Middleton reading the "riot act" to some of his veterans:
We need to learn from (the NLDS loss to the New York Mets). I think some old dogs need to learn new tricks. I know by the time you get to the majors, and particularly by the time you’re a veteran, you’ve got a style. It’s yours. But I’m going to remind the guys in spring training of two stories.
In 2010, we’re playing the Rockies out in Denver. Roy Halladay is pitching one of those days. His father lives about an hour away. And his father and I are sitting there watching Doc mow them down. I turned to his father and say, “I understand that you were Doc’s first pitching coach.” He said, “That’s right.” I said, “How many of his pitches that he uses today did you teach him?” And he said, “None.” None? “None.” Not even a fastball? “No.” He said when (Roy) was sent back down to the low minors, he jettisoned every pitch and he learned five new pitches. He said, “I’m not going to be successful (in the majors) if I don’t change.” So I said, “Oh, he’s using those pitches?” No. Over time, he was afraid he was too predictable. People knew his pitches. He either completely changed or materially altered every single pitch.
So I’m kind of incredulous about this whole thing. Two weeks later, I’m sitting with Mike Schmidt at a game. I relate this story about Doc’s father. And Mike just looks at me and he goes, “Yeah, I can understand that.” I said, “Really? All that change?” He goes, “John, in my career, I had three completely different swings. Every one of those three swings, I made a significant adjustment to the swing about halfway through. People adjust to you. You have to adjust to them.”
And that’s the message I’m going to give people in spring training. The reason those guys are in the Hall of Fame is because they were willing to change. They were willing to adapt. … If they can do it, then we have to at least try to do it. People have to adjust.
I’ve seen people develop two-strike approaches at the plate. People can do it. People on this team have done that. Bryce (Harper) learned a whole different position, for God’s sake. But everybody’s got to do that.
From the standpoint of internal work, there’s a clear understanding and agreement among all of the hierarchy — the front office people, the coaching staff — that collectively we’ve got to be more forceful in getting players to address their areas of weakness.
We’ve been having conversations in a more forceful way, instead of making suggestions. This isn’t going to change just because you show up in the middle of February or something like that.
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