Cutters’ Markle, Williamsport graduate, heads into second season with confidence, comfort
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The learning curve that comes with coaching Minor League Baseball can be a challenging one to overcome. From dealing with constant roster turnover to placing more emphasis on development, there's a lot to adjust to and a lot that makes the experience unique.
For pitching coach Anthony Markle, he's experienced that firsthand, fresh off his first season with the Williamsport Crosscutters. Having a full year with the team under his belt to build from is assuring, as he looks forward to the start of the next.
"For me coming back, having an understanding of knowing exactly what it is now, there's not as much of learning curve. So, I can help our coaching staff and the guys that are here more," said Markle during the Crosscutters' media day on Sunday. "It's much more comfortable coming in and there is a lot of confidence about what we're doing here."
With experience comes understanding, and that's certainly the case with Markle.
The Williamsport grad was quick to discuss their core goal, why what they're doing is important and the passion and fulfillment that comes with helping players get drafted. With eight Cutters getting drafted last year, the hope is to match or exceed that mark.
"The expectations don't always come down to wins and losses. We're going to compete, and we want to win games, but we're making sure that our goal for this season is to get the same amount of opportunities for these guys as we did last year," said Markle.
"We're here to get these guys looked at, so it took a little bit to get adjusted last year to the way that it is. But once we did that, and we were getting guys the opportunities they did, we saw a huge return on that. There were guys that got drafted that might not have normally gotten that opportunity."
Dealing with the consistent turnover, with new guys coming and going and a whole new team coming in every year, there's definitely a part of that aspect that stings at times.
You don't get the usual amount of time to build relationships with your players, an aspect that makes coaching at other levels special. Markle still keeps tabs on the guys he got to work with last year, highlighting 2023 Williamsport pitchers like Tyler Kennedy, Will Schomberg, Jack Crowder, Nate Wohlgemuth and Keller Eberly as examples.
"Luckily with social media, we still get to stay in touch. I do still stay in contact with those guys on a daily basis," said Markle. "That is a part of this unique experience, where it's a much shorter timetable that you're with these guys. You get as much time as you can to do as much as you can before they get out of here."
Other challenges include getting players in the right spot with less time to gauge their strengths and weaknesses. There isn't much time to gauge whether a position switch would be appliable.
"I think the challenges we learned the most from are making sure that we are continuing to put guys in the best positions for themselves," said Markle. "We get guys that come, and we get guys that leave. So, the challenge is continuing to put the guys that are here in the best scenarios possible. We're making sure they're healthy and they're getting the opportunities that they deserve."
Nonetheless, the challenges come with the territory and are more than worth it to deal with at the end of the day. While he looks to continue improving as a coach in hopes of getting more players drafted, he also gets to enjoy another year working in the stadium where he grew up developing his love for the sport.
When discussing what it meant to be back for another season in Williamsport, he pointed out where he and his family used to sit to watch the team play. He sees working within the sport he loves as an opportunity in itself, but getting to do so in his hometown is a dream come true.
"We have the ability to come here all the time and be around great people on and off the field. I really enjoy coming to the ballpark to be around everybody. It's a huge family. We all love the same thing," said Markle. "As a six-year-old kid, I grew up in this stadium. I couldn't write a book or script it any better than what I would want."
"The biggest thing here is that we're in an area that loves the game of baseball and I think it's just important. There's a lot of history that's come through Bowman Field and I think to have the tie-in between the Little League World Series and an area with people that love the game of baseball that has the history, it's like a living sandlot to me," he added.