Rating the O's executive candidates

[SteveA]

6 hours ago, wildcard said:

I will take a shot at rating the candidates that we have heard of to this point

Factors I used to rate 

I. Successful involvement in managing Scouting, Player Development or Analytics

II. Involvement in managing a rebuild

!!!. Demonstrated ability to manage a mid market team to a World Series winner

1.  Mike Elias -  Currently AGM for Player Acquisition  for the Astros.   Elias have been through a successful rebuild which should be a big plus.   Elias has been instrumental in assembling the Astros roster and building its top-ranked farm system since he joined the club in January of 2012.  

As the Astros scouting director, Elias served as one of the major contributors to the accumulation of young talent that has occurred during General Manager Jeff Luhnow tenure. His involvement and leadership in the organizationâl amateur draft efforts helped to rapidly elevate the Astro's talent pipeline to one of the best in baseball and furnished key pieces that contributed to the organization's 2017 World Series Championship.

In 2012, as Special Assistant to the GM for Scouting, Mike was a driving force behind the decision to select Carlos Correa with the first overall pick, and helped assemble a draft class that has produced nine Major League players thus far. Under Elias's direction, Astros drafts from 2013-2017 have already graduated an additional thirteen MLB players, including Alex Bregman, and yielded some of the current top prospects in baseball. Since 2012 the Astros have drafted more MLB players than any other team.  

He is a gradate from Yale.  He has ties to the area having gro!wn up in Alexandria Va. He gradated from Thomas Jefferson High School.

2. Scott Sharp - currently AGM of the Royals  Scott Sharp is in his 12th season in the Royals' front office and first as the Vice President/Assistant General Manager. He was named to his current role on January 7, 2018. He has previously served as the Director of Player Development during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. He joined the organization on September 28, 2006 as Assistant Director of Player Development and was promoted to Director of Minor League Operations on August 1, 2008.

Though Sharp does not have a scouting or drafting background he has been involved in player development for most of his career.  He oversaw the development of many for the  Royals home grown players that won the 2014 World Series including  Hosmer, Moustakas. Perez, Duffy, Ventura, and Herrera.  He is a graduate of George Washington University and grew up in Sykesville Md

3. Ben Cherington.   As  former GM  he brings many positives and few negatives to the GM position.   Currently  the VP of Baseball Ops for the Blue Jays.  Cherington was named Major League Baseball Executive of the Year for 2013 by The Sporting News for his part in leading the team to the World Series.  Cherington served Boston as an area scout, baseball operations assistant, coordinator of international scouting, and assistant director (and then director) of player development from 1999–2005. Cherington became vice president, player personnel, through January 2009, then senior vice president and assistant GM from 2009 through his promotion to general manager after the 2011 season.  Res Sox GM from 2012-through 2015.  Cherington has involved with the development of  young players Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr. Brock Holt, Eduardo Rodríguez, Blake Swihart, Travis Shaw, Henry Owens, Christian Vázquez.   

This all reads like the guy that the O's would want to hire as their GM for the rebuild except of the unfortunate end to Cherington time in Boston.  He signed to large contracts Ramirez, Sandoval and Castillo  which cost the Red Sox greatly in 2014-2018.  After wining the World Series in two 2013 his team finished last in 2014 and 2015 which led to his firing.  That is why he is listed as the 3rd choice here.

Cherington  matriculated at Amherst College and has a master's degree in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

4. Ned Colletti -  One of the most successful GM in baseball history.    He is known as a old school GM for his reliance in the past on traditional scouting over analytics.  Colletti is an American sports executive and Emmy Award-winning baseball analyst. He is currently an analyst for the Los Angeles Dodgers studio show on Spectrum SportsNet LA. He was general manager of the Dodgers from 2006 through 2014. Before moving to the Dodgers, he was assistant general manager of the San Francisco Giants. During his tenure, the Giants had an 813–644 overall record (.558), winning an average of 90.3 games per season. He was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005.^[4] During his tenure with the Dodgers (2005-2014), Colletti had the highest winning percentage of any general manager in the National League.  During Colletti time as GM with the Dodgers he won the NL West 4 times and made the playoff 5 times.  He did not win a World Series.

5. Tyrone Brooks -   is in the Office of the Commissioner at Major League Baseball as the Senior Director of the Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program in February of 2016.   6 years with the Pirates for Dec 2009 to Jan 2016.   Was Director of Baseball Operations and Director of Player Personnel.

It has been reported that the Angelos brothers are still interviewing candidates and may have already interviewed candidates that are not included here.   There are several AGM that I believe are qualified including Ray's Bloom, Brewer's Anorld, Diamondback Sawdaye. Cubs McLeod and I am sure there are others.

That is how I rate the candidates.  How do you rate them?

 

Good research.   It seems to be kind of a general consensus that Elias would be a really good hire.   So, knowing very little myself about these guys, I guess that's who I'm rooting for.

[Bradysburns]

2 hours ago, wildcard said:

John Angelos has already hired a COO of the business side.  John Vidalin

Again, great insight. Vidalin has external/real-world credentials to be in that role, too. Great stuff. 

Now I don't want a President/Colletti... at all. I don't think hiring a guy like that will attract the kind of young GM we need. Any qualified guy/gal with a proper pair would never agree to report to a middle-man. Could Ned come in, say, and scout a young "GM" from his stable of connections? Sure. But that makes me wonder: why hire him at all? If he's not going to be overseeing baseball decisions, then just hire a GM. I'd be totally okay with that. 

[Bradysburns]

2 hours ago, NCRaven said:

What if Colletti were President or VP of Baseball Ops and one of the others was GM?

