For the third-time, Mr. Joe Jordan – the Director of Amateur Scouting for The Baltimore Orioles – has made himself available to answer a few questions from Baltimore Sports and Life.
Links to the two previous interviews can be found here:
http://baltimoresportsandlife.blogspot.com/2010/01/few-more-questions-with-mr-joe-jordan.html
http://baltimoresportsandlife.blogspot.com/2009/01/few-questions-with-mr-joe-jordan.html
This is a two-part interview, with the second part available after the signing deadline.
Baltimore Sports and Life: “Tony Pente of Orioles Hangout wrote an article recently (link below), which stated multiple sources had told him that you were not on speaking terms with former Player Development Director Dave Stockstill. Is this an accurate representation of the relationship? Has there been a change in the communication this year between the Scouting and Player Development Departments with John Stockstill now in-charge of Player Development?”
http://www.orioleshangout.com/ttakeArticle.asp?ID=2696&page=ttake
Joe Jordan: “The job of PD Director is a very challenging position and I believe John has done a super job this year. A former scouting director, John has done my job and understands the interest I have with our players in the minor leagues. My opinion on player moves and transactions has been solicited more this year than in the past. I will not always agree with John on certain things but I totally support how he is approaching the job.”
Baltimore Sports and Life: “In that same OH article, as well as in a recent Steve Meleweski piece with MASN, O’s President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail has been asked about the O’s employing less-full time scouts than their American League East peers.
MacPhail made the points about diminishing returns, and noting the difference between ceremonial and full-time Scouts. If you had the opportunity to hire 15 Scouts would you decline to do so?”
Joe Jordan: “I do understand Andy’s point and I agree with him for the most part. Hiring 15 guys would be overkill in my opinion and would in fact confuse the process more than anything. That being said, I believe we should be investing in our baseball operations now more than ever. The number of scouts you have is important as you try to get the most complete coverage possible. You can only be competitive and also prepared by getting your looks at players.”
Baltimore Sports and Life: “Should an organization get credit for identifying and drafting talent that they are unable to sign? Question is not asked with Machado in-mind, but the general idea of drafting later round High-school talents that have firm College commitments.The example that I always come back to is Teixeira out of HS. He was known as 1st round talent, that had expressed to everyone he was going to go Georgia Tech. The Red Sox drafted him in the 9th round of the ’98 Draft hoping to change his mind. I’ve always credited Boston with that selection, with the idea that the chance of obtaining Teixeira outweighed the risk of potentially not-signing him. Do you agree, or do you think it was a mistake to spend a pick on player you were not likely to sign?”
Joe Jordan: “There is no credit for players you do not sign. I do believe however it is most certainly worth the risk at some point. We have taken our shots down in the draft and sometimes it works and sometimes we do not close the deal.”
Baltimore Sports and Life: “The Orioles obviously liked the ceiling of Manny Machado better than the ceiling of Christian Colon. The O’s were certainly not alone in this estimation, as many (nearly all) independent 3rd-party talent evaluators had Machado ranked higher in a comparison between the two. Still Colon appeared on many boards as a Top 10 talent in his own right, and was drafted 4th overall by the Kansas City Royals, signing for $2.75M. If it takes $6M to sign Machado, do you estimate the talent difference between the two to be worth that $3.25M difference? Would the difference in the signing prices of Machado vs. Colon have allowed for further ‘over-slot’ picks? If Machado is not signed, and the O’s gain two Top 5 picks in the 2011 draft – do you value that higher than any over-slot you may have obtained in-conjunction with drafting Colon?”
Joe Jordan: “First, we had Machado evaluated over Colon on our board. We chose to be true to our work and took the player we believed to be the “right” option. I do not know just where the $$ will be on Machado but we believe our investment will be sufficient to add him to the organization. We have a budget and will sign as many players as we can between now and the 16th. I believe the best way for me to answer your later questions is to ask you to wait and see who we indeed sign between now and then.”
Baltimore Sports and Life: “During 2005-10 the O’s have had 17 picks during the first 3 rounds of the Draft. In that same period the Yankees have had 18, Tampa 21, Toronto 27, and Boston has had 30. Is it fair to ask you to hit on an even amount of targets, when you start shooting with fewer bullets? Does this minimize the benefit of obtaining ‘over-slot’ players later in the draft? Will the O’s consciously be operating in a manner to protect their picks going forward?”
Joe Jordan: “All we can do is try to get as many good players as we can with the picks we have. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure your rate of success should be higher with more picks. I will continue to concentrate on what I can control – we just need to make good decisions and get as many quality prospects as we can.”
Baltimore Sports and Life: “When we last-spoke in January, you confirmed you had spent $8.8M on the 2009 draft picks. You also stated you had always been given the financial resources you needed to sign the players you liked, and this year would be no different. In a July 23rd interview with MASN’s Meleweski you noted the draft spending will be in the same ballpark as last-year. If your budget for the ’11 draft was raised to $15M, would there be a corresponding change in your existing draft strategy?”
Joe Jordan: “Now that would be fun! Overall philosophy wouldn’t change but I could definitely entertain a lot of scenarios.”
Baltimore Sports and Life: “If your budget for the ’11 draft was raised to $15M, do you believe this would lead other teams following suit in the near future, and resulting in a draft spending war?”
Joe Jordan: “Quite possibly could happen – I believe there has been an uptick industry wide over the last few years as far as investing in the Rule 4 Draft.”
Baltimore Sports and Life: “In the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, what changes would you like to see made to the Draft?” Would you like to see the Draft adopt a slotting system? Would like you to have the ability to trade draft-picks?”
Joe Jordan: “First and foremost I would like to see a new signing deadline ( July 15, for example). The players who intend to sign would be out a month earlier – this would allow clubs more time to evaluate what they have. I’m not a big fan of true “slotting”, but I do see it coming our way. I’m not really on either side of the trading draft picks notion – it would be intriguing but I haven’t probably researched it enough to go one way or the other.”
Owner
Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.