McAdam: Q&A with new Red Sox pitching coach Dave Bush

After spending the last few years working in the Red Sox minor league system -- most recently as the organization's minor league pitching coordinator -- Dave Bush will serve as Boston's major league pitching coach, having been hired to replace the re-assigned Dana LeVangie.

Bush spent nine years in the big leagues, pitching for three different organizations. BostonSportsJournal.com spoke with him recently about his new role and how he views the job of pitching coach.

BSJ: How did the process come about that you were hired as pitching coach? Once the position became open, was it something you pursued?
Dave Bush: "I went into without any expectations, but pleased to be involved in the process and obviously I'm happy with how it turned out.''

BSJ: We're seeing the job of pitching coach change quite a bit, including qualifications and background. How do you see the role evolving?
Bush: "I think all coaching roles have evolved quite a bit in the big leagues. There's so much more information available than there used to be. The qualifications that guys need to be good big league coaches has changed each year. I think things kind of fell into place for me in a good way. The last three years, I was working within the system, focusing on analytics and a lot of my responsibilities on the minor league side (included) taking the information and making it usable for players and helping the coaches to learn what the different things meant. So I had a lot of practice in working with staff and with players. I think the game has just kind of evolved and evolved a way that I figured I could contribute in a good way.''

BSJ: How big a role do analytics play in the job now?
Bush: "When I first started to working with the Red Sox



and was introduced to a lot of the information, it made sense to me immediately. That's the clearest way I can say it: it just made sense. It fit with a lot of the ideas and topics and things that I learned as a player, but when I learned as a player, it was trial and error. We didn't have the same information to verify what we tried to do. We tried stuff, we thought about it, we talked about it, we looked at the results and then we made adaptations. Nowadays, we get that information much faster and we have a much more precise understanding of what's happening. But as I started to learn the information and the numbers, the concepts made sense. They matched up with things that I already understood, things I learned as a player.

"The simplest approach I take now as a coach is that the concepts are still very similar to what I did 10-15 years ago, But we have a newer, better way of evaluating it, being more precise with it. It's not necessarily that we're teaching things differently; it's just that we have a different and better way of understanding what's happening on the field.''

BSJ: Are players less resistant to the use of analytics now?
Bush: "Each new year, guys are signed into pro ball, each class has had more exposure to the information. I won't necessarily say that they understand it or know totally what it means, but they're definitely not afraid of it. It's nothing that they feel is going to be used against them; they really feel it's going to be used to help them. So I'm not necessarily trying to get guys to buy in as much as making sure they understand exactly what it means.

"Like with all information, it can be used the right way or it can be used the wrong way. The challenge now is less about convincing people to use it and more about making sure they understand exactly what we're talking about.''

BSJ: What role has Brian Bannister played in your development?
Bush: "He was responsible for teaching me a lot when I first started working here. He was the point man and for all the information we had. Certainly, without his help those first couple of years, I would not be in the position I'm in at this point. He was really, really helpful in getting me to understand exactly what the numbers meant and helping me translate it into usable words and terms and phrases and just making sense of it all.

"I don't expect our relationship to change a while lot. I think he's a little more interested in working on the player development side. He really enjoys the process of helping younger players reach their potential and to do it sooner, maybe, than in the past. We have a great relationship. He's certainly responsible for me getting up to speed when I first started working with the Red Sox. I'm excited to keep working with him. He's a very talented coach, very talented analyst. He brings a lot of things to the table. Our roles are slightly reversed, but I don't think our relationship changes a whole lot.''

BSJ: You've worked with most pitchers in the minor league system. How might that benefit them -- and you -- once they graduate to the big leagues?
Bush: "For the guys who do graduate to the big leagues this year, when they first get there, I think there will be a comfort level for them, walking in and knowing that the pitching coach is someone that they've worked with in the past. Anything that can make players more comfortable when they're first starting their  big league careers, I think it is helpful.

"From my side, having worked with guys in the past, it gives me a little bit of understanding of what they're trying to do out on the mound. So instead of having to ask everyone what's happening, at least I have a little bit of an idea of  what a guy's doing and the things he's tried in the past that have worked or not worked. If nothing else, it should speed up that familiarity process a little bit, let the player get comfortable and gives me a little understanding of what they're trying to do.''

BSJ: The 2019 season was a disappointing one for most of the veteran starters. Have you looked into some of the reasons for that?
Bush: "I've definitely already started that process. In some ways, it's looking at the data and comparing this past season to prior seasons. I've definitely been in contact with the trainers and the medical staff about injuries that some of these guys have had. There were health issues with a bunch of different guys this past season that impacted the way they pitched in a number of different ways.

"I spent enough time around the big league team here to have started relationships with those guys, so that I'm not starting from scratch  now.  And I've reached out to everyone at this point in the offseason, just to find out where they are with their offseason throwing programs, how they feel about their health, when they're going to start throwing. And just to put some things in their mind about expectations that I might have going into spring training and getting all of them back to where they can be most successful.''

BSJ: The Red Sox obviously invested a lot in veteran starters last year and when they failed, so did the team. On the other hand, the two teams that made it to the World Series took that same path. How do you see the importance of having experienced starting pitchers on the staff?
Bush: "I, along with a lot of people in the game, value stating pitching. There's a reason why really good starting pitchers get paid a lot of money. The innings they eat up and the presence they have on the mound, it's important. The more innings your starters pitch, the fresher your bullpen is going to be. We saw that value of traditional starters in October with the teams in the World Series, especially, that relief pretty heavily on traditional starters that went deep into the game.

"That being said, I'm open to creativity and to using the personnel that we have the best that we can. So if that means running five traditional starters out there and looking for six or seven innings every time, great. If that means being creative and using an opener or having some bullpen games or dividing up innings in whatever way we need to, I'm open to any possibility that puts guys in a good position to be successful. If that means we have guys who are healthy and can eat up a lot of innings, great. If we have injuries and have to rotate things around, then we'll do the best we can to be creative and find ways to maximize the staff that we have.''

BSJ: The decision last spring to bring the starters along slowly backfired. How do you intend to prepare those guys in spring training?
Bush: "We've already had multiple conversations between myself and Alex and myself and staff about how we want to approach that. The biggest difference is, the season ended a month earlier this year. and we also had a number of guys that were dealing with injuries before the season was over.

"The unfortunate part of not making the playoffs is, you're finished in late September, early October. The benefit w'ere going to have is, it's given guys a little more time to recover and it's allowed us to build in a little more traditional offseason program where they can get all the rest they need and still start throwing programs at the appropriate time and be ready for spring training.
"The exact plan isn't set in stone yet. But because it will be a full offseason, we don't have to worry so much time about trying to crunch the recovery time like they did following the World Series. I don't expect anything radical. Also, I don't know that the program we had last spring was anything radical. It was just a product of having played so late into the season the year before that we had to build in the appropriate amount of rest time and also build in enough build-up time for the season. That can be challenging when the offseason gets crunched.''

BSJ: How much communication have you had with the major league pitchers?
Bush: "I started reaching out to players almost immediately after getting hired, making sure that I knew what their plans were for the offseason. It's likely that, somewhere along the way, whether it's in Fort Myers or somewhere else, that I and other members of the staff will make some trips around to see players in person. We have staff members who live all over the country and we have players who live all over the country.

"There's definitely some value in meeting players face to face. Whenever possible, we'll do that and in places where that's not possible, I'll be in communication throughout the offseason.''