Alex Anthopoulos Departing

[TheHurl]

How many people go this many steps down the totem pole then recover back to their former position? Regardless of the organization, this steep demotion just looks bad. He'd have been better off taking the year off if he has aspirations of being a GM.

 

If this was a desperation move to score an income, then his offseason behaviour was a huge lapse in judgement. If this was an intentional move to follow his passion or for more work-life balance, then more power to him.

 

The only people who can judge if this was a stupid/desperate decision or not is himself and his family. I guess we might have a hint in hindsight if he returns to looking like the man from 2010, or if he still resembles a Goodyear blimp this time next year.

 

I think in baseball they know that staying GM in Toronto with Shapiro coming in, staying would have been viewed as a demotion. So this becomes a transition thing. I'm sure I could come up with some names if I thought about it. But Doug Melvin comes to mind. He was GM of Texas, spent a year in Boston doing scouting and then got the GM job in Milwaukee.

 

I think AA got out before being exposed as a fraud...but I'm not the best judge of him. Having former Jays employees in Tampa, I'm sure Friedman was given fair warning that AA is not the guy he's portrayed in the media to be, but Friedman refused to believe that then, lets see what happens once he has to work directly with him. As for his pay, I'm guessing it was pretty good. I read somewhere that an $11 an hour intern with the Jays was offered $110K to work for the Dodgers so they might throw money around the front office pretty well.

[Dr. Dinger]

Exactly it's hilarious how people are saying he's stupid and made a poor career decision after all of the Friedman love.

 

Look at Farhan Zaidi. He obviously had the credentials beforehand, but don't you think working under Billy Beane increased his value as a General Manager? Anthopoulos will probably be the same, he's investing in his own capital by working under Friedman/Zaidi and in a few years will probably be very highly coveted.

 

Except he's already a highly coveted, respected (outside this board) GM who just won The Sporting News Executive of the Year honours this very season. How the f*** is working in a lesser role for a couple years possibly going to raise his stock?

[reedjohnsonfan]

Except he's already a highly coveted, respected (outside this board) GM who just won The Sporting News Executive of the Year honours this very season. How the f*** is working in a lesser role for a couple years possibly going to raise his stock?

 

He's going to learn quite a bit working in the Dodgers organization, I'd argue quite a bit more than working here. He's still young and spending time in that organization could help his career long term...

 

Do you understand what investing in your own human capital means? That's exactly what he's doing, "how the f*** don't you understand this"?

[Boxcar]

I can't believe AA will have to work for a Fangraphs.com Guy at the end of the day. Life is a bitch.

[Boxcar]

I think in baseball they know that staying GM in Toronto with Shapiro coming in, staying would have been viewed as a demotion. So this becomes a transition thing. I'm sure I could come up with some names if I thought about it. But Doug Melvin comes to mind. He was GM of Texas, spent a year in Boston doing scouting and then got the GM job in Milwaukee.

 

I think AA got out before being exposed as a fraud...but I'm not the best judge of him. Having former Jays employees in Tampa, I'm sure Friedman was given fair warning that AA is not the guy he's portrayed in the media to be, but Friedman refused to believe that then, lets see what happens once he has to work directly with him. As for his pay, I'm guessing it was pretty good. I read somewhere that an $11 an hour intern with the Jays was offered $110K to work for the Dodgers so they might throw money around the front office pretty well.

 

Oh yeah? Didn't know they went public with that kinda stuff.

[Boxcar]

Not sure what that means.

 

It means that some people here know some other people.

 

Basically, take anything Hurl says about the FO at face value.

[GD]

I can't believe AA will have to work for a Fangraphs.com Guy at the end of the day. Life is a bitch.

 

The Revenge of the Fangraphs.com Guys

 

Straight outta the filing cabinet

[Spanky99]

The Revenge of the Fangraphs.com Guys

 

Straight outta the filing cabinet

 

lol

[Stangstag]

I can't believe AA will have to work for a Fangraphs.com Guy at the end of the day. Life is a bitch.

