GM Candidates For The Braves Part 1
By Fred Owens
Yesterday the Braves rid themselves of a GM who caused no small amount of turmoil within the organization and officially announced their search for a new GM had begun. Who are the candidates and why are their names on the list?
The GM Candidates
At yesterday’s news conference John Hart said that he, John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox were going to “explore the baseball universe for the next Schuerholz.” While the landscape of baseball has changed and qualifications for a GM candidate have evolved the essentials have remained the same. The GM must:
- Surround himself – or herself – with the best staff around,
- Understand the history of the franchise ( the Yankees history requires a different mindset than that of say the Cubs) and its limitations (small, medium or large market; shallow or deep pockets) and
- be able to design a plan that works within those boundaries to make the team consistently competitive.
Send your résumés to 755 Hank Aaron way.
Finding the right man at the right time is no easy task and the triumvirate conducting the search cannot afford to fail. There’s a new stadium opening in 2017 that requires a championship caliber team and another bad choice could result in a Pirate-like trudge through the sub 500 wilderness. Over the next few weeks you will hear names old and new suggested at the right choice for the next GM.
The unbiased bios in this series will provide insight into how and why these individuals are considered GM candidates. In the press you will undoubtedly hear a candidate called a baseball lifer. In reality all of the candidates are baseball lifers, the job demands an obsessive commitment to the game and the franchise that can only come from a someone fitting that description. So when you hear that term just understand it fits everyone or they wouldn’t be considered in the first place.
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Call to the Pen
The internal GM candidate – John Coppolella
If you polled beat writers in Atlanta today they would say to a man that 35 year old John Coppolella is the front runner for the job. ” Coppy” like most of the candidates did things the hard way. Not good enough to be a player he doggedly pursued internships with teams just to be part of the game. He attended Notre Dame and graduated magna cum laude in business but rather than accepting a lucrative job in the business world went to work for the Yankees at a fraction of what his credentials would have earned him elsewhere.
While with the Yankees he worked closely with one of the finest GMs in the game Brian Cashman as well as other rising stars like Kim Ng (whose name you’ll see later) and baseball traditionalists like legendary player development chief Billy Connors and alongside Mark Newman VP baseball operation for minor league development.
In 2011 he told MLBTR in a piece introducing individuals they considered future GM candidates, that he considers all as mentors and friends. At the time his job was to assist Frank Wren and and AGM Bruce Manno with evaluating prospects and depth charts. That position required him to have an in depth knowledge of the Braves minor league players and the minor league free agent market. He spent a lot of time traveling the minor league circuit as well as making trips with the big club. Quotes from MLBTR, an interview post of Fangraphs in 2010 and a live chat he held on Baseball Prospectus provide insight into philosophies and style remembering of course that he worked for Wren and Manno and would be providing a corporate strategy as well as a personal one.
On the use of advanced statistics by the Braves:
"From BP: Every decision we make involves sabermetrics to some degree. Veteran scouts. . .might not use words like WAR or wOBA when we are discussing players, but the general principles of those statistics apply in every conversation.. . . Our scouts are often in line with sabermetrics — even if it’s unintentional. Better than that, they are willing to listen to somebody like me drone on about things like BABIP or Line Drive %. We use a mix of both but we are blessed with outstanding scouts.From Fangraphs: . . . When we break down players, we will use stuff that we find on sites like FanGraphs sometimes. . . There’s probably about 10 or 15 we will take from your site, five or 10 from here, from there. We’re always trying to find new information . . . I still think the best way to evaluate defense is through the eyes of a scout. . . It’s about trying to find some kind of blend, some merge that you can feel good about. If (advanced stats) match that up with what your scouts think. . . then you’re onto something. If it’s all jumbled up, then, probably, at least for the Braves, we are going to go with our scouts. . .. . . I think that we use stats as much, if not more, than any team in baseball. We just don’t brag about it really. We’ve come up with our own stats, where we’ve ranked offense and pitching, and we’ve used those stats in conjunction with what our scouts think in order to look at big-league free agents, six-year free agents, and guys that we might be getting in trades. It’s something we don’t talk about much, but our stats are very advanced."
On drafting players:
"BP: Take the best player on the board."
This was a rapid fire one line answer period of the chat and taking the nest available player is not always what the Braves have done in recent years. I think indicates his personal position more than some of the other answers.
On the arbitration system
"MLBTR: . . . It’s a flawed system that leaves both parties unhappy. I’ve done dozens of deals and don’t feel great about any of them, but I feel even worse about the process. . . .Arbitration is a complete crapshoot. Either side – club or player – could make a compelling case and still lose based upon the whims of an arbitration panel that knows very little about baseball."
That’s A Wrap
The Braves have traditionally promoted from within and that tradition make Coppolella a the presumptive favorite GM candidate. If however the goal is to get new eyes on the system an external candidate may be a realistic option. Tomorrow I’ll look at the first of those external options Kim Ng.