Unhappy Scouts??

[Lucky Jim]

Let's say your company gives a three month severance package when it fires employees. Your new boss decides your position isn't that useful, but he also doesn't want to pay you a severance. So now you are going to work in an office 90 minutes further away from your home and you are also going to work weekends. If you don't like it you can quit, but you won't get your severence package.

I'm sure that would sit well with you.

In the end, details are murky. And I'm not going to condemn the move (my earlier posts are really just trying to help lay out both sides of the argument). But it does seem odd.

I think this is very much a CEO-type move. But I'm not sure that baseball teams are like traditional corporations. I get why many of you are applauding it. I'm not. Yet.

[Tony-OH]

Let's say your company gives a three month severance package when it fires employees. Your new boss decides your position isn't that useful, but he also doesn't want to pay you a severance. So now you are going to work in an office 90 minutes further away from your home and you are also going to work weekends. If you don't like it you can quit, but you won't get your severence package.

I'm sure that would sit well with you.

It might not sit well, but it happens every day in the real world. It sucks, but at the same time, it should not be a shock. If they want to put the blame on someone they should blame Angelos for dragging out the GM hiring process, not towards Duquette IMHO. Scouts get reassigned in all organizations. Some take the new position and other quit. It's part of the life of being in baseball and I think everyone knows what they are getting into when they get into the scouting game.

[Stotle]

If you view this as a scouting problem then it doesn't make sense. If you view it as an organizational problem and the primary problem with the organization is entrenched methods and loyalties, then a good course of action would be to care of business before anybody tries to stop you. Most of us believe that the Orioles are not merely dysfunctional but massively dysfunctional. Would anyone be surprised if DD looked at things the same way and decided that's what he should address first?

I'd be surprised if making sure these six guys aren't watching pro baseball is one of the most important issues preventing organizational restructuring. Scout hiring season is the fall. It's fairly uncommon to see sweeping changes outside of that period, regardless of regime change.

[Lucky Jim]

Um, maybe because Duquette is changing that opinion around baseball? Also, maybe because working in baseball is a lot of guys dreams and there are only so many jobs available? I've never heard of hard time hiring a scout. As Nick pointed out correctly, if not for the low pay, a lot more people would love to do the job, but it's amazing how many guys are still willing to do the job. Don't equate the Orioles struggles to hire GM with a lack of abaility to hire talent. Rajsich, Haas and few others are proving that good talent is willing to work for Duquette here in Baltimore.

All of this is true. Well, save for me equating anything. Though I'm not just talking about scouts.

Heck, it's an interesting move. Worthy of discussion. I probably wouldn't have done it, imagining myself in DD's shoes, but it clearly earned the love of the board. I'm not giving DD credit for re-habing the O's image yet, though.

[mweb]

Law

Haas = good hire. MT @danconnollysun: blog on Orioles reassigning pro scouts & hiring Danny Haas as natl crosschecker: http://bsun.md/vG9u3n

So I guess he doesn't hate all O's moves.

[Lucky Jim]

It's poor form because you've replaced people with no one - you've literally said no one can do your job (and not in the good way). It's also poor form because talent is finite and it's already hard enough to attract it when you're a crappy organization. If you think GMs thought twice about coming here, why would you come here as a scout - with lower pay and more instability?

Don't underestimate signaling effects. When I look at lateraling opportunities to go to other firms, I'm always checking out how they treated their employees in the downturn - did they lay off? Did they slash bonuses?

Any move might be fair and efficient, but I'm not taking my talent there.

I omitted the coercive element of the move from this. But it's at the core of what I feel uneasy about.

[Hank Scorpio]

I was recently re-assigned in my organization from management to basically customer service. They took me out of my office and put me on the phones.

I don't do cartwheels in and out the door every morning, but I'm grateful to have a job.

[Stotle]

In the end, details are murky. And I'm not going to condemn the move (my earlier posts are really just trying to help lay out both sides of the argument). But it does seem odd.

I think this is very much a CEO-type move. But I'm not sure that baseball teams are like traditional corporations. I get why many of you are applauding it. I'm not. Yet.