This is a really interesting question. I believe the Cubs have that setup with Theo and Jed Hoyer. If you could find a young Theo Epstein and let him bring in his talented buddies, great. Make that guy (Cherington?) your President, and let him hire a GM (say Cherington hires a less-experienced but killer candidate like Elias as GM). That would be the ultimate 1-2 punch and bring in a massive amount of brainpower (we really do need a new braintrust, not just one guy/gal). 

Let's hope they play this right. Like I've said, this looks like the most important offseason in 20-plus years. I'm glad they're taking their time to do it right. 

[TonySoprano]

16 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Good research.   It seems to be kind of a general consensus that Elias would be a really good hire.   So, knowing very little myself about these guys, I guess that's who I'm rooting for.

 I've admitted that I haven't vetted all these candidates.  Moreover, I don't know how any of us really can offer more than a superficial take.  With players you can look at numbers on a spreadsheet, read scouting reports; obviously you can't do for management.  My limited take on Colletti is he mostly had above average, but not great, teams, and yet 7 of 9 years he had a top 10 payroll.   If you go by payroll expectations for the next few years, Baltimore will be a small market team and that's a far different scenario than LA.

[Moose Milligan]

4 hours ago, SteveA said:

So let me get this straight.   You have posted many times about how concerned you are about the length of time they are taking to make this move and how terrible it is.

But you really DON'T care who we get?   All you care is that we do it quickly?

Ummm, okay.

Yup, pretty much.  Make a decision.

C'mon.  Are we all really going to be able to know about these guys inside and out, moreover are we going to be able to predict how they're going to perform in Baltimore under the AngelosBros?   There's going to be joy from some people, pearl clutching from others but we'll all be here waiting to see how they do and judge them.  

[tntoriole]

Cherington is the best candidate in my view.  Elias would be a close second,   Brooks and Sharp would be farther down my list.  I do not want Colleti.  

[mdbdotcom]

18 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Yup, pretty much.  Make a decision.

C'mon.  Are we all really going to be able to know about these guys inside and out, moreover are we going to be able to predict how they're going to perform in Baltimore under the AngelosBros?   There's going to be joy from some people, pearl clutching from others but we'll all be here waiting to see how they do and judge them.  

It's not easy to find two guys who are qualified and yet willing to work for what they will pay. Check again in February.

[spiritof66]

I'd be happy if anyone on the OP's list came on board.

I don't see Colletti as the right guy for a rebuild, so I'd rank him at the bottom of this group.  I don't have enough information to rank the others.

[Roll Tide]

13 hours ago, SteveA said:

Good research.   It seems to be kind of a general consensus that Elias would be a really good hire.   So, knowing very little myself about these guys, I guess that's who I'm rooting for.

So why not go with Cherington as Pres Andy and Elias as GM

[webbrick2010]

This team is such an embarrassment. Why would any talented baseball executive ever work for the Angelos family

We will get someone that would never get a similar position with any other team, another Dan Duquette or even worse if that is possible

[wildcard]

1 hour ago, Roll Tide said:

So why not go with Cherington as Pres Andy and Elias as GM

If the O's pick Cherington he will be the guy to the makes the decisions.   I doubt that is what Elias  is looking to do.  If Elias moves out from under Luhnow then Elias probably  wants to be the man.   I think the town is only big enough for one of them.   Pick one.

[weams]

31 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

This team is such an embarrassment. Why would any talented baseball executive ever work for the Angelos family

We will get someone that would never get a similar position with any other team, another Dan Duquette or even worse if that is possible

Glad to see you weigh in. You'd take the job though. Right?

[Barnfather]

8 hours ago, webbrick2010 said:

This team is such an embarrassment. Why would any talented baseball executive ever work for the Angelos family

We will get someone that would never get a similar position with any other team, another Dan Duquette or even worse if that is possible

How many job openings are there for senior major league execs? 

Very few would turn their nose up at the job. They'd have to be already in-position at another MLB club, or so high profile they'd want to maintain that with a franchise with a shot at the winning things short term - and those kind of execs wouldn't be right for a rebuild situation anyway.

Personally, I'm not crazy about the 'President' vs 'GM' thing myself, unless they have completely mutually exclusive remits. I'd rather see us get an experienced grizzled GM in, who can work the market and knows what constitutes a winning team, and have him hire a young, future-ahead-of-him manager. As for support, he can bring in his own advisors, rather than have someone looking over his shoulder all the time.

Put another way, I'd rather experience in the GM position and inexperience (but potential talent) in the manager position, than the other way around - or the worst-case...inexperience in both positions.

[weams]

14 minutes ago, Barnfather said:

How many job openings are there for senior major league execs? 

Very few would turn their nose up at the job. They'd have to be already in-position at another MLB club, or so high profile they'd want to maintain that with a franchise with a shot at the winning things short term - and those kind of execs wouldn't be right for a rebuild situation anyway.

Personally, I'm not crazy about the 'President' vs 'GM' thing myself, unless they have completely mutually exclusive remits. I'd rather see us get an experienced grizzled GM in, who can work the market and knows what constitutes a winning team, and have him hire a young, future-ahead-of-him manager. As for support, he can bring in his own advisors, rather than have someone looking over his shoulder all the time.

Put another way, I'd rather experience in the GM position and inexperience (but potential talent) in the manager position, than the other way around - or the worst-case...inexperience in both positions.

I'd rather the manager just be a disposable item that serves a purpose while the rebuild continues. 

[mdbdotcom]

8 minutes ago, weams said:

I'd rather the manager just be a disposable item that serves a purpose while the rebuild continues. 

If only we could make a new, younger Art Howe.