I was recently at a party with a guy who has worked in a couple of front offices and now works for MLB. While I had heard his name before I didn't recognize him by sight, and we randomly started talking about baseball when his previous and current jobs came up. He told me some pretty interesting stories and thoughts about players, teams and MLB. I wouldn't consider anything he talked about confidential (and if it was why would he tell me?), and he didn't ask me to not repeat any of it, but after consultation with a highly respected mod I decided to not mention his name. Some people may be able to figure out who he is anyway.
Some of this stuff may be common knowledge to some people, or at least rumored. Some may be obvious. Some you may not give a shit about. Everything is paraphrased to the best of my memory's ability. He was a really nice guy and he was happy to talk about pretty much anything and answer any questions. For some reason another guy at the party only wanted to talk to him about Sterling and the Clippers, so the baseball talk was somewhat limited.
Anyway I just figured I'd post some of it for anyone who might be interested.
On current and former Sox players:
-When Papelbon was signed he was a very humble and polite kid. Everything was yes sir, no sir. He's a totally different person now.
-When Ellsbury was signed he was very nervous and unsure of himself. He questioned whether he'd make it as a major leaguer. Now he usually won't even stop to talk to a fan or sign an autograph.
-Lester is a really smart guy, and we talked about whether he'll end up staying in Boston. He agreed that it would be nuts for him to turn down a reasonable extension right now (I had mentioned 100m-120m but he didn't opine on what he thinks a fair number would be) but that most fans don't realize how much pressure the agents and PA put on players to take the highest offer.
-Ortiz is very into how much respect he gets. It's more important than money.
-Pedroia doesn't give a shit about money.
-When AJP got thrown out of a game by the home plate ump a few weeks ago, despite the fact that he acted as if he didn't saying anything, what he actually said was, give me a new ball and try to make it one you can actually see this time. It made me dislike AJP even more.
On Yankee players:
-When ARod was traded to NY, and he spoke to Jeter, Jeter was basically welcoming him to the team. ARod responded, yeah too bad you'll have to move to 3B now. I assumed ARod was joking around, but according to this guy ARod wasn't kidding at all and he assumed that Jeter would move. Since then Jeter hasn't dealt with him.
-You can sit in a room all day with ARod and he'll never go off script.
-Jeter would've retired last year if he was able to come back from the injury.
-This year Jeter is wearing down. He may not be injured but he's hurting.
-Sabathia is a great guy who's always willing to give his time to people. When he was drafted he had never seen or heard of a credit card.
-Of all of the players for them to draw a line in the sand and not resign, Cano was a very odd choice, especially considering who they did sign this year.
-Cano is very talented, and basically does what he needs to but doesn't put in extra time or effort. He relies on his natural ability, which still makes him a great player. But he never watches video, takes extra BP, etc., which is too bad.
On the Workman/Price/Ortiz/Carp incident:
-You have to suspend Workman. He threw at his head.
-Price didn't throw at Carp intentionally and the Sox know this.
-HItting a batter after a warning is given only results in ejection about 30% of the time so this incident wasn't unique at all.
-MLB was amused that the Sox players were screaming for Price to be suspended, since they defended similar shit pulled by Pedro for 10 years.
-In the end, he sort of agreed that giving Price maybe 5 games wouldn't have been a horrible idea, given the incident and the history, plus his comments after the game.
On instant replay:
-There are basically two reasons they do it at MLB headquarters instead of having a guy in the booth. First, they'd need 18 more very qualified umps and they don't have enough. Second, asking umps to overturn their buddy's call doesn't work too well so they wanted non-umps doing the reviews.
-The reason for the challenge system is to limit the number of reviews. There are so many close calls in baseball and you can't review all of them. So letting the managers be part of it and making them really think about using the challenge helps minimize the reviews.
-MLB did a study where they showed the same close play to a group of umps, a group of baseball fans, and a group of non-fans. One group said definitely out, one group said definitely safe, and one group was mixed. He didn't really expand on how this helped MLB design the system.
That's all I can remember for now. If I think of any other comments I'll add them.
Some of this stuff may be common knowledge to some people, or at least rumored. Some may be obvious. Some you may not give a shit about. Everything is paraphrased to the best of my memory's ability. He was a really nice guy and he was happy to talk about pretty much anything and answer any questions. For some reason another guy at the party only wanted to talk to him about Sterling and the Clippers, so the baseball talk was somewhat limited.
Anyway I just figured I'd post some of it for anyone who might be interested.
On current and former Sox players:
-When Papelbon was signed he was a very humble and polite kid. Everything was yes sir, no sir. He's a totally different person now.
-When Ellsbury was signed he was very nervous and unsure of himself. He questioned whether he'd make it as a major leaguer. Now he usually won't even stop to talk to a fan or sign an autograph.
-Lester is a really smart guy, and we talked about whether he'll end up staying in Boston. He agreed that it would be nuts for him to turn down a reasonable extension right now (I had mentioned 100m-120m but he didn't opine on what he thinks a fair number would be) but that most fans don't realize how much pressure the agents and PA put on players to take the highest offer.
-Ortiz is very into how much respect he gets. It's more important than money.
-Pedroia doesn't give a shit about money.
-When AJP got thrown out of a game by the home plate ump a few weeks ago, despite the fact that he acted as if he didn't saying anything, what he actually said was, give me a new ball and try to make it one you can actually see this time. It made me dislike AJP even more.
On Yankee players:
-When ARod was traded to NY, and he spoke to Jeter, Jeter was basically welcoming him to the team. ARod responded, yeah too bad you'll have to move to 3B now. I assumed ARod was joking around, but according to this guy ARod wasn't kidding at all and he assumed that Jeter would move. Since then Jeter hasn't dealt with him.
-You can sit in a room all day with ARod and he'll never go off script.
-Jeter would've retired last year if he was able to come back from the injury.
-This year Jeter is wearing down. He may not be injured but he's hurting.
-Sabathia is a great guy who's always willing to give his time to people. When he was drafted he had never seen or heard of a credit card.
-Of all of the players for them to draw a line in the sand and not resign, Cano was a very odd choice, especially considering who they did sign this year.
-Cano is very talented, and basically does what he needs to but doesn't put in extra time or effort. He relies on his natural ability, which still makes him a great player. But he never watches video, takes extra BP, etc., which is too bad.
On the Workman/Price/Ortiz/Carp incident:
-You have to suspend Workman. He threw at his head.
-Price didn't throw at Carp intentionally and the Sox know this.
-HItting a batter after a warning is given only results in ejection about 30% of the time so this incident wasn't unique at all.
-MLB was amused that the Sox players were screaming for Price to be suspended, since they defended similar shit pulled by Pedro for 10 years.
-In the end, he sort of agreed that giving Price maybe 5 games wouldn't have been a horrible idea, given the incident and the history, plus his comments after the game.
On instant replay:
-There are basically two reasons they do it at MLB headquarters instead of having a guy in the booth. First, they'd need 18 more very qualified umps and they don't have enough. Second, asking umps to overturn their buddy's call doesn't work too well so they wanted non-umps doing the reviews.
-The reason for the challenge system is to limit the number of reviews. There are so many close calls in baseball and you can't review all of them. So letting the managers be part of it and making them really think about using the challenge helps minimize the reviews.
-MLB did a study where they showed the same close play to a group of umps, a group of baseball fans, and a group of non-fans. One group said definitely out, one group said definitely safe, and one group was mixed. He didn't really expand on how this helped MLB design the system.
That's all I can remember for now. If I think of any other comments I'll add them.
