Wes Johnson explains the role of analytics in his approach as a coach

Fresh-faced Georgia baseball skipper Wes Johnson shared an interesting philosophy on his approach to analytics as he readies to take over the Bulldogs.

More than any other sport, analytics have become prevalent in baseball. That’s changed the way Johnson has had to do his job, but his strategy in dealing with them go a bit further than surface level, as he explained to the media.

“We’re in a day in age, you know I — we can talk about generations and different things, but players today, when you make a change, you better be 100% objective,” said Johnson. “They’ve got this cool thing called an iPhone. There’s this cool thing called Google, and they can look up if you’re right or wrong. And so when I talked about — as I’ve talked to all our players and told them when I first met with them, when we make changes, it’s going to be objective. It’s not going to be subjective. It’s not going to be my eye just doesn’t like the way your swing looks. If it’s working, we’re going to go with it. We’re going to enhance that process. So that’s what data does for you.

“Data also helps you build that relationship with that player. When you make that objective change, and they see that they’ve got a better result, the buy-in becomes higher. And you know, there’s a lot of people that say, ‘If you want to get better at something, you better measure it,” we’re measuring a lot.”

Evidently, Johnson is using analytics to not only win games, but to build trust with his players. That’s a fascinating way to do things, and one that could pay off in spades for Georgia.

The Bulldogs want to get back to playing competitive baseball, and perhaps Wes Johnson’s approach could help them do so. Georgia certainly believes that’s the way forward.

Wes Johnson emphasizes the importance of building a strong culture at Georgia

Continuing, Johnson knows that it’s difficult to win in the SEC. To find a way to succeed, the culture within the Georgia program is going to need to be strong.

While speaking at his introductory press conference, Johnson emphasized building that strong culture within the program.

“I’ll give you a short answer or we might not get out of here on time,” Wes Johnson told the reporter who asked about culture. “The short answer is this, when you bring guys together, and you paint the vision — you know, first step you’ve got to have is you’ve got to think you can do it and you’ve got to believe and then you go get it.”

Georgia finished the 2023 season at 29-27 and just 11-19 in SEC play. In particular, the Bulldogs struggled on the road and it’s on Johnson to start winning quickly in Athens. 

“So, one of the ways that I think we do that is through our individual development plans. When everybody knows that we have a plan specific for each guy, and that we’re working to get each guy better, not just massive group of whatever where one size may try to fit all and it fits only really have the team,” Johson said. 

“And when we’re having that individual relationship, you know I’ve said this, there’s one thing that the team who wins the national title will do more than anybody else this year and that will be high-five each other, right? So, that’s how we’re gonna do it. We’re gonna do it with consistency, we’re gonna do it with showing up and everybody knowing that every single day everybody’s trying to get better. When we get in that locker room the goal is start to come together. It’s like I told them, we’re gonna high-five more than anybody next year. That’s our plan.”