For a while, a few years ago, there were some people who talked about Leo Mazzone being the first pitching coach to be elected to the Hall of Fame. The fever broke after he left Atlanta to take the Orioles’ job after the 2005 season and found little success. Most folks realize now that, while he was a good pitching coach, having the best pitching staff in the past 30 years or so helps a lot too. Dave Duncan is now your Hall of Fame candidate in that world.

Mazzone hasn’t worked as a pitching coach since the end of the 2007 season. It’s not clear why. Maybe he hasn’t been offered anything that sounds good to him. Maybe people in the game don’t like him or give Bobby Cox more credit for whatever the Braves staff did than Mazzone. There are a million possible explanations.

One other explanation: Mazzone is not too plugged-in to the network of major league baseball and thus doesn’t have anyone advocating for him. I mean, why else would he approach the Phillies like this:

@Phillies I would be very interested in being your pitching coach. #championshipball — Leo Mazzone (@LeoMazzone54) November 4, 2013

You don’t get jobs in baseball based on public pleas. You get them because you’re either a hot property or because you know someone who will go to bat for you. I get the feeling that neither of those descriptions fit Mazzone at this point in his career.