Meoli: Blood/Sig/Elias setting the culture prior to new coaching hires

[Absltgreek]

Roch had some more info on these new coaches:

Quote

A development coach will concentrate on data and analytics assistance for the players and rest of the staff, while the fundamentals coach will handle a more traditional baseball role.

The list of confirmed development coaches, per sources, includes Eli Steinfield, Grant Anders, Dave Berry and Matt Packer.

Steinfield has been employed by the Astros as a player development technology apprentice and he’s well-versed in TrackMan Baseball. Anders worked for the Reds in baseball operations.

Packer was the hitting coach at Post University in Connecticut and started out at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. He’s also been lauded for his data-driven approach.

Anthony Villa and Patrick Jones are new hitting coaches in the lower levels, with more mid-level hires coming soon. Christian Frias also is joining the organization as a Rookie-level hitting coach.

Villa played in the White Sox system. Jones played at Xavier University before transitioning to a role as hitting instructor.

Frias was hitting and infield coach at Wabash Valley College in Illinois after playing in the Blue Jays system. He’s the godson of Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar.

The Orioles are waiting to confirm the exact pairings of coaches and affiliates until the rest of the hires are completed. Hence, the somewhat vague descriptions.

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2019/10/more-on-orioles-minor-league-hires.html

[atomic]

10 minutes ago, Absltgreek said:

"Each club last year had a manager, pitching coach, hitting coach and one field/development coach."

 

https://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2019/10/the-orioles-will-feature-five-coaches-at-each-affiliate-in-2020.html

Bad reading comprehension from me.  So they are adding a coach to each level. 

[MurphDogg]

The Athletic has an article out today about the Astros "toxic" culture under Crane and Luhnow.

Hopefully this isn't the culture that Elias is setting up here.

 

“Toxic. Eats you alive,” said one of more than 10 current and former Astros employees The Athletic spoke to this week about the Astros Way. “Cutthroat. Secretive. Not fun. But, winning, being first, innovative.”

One ex-Astros employee spoke of emotional devastation immediately following the trade for Osuna, both for themselves and for others inside the organization. For the message sent to the team’s own employees — and specifically women — about domestic violence.

The employee saw no significant resources allocated to dealing with internal concerns, no meaningful action addressing the impact on others inside Minute Maid Park who had to newly reckon with the core values of their workplace. All the employee saw was a come-as-it-may approach to fallout.

One ex-Astros baseball operations employee said this week that when they left for another team, they did so specifically because of the culture of the front office. They’re not alone, though an exact number is unclear. The Osuna acquisition was eye-opening for many.

[interloper]

1 hour ago, MurphDogg said:

The Athletic has an article out today about the Astros "toxic" culture under Crane and Luhnow.

Hopefully this isn't the culture that Elias is setting up here.

 

 

 

 

That would bum me out severely. Elias has praised Luhnow pretty heavily since coming over here, so that's a little worrying, but it's also possible he learned the right things from him and left the toxicity behind. 

So far Elias seems to be of good character, and Sig as well. I think Elias has too much ground to make up in this organization to even be bothered with anything other than making just making steady improvements. It's something to keep an eye on, but we should also remember that Elias is his own person. 

And for as much flak as the owners get, I think they're a strong duo to set culture parameters. 

[atomic]

2 minutes ago, TheOtherRipken said:

Im super excited for you to be banned. 

I hope we can just delete that post and not lock the thread.

[scOtt]

10 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

The Athletic has an article out today about the Astros "toxic" culture under Crane and Luhnow.

Hopefully this isn't the culture that Elias is setting up here.

 

Maybe that's why ME left to come here. To get away from it? Sig left like a year earlier.

[higgybaby]

16 hours ago, TheOtherRipken said:

Im super excited for you to be banned. 

Get rid of this guy. 

[Frobby]

8 hours ago, scOtt said:

Maybe that's why ME left to come here. To get away from it? Sig left like a year earlier.

No, they left at the same time.  I’m thinking ME left for the opportunity to run the whole show.   It’s possible Sig left for culture reasons, but he did profess that Luhnow is one of his best friends, so that doesn’t jive with him being uncomfortable with the culture.   But he did let his contract expire without having another specific opportunity already in hand, so he clearly wasn’t fully satisfied with his situation.   

[weams]

14 minutes ago, Frobby said:

 But he did let his contract expire without having another specific opportunity already in hand, so he clearly wasn’t fully satisfied with his situation.   

