Orioles Hire ‘Director of Strategy’ from Astros

[Sanfran327]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Never get involved in a land war in Asia.

There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese.

[Frobby]

Roch has our answer:

“Brendan Fournie has been hired as director of baseball strategy, the latest member of the Astros organization to jump to the Orioles. He’s going to oversee baseball economic research and advise on the many transactional and investment decisions that the department faces on a regular basis.”

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2021/12/taking-another-look-at-orioles-hires-and-promotions.html

[Can_of_corn]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Roch has our answer:

“Brendan Fournie has been hired as director of baseball strategy, the latest member of the Astros organization to jump to the Orioles. He’s going to oversee baseball economic research and advise on the many transactional and investment decisions that the department faces on a regular basis.”

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2021/12/taking-another-look-at-orioles-hires-and-promotions.html

[Just Regular]

ESPN's Kiley McDaniel in a Way Too Early second half of free agency preview had this grist for the mill of what Clubs could end up having to wrap their arms around in the next CBA.

Will there be anything left for the rebuilders?
The luxury tax threshold isn't the only thing that could affect the ways teams spend in the second half of the winter. It seems unlikely that we'd have a true salary cap or floor, but competitive balance, revenue sharing and the domestic/international drafts are some of the biggest topics in CBA negotiations. These could greatly affect rebuilding clubs that are maybe a year or two away from being dangerous, like the Orioles, Pirates, Colorado Rockies, Diamondbacks and Cubs.

Will there be full trading of both domestic and international draft picks? These would be the clubs most looking to take advantage. Is there any sort of spending floor, incentives to get to a certain payroll, or revenue-sharing-related-to-payroll mandate? These clubs will take contenders' bad contracts in exchange for picks to get to that payroll level. Or maybe a draft lottery of sorts comes into play and losing isn't as incentivized as it is now? 

I have buried Correa-as-Tejada hopes with this year's implosion but darned if this bit isn't trying to mess with emotions:

While most of the top players have signed, there are still two prominent players left who will get nine figures for sure: Carlos Correa and Freddie Freeman. Correa always seemed likely to get the biggest deal of the winter, by far -- until Corey Seager's deal came in almost $100 million north of many expectations (including mine). Correa is still expected to clear that $325 million hurdle, but not by a ton.

 

 

[Frobby]

From yesterday’s chat on Fangraphs:

171: Can you give us a little insight in the skill set that the O’s are getting with the Fournie hire? I saw on twitter that you were extremely happy for him, and it just made me as an O’s fan excited.

12:30

Kevin Goldstein: Understands the rules better than anyone, really excellent at incorporating economic realities in the room. Just basically, this constant really smart, really thoughtful voice of reason in the room.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/kevin-goldstein-fangraphs-chat-12-20-2021/

[Just Regular]

Pardon the 3-year bump, but Fournie and Eve Rosenbaum are doing another of those Birdland events next week before the Wednesday White Sox finale. 

Anybody else going?    I'm going to get to be able to be at this one.

A few months ago on Andy Pollin's show, "picture Jonah Hill in Moneyball" was accepted by Fournie as a general description of his job.