 

It was his choice

[ElNik2013]

How many people go this many steps down the totem pole then recover back to their former position? Regardless of the organization, this steep demotion just looks bad. He'd have been better off taking the year off if he has aspirations of being a GM.

 

If this was a desperation move to score an income, then his offseason behaviour was a huge lapse in judgement. If this was an intentional move to follow his passion or for more work-life balance, then more power to him.

 

The only people who can judge if this was a stupid/desperate decision or not is himself and his family. I guess we might have a hint in hindsight if he returns to looking like the man from 2010, or if he still resembles a Goodyear blimp this time next year.

 

 

I think people forget he also left his family business to pursue his dream of a career in baseball. I think I read he started opening/reading fan mail with the Expos.

 

I say good luck to him. There are several on this board who clearly dislike the guy, but hey, it's their right.

[Boxcar]

I want to know too!

 

If there's one thing you should definitely know, it is that AA does not like stats more advanced than OPS. It actually explains a lot tbh, he did some really dumb s*** while he was here. The Donaldson deal really saved his ass.

[Gorlak]

If there's one thing you should definitely know, it is that AA does not like stats more advanced than OPS. It actually explains a lot tbh, he did some really dumb s*** while he was here. The Donaldson deal really saved his ass.

 

He said if he had one stat to use for pitchers or hitters it would be K% or BB%, Also what players did he trade for that the saber community did not like?

[Boxcar]

He said if he had one stat to use for pitchers or hitters it would be K% or BB%, Also what players did he trade for that the saber community did not like?

 

Miami trade, Dickey trade, Napoli trade. Cordero signing, Navarro signing, not blasting JPA into space immediately...

 

I'm sure I'm missing a few. You can believe it or not, it doesn't really matter to me. It's the truth, though.

[Gorlak]

Miami trade, Dickey trade, Napoli trade. Cordero signing, Navarro signing, not blasting JPA into space immediately...

 

I'm sure I'm missing a few. You can believe it or not, it doesn't really matter to me. It's the truth, though.

 

The only one you list that is correct is JPA, the rest were not seen that way at the time or not significant. Napoli was actually considered garbage by analysts, which is probably why he was shipped out so quickly. You could say he took too many risks and went too big, or that he didn't really appreciate injury risk or depth, but the idea that he didn't use advance stats is just made up. Why would he have brought in Estrada if he didn't use peripherals and expect positive regression?

[KingKat]

The only one you list that is correct is JPA, the rest were not seen that way at the time or not significant.

 

This is patently false.

[BTS]

Miami trade, Dickey trade, Napoli trade. Cordero signing, Navarro signing, not blasting JPA into space immediately...

 

I'm sure I'm missing a few. You can believe it or not, it doesn't really matter to me. It's the truth, though.

 

Eric Thames

[GD]

This is patently false.

 

Can't thank on phone so rt

[BTS]

And yeah, the Napoli trade was criticized by anyone smart the moment it was made.

[Gorlak]

This is patently false.

 

Johnson, Reyes, and Bonifcio were seen to be good players, Reyes was aging and Johnson had injury risks, but were still considered good. Alvarez wasn't liked because off his low K rates, Escobar was liked, but he was told to move him. Dickey was liked and so were the prospects that got sent over, but that's what it costs to get a cy young winner on a 5 mil contract. Napoli was never really liked similar to Cruz.

[RealAccountant]

And yeah, the Napoli trade was criticized by anyone smart the moment it was made.

 

Really cause I remmember you applauding it under the auspices of the draft pick we would get when Francisco would become FA

[Gorlak]

And yeah, the Napoli trade was criticized by anyone smart the moment it was made.

 

Agreed, Not because he got rid of Napoli, but because he got a mediocre reliever and didn't really try to shop him around. I think it was his worst trade, It never made sense. At the same time he did dump Wells so I wasn't too bummed at the time.

[glory]

Wow never thought I'd see anyone defend AA as making saber type moves prior to 2015. That guy was the dictionary definition of a "looks at the back of a baseball card" GM prior to 2015 when he seemed to have found a clue.

