If you owned the Orioles, what decisions would require your approval?

[Frobby]

I often read opinions that the owner should just hire the GM and let him run the team unfettered, subject maybe to setting an overall budget.    But do any teams really operate quite that way?    If it was your team and your money at risk, would you run it that way?

I think if I were the owner, I’d want some say in the bigger-ticket decisions.   Say, contractual commitments of more than $10 mm, or trades of players who are in the team’s core 10-15 guys or top 5 prospects.   And I’d probably rubber-stamp most of those decisions, but I’d still want the GM to explain the reasoning and be able to ask questions.     Is that unreasonable?

[paulcoates]

Superstars, and even then I defer to the baseball men that I would have hired. To think that I, as an owner would know more about baseball men who have been in the game for countless year, is nonsense. Angelos is a lawyer, not a baseball person.  He wasn't one when he bought the team and sure isn't one now.

[sportsfan8703]

With TV revenues the way they are you really can't blame owners.  Losing a guy like Manny wouldn't just kill us at the ticket office, but would hurt ratings too.  Even in blowouts I'll still flip back to watch Manny and Schoop hit. 

[dabirds]

7 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I often read opinions that the owner should just hire the GM and let him run the team unfettered, subject maybe to setting an overall budget.    But do any teams really operate quite that way?    If it was your team and your money at risk, would you run it that way?

I think if I were the owner, I’d want some say in the bigger-ticket decisions.   Say, contractual commitments of more than $10 mm, or trades of players who are in the team’s core 10-15 guys or top 5 prospects.   And I’d probably rubber-stamp most of those decisions, but I’d still want the GM to explain the reasoning and be able to ask questions.     Is that unreasonable?

That's reasonable, but I would suspect that you would be more involved in the overall strategy.   There should be no way the owner should let the GM negotiate with teams over their star player without guidelines in place and then veto the deal when it comes back to him.  

I know if I was owner I would want to know the GM's strategy going into the offseason and agree to a plan with him before he starts making moves.  I would never let something like this go so far along without him knowing my feelings on the progress and a pretty good idea of what I would accept and what I would not.

[Bahama O's Fan]

Personally, I might make myself the GM, simply because I think I know a very little about baseball and we are all armchair GM's on here.  Honestly, if I didn't know the game, I would hire someone I completely trust, give him/her a budget and give them the length of their contract to "earn their money". This would mean setting specific goals that I want them to meet throughout and by the end of their contract. If I was displeased, then I would move them.

[Redskins Rick]

14 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I often read opinions that the owner should just hire the GM and let him run the team unfettered, subject maybe to setting an overall budget.    But do any teams really operate quite that way?    If it was your team and your money at risk, would you run it that way?

I think if I were the owner, I’d want some say in the bigger-ticket decisions.   Say, contractual commitments of more than $10 mm, or trades of players who are in the team’s core 10-15 guys or top 5 prospects.   And I’d probably rubber-stamp most of those decisions, but I’d still want the GM to explain the reasoning and be able to ask questions.     Is that unreasonable?

Joe Gibbs said it best when he came back to run the Skins under Gibbs II, he took Danny aside and explain to him what Jack Kent Cooke taught him and it was also how he ran his NASCAR team. He said you hire good people and stay out of their way, except for the very big decisions.

Cooke came to Gibbs during Gibbs one, and said, you really think you are one player away from a Superbowl win, and you want me to spend 1 million dollars on a backup QB (Doug Williams). Gibbs said, Yes sir Mr. Cooke, we have a really good team, just lacking in QB depth.

Cooke signed off on that acquisition, and the rest is history, for you youngsters see Superbowl XXII and the Williams vs Elway battle.

If you look at the Redskins since Danny has hired Bruce Allen, it looks like he paid attention to Gibbs, and taken more of a backseat to running the organization.

[interloper]

No one's faulting Angelos for wanting approval. It's the fact that he denies approval regularly for egregiously bad reasoning.

[Frobby]

I didn’t start this thread to question Angelos.    I’m just interested in what guidelines you’d follow if you were an owner.    

[hoosiers]

Maybe the best thread started here in years and odd that something similar was started long ago.

I can only guess at the reports generated within a front office.  I have to assume that an owner and GM have multiple discussions an offseason regarding the direction of the team, competitiveness of the team and the MLB payroll and other budget items.  As long as we were on the same page with these things and as long as moves were within these parameters, I would still want to approve a majority of transactions - though I would largely be a rubber stamp approver if the moves were within parameters.

I would be an interested and supportive owner, but not heavily involved.  

I think one has to remember that PA thought we had a somewhat competitive team in the early going last year and with the ramp up in payroll was fairly invested into the team.  Now, we are about six or seven months later and the possibility exists for a full re-build and that our front office only began contemplating in earnest dealing the best player in the organization for possibly two decades within the past week to 10 days.  This is a fairly quick and large reversal of fortune and direction - especially with a GM who appears headed out the door at the end of the year - and one with whom a large amount of trust possibly has been lost.  So, I am surprised at the level of disapproval here regarding PA's approval.  I think it is very natural and very likely in the best interests of the team.

Now, that said, PA's chief concern about dealing MM to the NYY is something we can do without.  We actually have made some excellent trades historically with the NYY and recently went to the BoSox for Andrew Miller.  The idea that we shouldn't respond in kind, when some sort of overpay might be expected, is hypocritical.

[Can_of_corn]

I'd let them explore any avenues they wanted to but I would want approval over any moves on the 40 man roster, players appearing in the top 5 of current prospect lists, anything involving draft picks, or costing more than a million dollars.  I'd also like to be consulted before any changes were made to the ML coaching staff.

[Redskins Rick]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'd let them explore any avenues they wanted to but I would want approval over any moves on the 40 man roster, players appearing in the top 5 of current prospect lists, anything involving draft picks, or costing more than a million dollars.  I'd also like to be consulted before any changes were made to the ML coaching staff.

If I was King for the day, I would hire CoC and install him as advance scouting for the International players and have him stand up a team.

 

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

If I was King for the day, I would hire CoC and install him as advance scouting for the International players and have him stand up a team.

 

Is that just an excuse to send me out of the country for an extended period of time? 

[Redskins Rick]

Just now, Can_of_corn said:

Is that just an excuse to send me out of the country for an extended period of time? 

Never cross my mind, but damn, that does work?

Actually, if you was boss of that team, you stay home in fancy office in the warehouse, and delegate.

[weams]

39 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Is that just an excuse to send me out of the country for an extended period of time? 

Yes. With an escape room scenario to boot. 

[weams]

If I were an owner, that would mean that I would be terribly rich and have my thoughts and skill warped by that.

 

But were I the person that I am now, I would just hire  Farhan Zaidi and Jon Daniels. Give them 200 Million to spend annually on salaries. 50 million on infrastructure and 50 million on international acquisitions. Annually. And then I would sell my TV rights to Fox. 

And I would sell my franchise to the highest bidder in 7 years.