I want to see the O’s have another waive of ‘brain power’ added to the organization this Winter.

Isn't that when you let a smart person go?

Also, the Royals should hire Billy.

Coppolella is with the Orioles now? I haven't been following closely, but I thought he was the Braves' AGM?

Among the benefits of adding Dan to the staff: Super-cool RBI Baseball mods.

If this were the old days, would Towelie have shown up by now or am I the only one who noticed the headline?

I recall Szym saying at one point that he had no interest in working for an MLB team.

Heck-I live in Bmore, they should hire me.

Strangely though, now that I'm giving it some thought I've never given before, I work in high end restaurants in Bmore. Like the best ones in town. The Ravens are in all the time, not just the team but the FO.
They have a pretty active presence in the city. The FO does big dinners, lots of meetings, some real expensive conferences.They are always out and about, from ownership to GM to team execs
But in all these years, I don't think I've ever seen the Orioles brass out once.
No parties. No wining/dining free agents. No corporate meetings. Nada.
And I've never heard of it from fellow restaurant folk (And Bmores a pretty small town, stories go through this place quick.)

Maybe the O's FO is a phantasm

Am I the only one who saw "stoner" and "high" in the headline and thought that somebody besides Boog was smokin' in Baltimore?

Am I the only one who saw "stoner" and "high" in the headline and thought that somebody besides Boog was smokin' in Baltimore?

Until I saw your post I was wondering why it hadn't been commented on.

Coppolella is with the Orioles now? I haven't been following closely, but I thought he was the Braves' AGM?

Coppolella is still in Atlanta, although not as an AGM. Stoner is suggesting that the Orioles should hire Coppolella as their AGM, if you RTFA.

-- MWE

As I said elsewhere, while I'm flattered that Stoner's putting my name out there, I'm extremely reluctant to work for a team full-time. I really like working in media.

Doesn't every team use data and have access to information about prospects and trade bait? Are there some mysterious bits of significant data that only the big name saber guys know? And yet millions have been spent for players like Carl Crawford, Carlos Lee, Cliff Lee, Barry Zito, Prince Fielder, Mark T. and Albert P. Teams with money continue to spend lots of it on long term contracts to big name athletes who have had a big year or two.

I don't really think that the players the Astros obtained during the house cleaning this season are the best young players in baseball and doubt that most will be in the majors in 3 years. Not anyone's fault but the players who were given up were flawed, had contract issues or were soon to be free agents while the players obtained were marginal types that the other teams were willing to unload.While a savvy stats guy can certainly identify quality talent, can he somehow get this type of player to play for the Astros? How do you do that and how do you get several of these guys in competition with 29 other smart front offices?

I think there's probably a lot of work to be done integrating raw stats with things like pitchFX or swing trajectory and bat speeds that top stats guys can do. Projections (public ones at least) are still very heavily based on trends and averages and there is a lot of room to individualize them more.

For minor leaguers, guys like Dan Straily still slip through the prospect lists despite all of the data and reports that are out there. There has to be room there for improvement.

If the Astros can think out of the box and hire a writer, why can't the team at ESPN do the same?

Doesn't every team use data and have access to information about prospects and trade bait? Are there some mysterious bits of significant data that only the big name saber guys know? And yet millions have been spent for players like Carl Crawford, Carlos Lee, Cliff Lee, Barry Zito, Prince Fielder, Mark T. and Albert P. Teams with money continue to spend lots of it on long term contracts to big name athletes who have had a big year or two.

It's not so much there are a whole bunch of secret stats out there, but hiring someone that has extensive experience thinking creatively and organizing information about baseball. You're not *really* hiring Kevin Goldstein because he's x% better at scouting players, but because he has extensive experience considering conflicting, irregularly collected, information about baseball players and critically evaluating that information. That's a very useful skillset and with a writer, you essentially get to evaluate them before paying them a red cent.

If the Astros can think out of the box and hire a writer, why can't the team at ESPN do the same?

<cries>