hottovy’s analytical pitching approach requires more preparation from catchers than ever before. The number one thing Borzello looks for in a catcher is whether or not they can handle and prepare for a pitching staff. This expectation fosters a deep trust between members of the staff and their battery mates, something imperative to success.
“There is so much to the position: how to receive, how to set-up, how to block, but as far as the cerebral part of the game, that’s the most difficult, even on the major league level,” Borzello once said.
He provides so much detailed information in his scouting reports which includes advanced analytics and video breakdown. These reports are the foundation of Cubs current pitching infrastructure. However, it’s up to the pitcher to pull out the information that applies to him. His scouting reports show where each pitcher’s fastball zones are and which situation to thrown them in.
Chicago Cubs: Getting pitchers to buy in is a key for Borzello
Each pitching sequence is customized to an opposing hitter given a particular situation. The main goal of his scouting reports are to educate the pitcher on the opposing hitter’s approach and how to exploit it. There are certain opposing hitters that do not have an approach at the plate, so Borzello factors that in too.
The information in the scouting reports aren’t up for debate, but the most difficult part of Borzello’s job is getting his pitchers to buy into what the report is telling them to work on. A pitcher has to make a decision to understand and use the information during their bullpen session before they can effectively apply it in a game.
However, each pitcher has their own adjustment period to the report. Borzello recalls that Hendricks did not use the information during his first year and a half with the Cubs. The scouting report eventually forced him to come out of his comfort zone by using his fastball more aggressively to compliment his great changeup. It reportedly takes six to seven hours to put a report together for each series.
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The combined knowledge of Ross and Borzello will pay dividends for an older pitching staff who will need to be successful in order to give the Cubs a chance to win the NL Central. While we don’t know when the 2020 season will start, we do that there won’t be another pitching staff more prepared than the Cubs.