Grayson interview

[Sports Guy]

It’s only a short excerpt but lots of good stuff here.

[Sports Guy]

This is where we need to give John A some kudos. At least he is allowing all of this type of stuff to happen.

[Frobby]

Nice clip.  Man we were behind the times before Elias got here.   

[Tony-OH]

20 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

This is where we need to give John A some kudos. At least he is allowing all of this type of stuff to happen.

He only gets kudos for the hire of Elias, that's it.

We already knew this stuff, but it's interesting to hear how much different it was from a pitching prosect like Grayson. I still wonder what kind of hitters Mountcastle and Hays could have been had they come up in this development system vs the one they came up with.

I do want to say this is happening in many other teams now as this technology is being used heavily in development. 

But it's nice for once to hear of this organization being towards the front of this new technology and the ways they are used to improve players.

 

 

[interloper]

52 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

He only gets kudos for the hire of Elias, that's it.

 

Well, yes and no. I think it goes a little deeper than just the hire. He allowed budgeting for the international department, and building the academy, for example. What Elias does costs money - all the coaches, technology, new departments, new senior hires, etc. So I think John said, sure Mike, I'll approve the budget for building it the way you want, but I'm gonna take a hatchet to your actual player payroll budget for as long as I possibly can. 

After John's clownshow this offseason, I'm no longer giving him as much credit as I did, nor do I trust him for a second. BUT. He did give us Elias and, crucially, he let Elias completely restructure and improve the organization, which does cost a lot of resources. 

[Frobby]

5 minutes ago, interloper said:

Well, yes and no. I think it goes a little deeper than just the hire. He allowed budgeting for the international department, and building the academy, for example. What Elias does costs money - all the coaches, technology, new departments, new senior hires, etc. So I think John said, sure Mike, I'll approve the budget for building it the way you want, but I'm gonna take a hatchet to your actual player payroll budget for as long as I possibly can. 

After John's clownshow this offseason, I'm no longer giving him as much credit as I did, nor do I trust him for a second. BUT. He did give us Elias and, crucially, he let Elias completely restructure and improve the organization, which does cost a lot of resources. 

I’m sure when Elias pitched for the job he told JA he’d prioritize these investments over major league payroll.   As he should have.   I’d expect Elias wouldn’t have come unless he’d been given the green light on that before taking the job.  

[interloper]

34 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m sure when Elias pitched for the job he told JA he’d prioritize these investments over major league payroll.   As he should have.   I’d expect Elias wouldn’t have come unless he’d been given the green light on that before taking the job.  

I agree. I guess I was arguing semantics a little. But just saying, John would have had to agree to more than just hiring a GM. He had to also agree to tossing out Dad's anti-international-out-of-some-weird-principle thing, and a pretty wild amount of restructuring. Including bouncing Dad's guy, Brady. Unfortunately, Davis did not make it into the anti-Dad agenda. 

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, interloper said:

Well, yes and no. I think it goes a little deeper than just the hire. He allowed budgeting for the international department, and building the academy, for example. What Elias does costs money - all the coaches, technology, new departments, new senior hires, etc. So I think John said, sure Mike, I'll approve the budget for building it the way you want, but I'm gonna take a hatchet to your actual player payroll budget for as long as I possibly can. 

After John's clownshow this offseason, I'm no longer giving him as much credit as I did, nor do I trust him for a second. BUT. He did give us Elias and, crucially, he let Elias completely restructure and improve the organization, which does cost a lot of resources. 

How's that academy coming along why is not built yet? No one has the answer but potential lack of fundubg could be an issue, right? 

Actions speak louder than words in a press release!

[Frobby]

25 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

How's that academy coming along why is not built yet? No one has the answer but potential lack of fundubg could be an issue, right? 

Actions speak louder than words in a press release!

Could be a funding issue, but I doubt it.   

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Could be a funding issue, but I doubt it.   

What information do you have that makes you doubt it? I don't know the answer either because I have no information other than John Angelos is pretty cash and most likely gave Elias a smaller budget then expected.

[Frobby]

5 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

What information do you have that makes you doubt it? I don't know the answer either because I have no information other than John Angelos is pretty cash and most likely gave Elias a smaller budget then expected.

I’ve seen how construction projects go.  

[btdart20]

4 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

It’s only a short excerpt but lots of good stuff here.

Nice!  Thanks for sharing.

[wildcard]

Great interview.   Takes a little time to listen to the whole thing but its worth it.

First let's get the nickname right.   Since T-Ball he has been GRod.   No one calls him GrayRod.   And GRod is what Grayson prefers.

He says Ortiz is going to win a several Gold Gloves.

He says people don't understand that Gunnar is just a kid.   He calls him a manchild.

He says Westburg is a silence killer.  He doesn't say much be he can really hit.

He says first time he faced Vavra when he was with the Twins, Vavra got several hits off him.

Talked about duck hunting with DL Hall on the Chesapeake.   That was the first time GRod went duck hunting.  He says he is a deer hunter.

Also mentioned Adley and Stowers.  Says all these players are his guys.   He plays video games with them and then watches them on TV playing for the O's.  He talks about how cool that is.

 

 

[emmett16]

5 hours ago, Frobby said:

Nice clip.  Man we were behind the times before Elias got here.   

To be fair, not many teams were taking advantage of this type of training and quite a bit are still not using it.  Many teams were against it at first.  A friend of mine who pitched in the Rangers organization was explicitly told he was not allowed to take advantage of some of the newer tech and trainings (this was ~2010) when this stuff was first coming out.  A lot of players did these things behind their teams backs (at the risk of repercussions) until they came into vogue around 2012-2014.  

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, emmett16 said:

To be fair, not many teams were taking advantage of this type of training and quite a bit are still not using it.  Many teams were against it at first.  A friend of mine who pitched in the Rangers organization was explicitly told he was not allowed to take advantage of some of the newer tech and trainings (this was ~2010) when this stuff was first coming out.  A lot of players did these things behind their teams backs (at the risk of repercussions) until they came into vogue around 2012-2014.  

I’m sure that’s true.  But we didn’t draft Grayson until 2018.   To be fair, he was only pitching in the Gulf Coast League while the Duquette regime had him.  

Let’s just say the O’s were far from the only team that was behind the times.  I know, for example, that the Tigers were a year or two behind us in getting any of the current technology.