Matt Carasiti Headed for Japan

E-MAN: When the current Cubs regime took over post-2011, the Cubs hired long-time Vanderbilt pitching coach Derek Johnson to be their new Minor League Pitching Coordinator. Johnson was something of a pitching "guru," having developed his own unique pitching philosophy/ideology. He wrote at least one book (maybe more) on the subject of pitching, but it was a sort of "my way or the highway" type of approach. 

So each pitcher in the system had his own unique "Player Development Plan" detailing his goals and objectives and how to get there. Minor league pitching coaches were no longer allowed to veer off the reservation and go rogue and impart their own personal ideas, as had often been the case previously. 

Back in the day it wasn't unusual for a pitcher to receive conflicting information and instruction from different pitching coaches as the pitcher progressed up the ladder through the system or as pitching coaches received new assignments within the organization. It also wasn't unusual for pitchers who had been very successful in college or high school to be told to change what it was that got them to pro ball and try something else, sometimes for no apparent reason
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For example, Cubs 1997 1st round draft pick RHP Jon Garland was completely messed up by the Cubs within a year after he signed. Even though he was successful in his pro debut in the Summer of '97, the Cubs changed his arm slot and release point at Instructs post-1997 (with terrible results). He was traded to the White Sox for RHRP Matt Karchner in 1998, and the Sox immediately showed him video they had recorded of him when he was in high schoo (the White Sox had hoped to draft Garland with their 1st round pick, but the Cubs picked ahead of them), and told him to forget everything the Cubs had told him to do and go back to pitching the way he had pitched in HS. Within two years he was in the White Sox MLB starting rotation and he had a successful MLB career. There are other examples I know about that did not end happliy-ever-after for the pitcher (including other Cubs high draft picks), but I'm not going to go into them here. 

So the hiring of Derek Johnson and the implementation of a Player Development Plan for each pitcher was supposed to avoid the missteps and bad decisions of years past. 

The problem is that despite the change in philosophy and new instruction methods (to more of a college-type approach), the Cubs saw a couple or three of their pitching prospects either stall or flame-out in their system and then develop into effective big league pitchers in another organzation. It was especially troubling with regard to RHRP Tony Zych (who had been the 4th round draft pick of the Cubs in 2011),.because within a few months after he was traded to Seattle (in lieu of being released), he was in the Mariners MLB bullpen.  

So after the 2015 season, Derek Johnson was hired by the Milwaukee Brewers as their new MLB Pitching Coach, and the Cubs hired Kansas City Royals AA Northwest  Arkansas Pitching Coach Jim Brower to be their new Minor League Pitching Coordinator (BTW, Brower's influence in the Cubs organization in 2016-17 was one of the factors that led to the Cubs acquiring ex-KC pitchers Mike Montgomery and Alec Mills in trades), and Seattle Mariners Minor League Pitching Coordinator Terry Clark (who was credited with "fixing" Tony Zych) to be the new Pitching Coach at AA Tennessee.

The idea with assigning Clark to Tennessee is that AA is considered the make-or-break spot for legit pitching prospects (that's where the Cubs "lost" Zych), and so you want your best teacher at AA, in part to teach advanced pitching methods but also to fix problems and save the pitcher before things sprial out of copntrol..What happens before AA is important but it's just part of the process and AAA is a "finishing school," but AA is where the rubber meets te road, because (barring injury) talented pitchers almost always get to AA without a lot of difficuity.  

What will be the ultimate result of the change from The Derek Johnson Method to Brower/Clark has not yet been determined, but hopefully it will result in more "home grown" pitching talent reaching Wrigley Field and helping the Cubs.