As did Mike Fast. 

[ThomasTomasz]

I'm going to guess that it's possible that Elias and Mejdal didn't buy into the culture entirely, or that this is entirely overblown.  They've engaged with media from the national guys all the way down to places like this forum, and have been open with what they want to do and are charting a course out without giving too much away.  Given what we've seen here from those two, I am going to guess that this is all being overblown right now.  The Astros are hardly the first team in professional sports to give a second chance to a player who has a domestic violence case against them.  

 

[Obando]

10 hours ago, ThomasTomasz said:

I'm going to guess that it's possible that Elias and Mejdal didn't buy into the culture entirely, or that this is entirely overblown.  They've engaged with media from the national guys all the way down to places like this forum, and have been open with what they want to do and are charting a course out without giving too much away.  Given what we've seen here from those two, I am going to guess that this is all being overblown right now.  The Astros are hardly the first team in professional sports to give a second chance to a player who has a domestic violence case against them.  

 

Exactly.  The Yankees traded for Aroldis Chapman as a distressed asset with the Reds, and no one seems to talk about that anymore.  However, they should be getting just as much criticism as the Astros for not just trading for him after he got suspended for domestic violence, but then signing him again after they traded him to the Cubs.  The only difference is that a member of their front office didn’t heckle a female reporter about it, which was obviously totally wrong and reprehensible.  But the Yankees are just as worthy of criticism as the Astros if we’re looking at it purely from a moral perspective.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Obando said:

Exactly.  The Yankees traded for Aroldis Chapman as a distressed asset with the Reds, and no one seems to talk about that anymore.  However, they should be getting just as much criticism as the Astros for not just trading for him after he got suspended for domestic violence, but then signing him again after they traded him to the Cubs.  The only difference is that a member of their front office didn’t heckle a female reporter about it, which was obviously totally wrong and reprehensible.  But the Yankees are just as worthy of criticism as the Astros if we’re looking at it purely from a moral perspective.

But wouldn't the Orioles be as well?

[Frobby]

Steve Melewski has an interview of Matt Blood up:  https://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2019/10/q&a-with-matt-blood-os-new-director-of-player-development.html

[sportsfan8703]

On 10/26/2019 at 8:33 AM, Frobby said:

No, they left at the same time.  I’m thinking ME left for the opportunity to run the whole show.   It’s possible Sig left for culture reasons, but he did profess that Luhnow is one of his best friends, so that doesn’t jive with him being uncomfortable with the culture.   But he did let his contract expire without having another specific opportunity already in hand, so he clearly wasn’t fully satisfied with his situation.   

More money, and career advancement. 

[Obando]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Elias is waiting for the Astros season to end before he hires another 1 or 2 of his former colleagues to front office positions with the Orioles.  I read an article on The Athletic last week regarding the Astros culture after the Taubman incident stating that it’s expected there will be more members of the front office leaving when the season ends, evidently due to their dissatisfaction with the culture and how people are treated in the organization.  If that’s the case, I would not be surprised to see someone like Oz Ocampo or Kevin Goldstein leave to join Elias & Mejdal’s with the O’s.  Both of those guys have been with the Astros for a long time and worked with Mike & Sig, so there is already an established relationship.  Just as Sig & Mike Fast allowed their contracts to expire last year so they could pursue other opportunities, I could see the same thing happening with some remaining Astros front office staff if they are truly not happy with the current culture as was intimated in the article I read.  
 

One guy who I would love to get from the Astros is Charlie Gonzalez, who is a longtime scouting advisor who worked with Mike & Sig going back to their St. Louis days.  Gonzalez is more of an old school type of scout, but he’s well versed in how they run the draft process by combining scouting with analytics, so it would be a seamless transition, and he also seems to have a knack for finding good players.  Gonzalez is considered the driving force behind the acquisition of Yordan Alvarez in a trade with the Dodgers, as Gonzalez and Ocampo scouted him as an amateur and loved him, but they lost out to the Dodgers, who offered more money.  Considering that guys like Gonzalez, Ocampo & Goldstein all worked for many years with Mike & Sig, I would not be surprised if they leave to come to Baltimore for better positions & pay as long as their contracts are expiring at the end of this month and they want out.  Just something to keep an eye on with no true scouting director position filled yet and what appears to be room for another assistant GM or two, since Sig’s assistant GM title delineates that he oversees analytics specifically.