News
Ziegler a true student of the game
A's reliever has eye on front office when career is over
By Mychael Urban / MLB.com
05/14/09 8:35 PM ET
OAKLAND -- As a 28-year-old rookie with a funky delivery, a fascinating background and record-setting success, A's reliever Brad Ziegler was a phenomenon in 2008. Everyone wanted to either tell his story or hear him tell it.Now he's just another second-year player, a relatively old one at that, with pedestrian numbers. So it's with a measure of reluctance that he discusses his interest in moving from the field to the front office when his playing career comes to a close.
"I would love to eventually, but I feel like I'm still trying to establish myself as a player," Ziegler says. "That's got to be my main focus right now."
But in focusing on playing, suggests Giants scout Andrew Jefferson, Ziegler is in fact preparing for his preferred post-playing future.
"He's always been a student of the game," says Jefferson, a former teammate and roommate of Ziegler's at Southwest Missouri State. "And when you're paying attention like I know he does, you're learning and picking up nuances that not only help you as a player, but also would serve you well as a scout or an executive or a coach, whatever."
Ziegler says his interest in the business of building a baseball team was piqued, in part, by Jefferson.
"We'd sit by each other at games and talk about what was going on, kind of scouting the game together, I guess," Ziegler says. "And we thought so similarly about things, like the way the game should be played, strategy, who was a really good player, who was maybe overrated, and why.
"All of a sudden one day we just realized, 'Dude, I'd love to be in a front office with you someday.'"
If that happens, it won't be any time soon. Ziegler hopes to play at least 10 more years, and Jefferson, 29, is but three years into his role as a territorial scout for San Francisco. But plenty of players have graduated from the field to the front office, including A's general manager Billy Beane.
"I think it can help you quite a bit to have that [playing] experience," Beane says. "It helps in terms of credibility when dealing with players and agents, who I think have a natural inclination to give a little more respect to a guy they know has seen it from both sides. But I think it can inhibit you, too, because as a player you develop built-in predjudices, so it takes a conscious effort to look beyond certain things."
Ziegler would love to pick Beane's brain on the topic at some point, but not now. Quiet and unassuming even when he was on top of the world, Ziegler's typical conversation with his celebrity GM is brief.
Says Beane, "It's pretty much, 'Hey, Zig.' 'Hey, Billy.'"
"I don't know much at all [about front-office work], and where I'm at right now, that's not something I'm really comfortable asking about," Ziegler explains. "When I'm close to retiring and looking for something else, hopefully 10 or 15 years down the road, then I might start inquiring a little more. And hopefully I'll pick up something along the way.
"I've always been kind of a numbers guy. I was a math major in college and always loved statistics, even when I was a little kid. So I figure maybe I can apply that somehow."
Jefferson was a left-handed pitcher in the San Francisco farm system for two years before needing Tommy John elbow ligament transplant surgery, and he kicked around the independent leagues for a couple of years before getting into scouting. His responsibilities with the Giants include evaluating amateur talent in the panhandle of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and west Tennessee.
"So he's kind of on that path, and I'm taking a different route to get there," Ziegler says. "I'm hoping he can keep working his way up the ladder and eventually give me a job when I'm done playing. I told Andrew, 'I have no problem with you being the GM; I'll be the assistant. I'll be behind the scenes a little bit, and you can have all the media attention.'
"I'd just love to have a say. I don't neccessarily have to be the main guy."
Moving up the ladder takes time. Beane, who retired as a player after winning World Series ring as a utility man for the A's in 1989, joined the Oakland front office as a Major League advance scout in 1990 and served as the club's assistant GM from 1993-97 before taking over as GM.
Jefferson, hired by the Giants in 2007, says anyone new to the business of baseball soon learns they have much learning ahead.
"You never truly know all that goes into it until you actually get into it," he explains. "You think you may have an idea, but so much more goes into evaluating a player. There's payroll to think about, for instance. A myriad of other things come into play."
Ziegler says his desire to learn every aspect of the game is what prompted him to jump at the chance to take over as Oakland's players' union representative, and he never misses a related conference call or meeting.
"I try to pay attention to everything," he says. "I want to know how the union works and what kind of stuff they're fighting for, because I want to get inside the game as much as possible while I'm playing it."
Says Jefferson: "If Brad wants to work in baseball when he's done as a player, I think he would be real good at that. He'd definitely have the aptitude and perspective."
Well-rounded perspective, to be sure. Ziegler, 29, has seen both ends of the baseball spectrum, and quite a bit of the middle.
The 938th overall pick in the 2002 First-Year Player Draft, he decided against turning pro in hopes of improving his Draft status with another year of college. And while the plan paid off, he wasn't exactly a "wow" prospect -- he was the 595th overall pick in 2003.
The wow factor came five years later, after a long and winding road to The Show that included a stint in the independent leagues and two trips to the hospital for the treatment of skull fractures suffered in baseball-related incidents.
Ziegler, who started his pro career as a starter with a traditional delivery but was strongly advised to start throwing sidearm and move into the bullpen, made his big league debut in May of last season and set the all-time record for consecutive scoreless innings to start a career, 39.
He finished the year as Oakland's closer, with a 1.06 ERA that was the sixth-lowest in American League history among pitchers with at least 50 innings in a season. He made the Topps and Baseball Digest all-rookie teams.
He got to fly with the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels during the offseason. He got to play with Team USA in this spring's World Baseball Classic.
It's been something of a struggle ever since.
Tabbed as Oakland's co-closer heading into Spring Training, Ziegler assumed the role solo when fellow righty Joey Devine underwent season-ending elbow injury, and he picked up a save in his first outing. Ziegler gave up a run in that outing, though, and he blew a save his third time out.
Recently, Ziegler suffered an asthma attack and has been battling the flu, and he's allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits his past two time out. With a 4.09 ERA through Thursday, he's no longer A's manager Bob Geren's go-to guy in the ninth inning.
But as another one of Ziegler's former teammates notes, to count him out -- in any way -- is to ignore the man's body of work. Ziegler wanted to be a big leaguer, and against steep odds he became one. Who's to say he won't bounce back from the early struggles and have another huge year? Who's to say he won't be another Beane someday?
Not 2006 National League MVP Ryan Howard, who played with Ziegler in college and roomed with him when they were both in the Phillies' Minor League system during during Spring Training 2004.
"Ziggy's tough, man," Howard says with a huge smile. "If he sets his mind to something, he's going to make it happen."
Mychael Urban is a national writer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