[BTS]

Really cause I remmember you applauding it under the auspices of the draft pick we would get when Francisco would become FA

 

No. You probably remember me saying that this was the motivation behind the deal.

[Boxcar]

Johnson, Reyes, and Bonifcio were seen to be good players, Reyes was aging and Johnson had injury risks, but were still considered good. Alvarez wasn't liked because off his low K rates, Escobar was liked, but he was told to move him. Dickey was liked and so were the prospects that got sent over, but that's what it costs to get a cy young winner on a 5 mil contract. Napoli was never really liked similar to Cruz.

 

Seems like you're making far more assumptions than you think I am.

[Gorlak]

Wow never thought I'd see anyone defend AA as making saber type moves prior to 2015. That guy was the dictionary definition of a "looks at the back of a baseball card" GM prior to 2015 when he seemed to have found a clue.

 

AA's style never really changed, nothing saber about acquiring some of the best players in baseball. AA has always been a high ceiling guy, If anything the lesson he learned was about how risky injured pitchers can be and he likely values defense more. For the record I'm not saying AA is a hardcore saber guy, I'm just saying he used advanced stats to effect his decision making process. He didn't have them build the Beest to get OPS.

[Gorlak]

Seems like you're making far more assumptions than you think I am.

 

That's possible, But people here are painting him as Dave Stewart. It's not like he signed Nick Swisher or Nelson Cruz.

[Captain Adama]

The only one you list that is correct is JPA, the rest were not seen that way at the time or not significant. Napoli was actually considered garbage by analysts, which is probably why he was shipped out so quickly. You could say he took too many risks and went too big, or that he didn't really appreciate injury risk or depth, but the idea that he didn't use advance stats is just made up. Why would he have brought in Estrada if he didn't use peripherals and expect positive regression?

 

Are you kidding me? The Cordero signing was widely panned, the guy's peripherals were regressing for years. The Miami trade was one that displayed horrible value management, don't even get me started on the Dickey trade, it looked terrible then and it only looks worse now, and it gave the reigns to JPA who had dismal K/BB ratios. And Napoli was a 120 wRC power bat at the time that was an effective lefty killer and they traded him for a relief pitcher and Napoli goes on to have a 179 wRC year.

[z3r0s]

Are you kidding me? The Cordero signing was widely panned, the guy's peripherals were regressing for years. The Miami trade was one that displayed horrible value management, don't even get me started on the Dickey trade, it looked terrible then and it only looks worse now, and it gave the reigns to JPA who had dismal K/BB ratios. And Napoli was a 120 wRC power bat at the time that was an effective lefty killer and they traded him for a relief pitcher and Napoli goes on to have a 179 wRC year.

 

The Dickey trade seems to often be characterized as celebrated on here. Most people hated the deal from a value perspective. But given the deal was already done, chose to focus on the excitement of getting a Cy Young pitcher. As I recall it, people were pretty bummed that we gave up d'Arnaud, then straight up furious we then second piece was Synder

[Gorlak]

Are you kidding me? The Cordero signing was widely panned, the guy's peripherals were regressing for years. The Miami trade was one that displayed horrible value management, don't even get me started on the Dickey trade, it looked terrible then and it only looks worse now, and it gave the reigns to JPA who had dismal K/BB ratios. And Napoli was a 120 wRC power bat at the time that was an effective lefty killer and they traded him for a relief pitcher and Napoli goes on to have a 179 wRC year.

 

I don't even remember the Cordero signing so I won't comment, but the rest is more about value than player evaluation. JPA was brutal, But Napoli was only great in hindsight. At the time he was a power hitter with bad defense that struggled against righties.

[KingKat]

But Napoli was only great in hindsight.

 

People weren't arguing he was great. The argument was that he was potentially useful and that two years of Napoli was worth more than one year of Francisco + cash + draft pick. A lot of people were making that argument. That being said, much like the Gomes swap and the Marlins deal, it's one of those trades whose negative impact was underestimated by all but the harshest critics.