I agree. I don't have all the details, and my posts are just responses to scenarios that are being discussed.

[Stotle]

It might not sit well, but it happens every day in the real world. It sucks, but at the same time, it should not be a shock. If they want to put the blame on someone they should blame Angelos for dragging out the GM hiring process, not towards Duquette IMHO. Scouts get reassigned in all organizations. Some take the new position and other quit. It's part of the life of being in baseball and I think everyone knows what they are getting into when they get into the scouting game.

I agree that a scout's life is filled with uncertainty of employment. But there is generally certainty in that uncertainty (as wierd as it sounds) because teams tend to respect the fall hiring/firing period.

EDIT -- text to me from someone in another organization re: December reassignments: "Def not normal."

[Tony-OH]

All of this is true. Well, save for me equating anything. Though I'm not just talking about scouts.

Heck, it's an interesting move. Worthy of discussion. I probably wouldn't have done it, imagining myself in DD's shoes, but it clearly earned the love of the board. I'm not giving DD credit for re-habing the O's image yet, though.

Fair enough. Only winning will truly rehab the image again but it looks to me that Duquette is not having a hard time finding talent right now, even if the core time to acquire scouts is in the fall. I don't see Duquette making this move without a plan. Besides, I'm a big believer that video and the right statistical analysis can tell you tons about major league players. If they want to get one final look at a guy before trading for himthey can send out the scouts, but video of every pitch and every at bat is available to all teams the next day. Maybe, just maybe the days of needing to send major league scouts around so much is going the way of RBIs and wins as things we need to be concerned about.

[Tony-OH]

I agree that a scout's life is filled with uncertainty of employment. But there is generally certainty in that uncertainty (as wierd as it sounds) because teams tend to respect the fall hiring/firing period.

But Duquette was just hired so I think he deserves some leeway, even to this unwritten rule. If he did this next year at the same time then I would agree with you, but under his current circumstances I think Duquette is doing about as much as humanly possible.

[Can_of_corn]

Fair enough. Only winning will truly rehab the image again but it looks to me that Duquette is not having a hard time finding talent right now, even if the core time to acquire scouts is in the fall. I don't see Duquette making this move without a plan. Besides, I'm a big believer that video and the right statistical analysis can tell you tons about major league players. If they want to get one final look at a guy before trading for himthey can send out the scouts, but video of every pitch and every at bat is available to all teams the next day. Maybe, just maybe the days of needing to send major league scouts around so much is going the way of RBIs and wins as things we need to be concerned about.

Doesn't this also effect the kids in the minors? It might be easy to get film on a big leaguer but how about the kid in A ball?

[Stotle]

Fair enough. Only winning will truly rehab the image again but it looks to me that Duquette is not having a hard time finding talent right now, even if the core time to acquire scouts is in the fall. I don't see Duquette making this move without a plan. Besides, I'm a big believer that video and the right statistical analysis can tell you tons about major league players. If they want to get one final look at a guy before trading for himthey can send out the scouts, but video of every pitch and every at bat is available to all teams the next day. Maybe, just maybe the days of needing to send major league scouts around so much is going the way of RBIs and wins as things we need to be concerned about.

I agree at the MLB level. I find it hard to believe Baltimore will make good pro talent acquisitions without adequately scouting other organizations. Texas became one of the best acquirers of talent (amateur and pro) in the game by improving information sharing and improving scouting. Ditto Atlanta and Tampa.

[Stotle]

But Duquette was just hired so I think he deserves some leeway, even to this unwritten rule. If he did this next year at the same time then I would agree with you, but under his current circumstances I think Duquette is doing about as much as humanly possible.

Fair enough. As I said, most of my posts here were responses to scenarios posed by others. My big bones were 1) if this was just a way to try and get out of paying people, and 2) if Baltimore doesn't plan on scouting Minor League baseball.

[SrMeowMeow]

I'm not assuming these moves are visionary. I'm just glad to see some change. And every time you make a change, people can get hurt. People with families. Nice people. Etc. If you trade for a star, that means one more good guy goes back to the minor league grind. But it's still necessary to be efficient.