Oct

Angels to name Jerry Dipoto general manager

Via MLBTR, the Angels will name Diamondbacks’ exec Jerry Dipoto their new GM. That means the Yankees are likely to retain Billy Eppler, there pro scouting director, who was a candidate for the job and even called back for a second interview. Amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer was also up for the job, but he was told he was no longer considered a candidate after his first interview. Epp and Opp will get their shots at being GMs eventually, likely within a year or two, but I’m glad both are back. They do bang-up work.

Categories : Asides, Front Office

17 Comments»

Another Bronx Dynasty says:

October 28, 2011 at 9:15 pm

I am happy Cash will get a 3 yr extention but would really prefer my GM/ VP Baseball Operations & President to be solid baseball men with excellant understanding of talent & player development. Actually like Rangers with Nolan Ryan as their president. Say what you want but the man knows how to develop pitching.

Red "The Strawman" Herring says:

October 28, 2011 at 9:30 pm

Really? Like who? Name three pitchers that Nolan Ryan developed. He’s the principal owner and Jon Daniels is the General Manager. I highly doubt Ryan has -anything- to do with player development.

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- mbonzo says:
  
  October 28, 2011 at 9:50 pm
  
  Justin Smoak…? To be fair, Ryan was the president starting in 2009.
  
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- Plank says:
  
  October 28, 2011 at 9:53 pm
  
  Ryan isn’t the principal owner. He was the celebrity figurehead of the ownership group.
  
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  - Ed says:
    
    October 29, 2011 at 1:00 am
    
    Initially after the sale Chuck Greenberg was the principal owner, but he sold his share. Now Ryan is the principal owner.
    
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    - Plank says:
      
      October 29, 2011 at 2:51 am
      
      There is no principal owner. There are like 50 owners. The two biggest owners are Bob Simpson and Ray Davis. Greenburg was always just the guy who got a bunch of people together to buy the team. Ryan was and still is the smiling (not smiling) face of the ownership team, but he doesn’t own the team, just a tiny fraction.
      
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JohnnyC says:

October 28, 2011 at 9:32 pm

That man being Jon Daniels, you mean.

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Urban says:

October 29, 2011 at 11:25 am

Nolan Ryan had very little to do with the building of the current Rangers.

I’m not saying he’s good or bad or somewhere inbetween. It’s an open question. The current team was built by many people prior, including the people responsbile for building up their farm system, which was ranked best in the game prior to the sale and prior to Ryan showing up.

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OldYanksFan says:

October 28, 2011 at 10:15 pm

Cashman is under appreciated. There are 29 guys who are GMs for baseball teams. Cashman is the GM for the Yankees of NY. It’s a whole different ballgame.

Another Bronx Dynasty says:

October 28, 2011 at 10:30 pm

My staement was about having our GM or President having an eye for talent by being an ex baseball player alla Gene “Stick” Michael. We all know Cash was an administrator & not a baseball man. He has developed into a fine GM. Levine’s job was to help get the Stadium built by the City. What value does he still have here?
If 2 teams hire Damon Opp. & Epplerthere goes our talent evaluators.

Next week starts the organizartional meetings and the only baseball man that will be present is Stick Michael.

mbonzo says:

October 28, 2011 at 11:03 pm

I’m all for more and better scouting, but the Yankees clearly have very good scouting already. Cashman and Levine’s job is to manage their scouts and deal with the money/contract side of things. The formula has worked, for Cashman, who thinks analytically rather than emotionally. For Levine, the Soriano signing was a pretty clear sign of the system failing. Ryan’s job is to represent the Rangers, Jon Daniels does a fine job of managing his scouts though.

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JohnnyC says:

October 29, 2011 at 10:49 am

No, we all know that Cashman started out as an intern in the pro scouting department for the Yankees after playing 4 years of college baseball as the 2nd baseman for Catholic University. And that he worked himself up to cross-checker and then assistant farm director under Gene Michael. He was Bob Watson’s assistant GM when he took over as GM in 1998. You may not like his “eye” for talent but he is most definitely a “baseball man.”

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Urban says:

October 29, 2011 at 12:40 pm

Most of the top GMs in the game today are not former professional baseball players or known specifically for their specific abilities as talent evalutors. F

or example, Andrew Friedman with the Rays did play baseball in college, just like Brian Cashman, but came into the game after being a Wall Street analyst and private equity investor. Jon Daniels is probably the one person most responsible for the current success of the Texas Rangers, taking over as GM in 2005. He never played baseball, not even in college. Sandy Alderson was a former Marine and Harvard Law graduate who joined the A’s as their general counsel before being named GM, and was credited with rebuilding their farm system, even though he never played baseball. Alderson in many ways is the archetype of the modern GM, known more for his skills in organization, and in identifying and hiring the right talent, while professionalizing baseball operations from the front office down through the farm system. Theo Epstein? He came from a family of screenwriters and entered baseball as a PR intern.

Brian Cashman was selected by Gene Michaels to be the Yankee GM after serving as one of Michaels’ key people building the last Yankee dynasty, and the fact that two of his talent evaluators — Damon Oppenheimer and Billy Eppler — are being considered for GM jobs says a lot about Cashman’s strength in hiring and developing talent.

You can have your Kenny Williams types. I’ll take Cashman.

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Ted Nelson says:

October 30, 2011 at 7:06 pm

Not only are you wrong that Cashman is not a baseball man (played in college and has worked in it since), but your assumption that ex-players have a better eye for talent is also extremely flawed.

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