Moneyball Comes to Cleveland

[AZ_]

The only sense of optimism I get from this organization is that I know for a fact the people being hired are off-the-charts respected.

Got a pretty good sense of where the league stands with DePodesta, if for no other reasons than knowing the reasons he failed in Los Angeles as the General Manager. He was run out of town by an ownership group which was infinitely more inept than the current structure in Cleveland.

Any front office that allows columnists like TJ Simers actually have influence, where intelligence and beyond-the-box thinking were soundly mocked in favor of more traditional baseball truisms about grit and toughness.

He's gone on to do more successful things and has continued to positively affect change within each organization he's been in. The Mets were an abhorrently bad minor league system before DePodesta brought his brand of change into the system, now you're seeing countless young pitchers emerge from their system and a plethora of hitters not far behind.

I don't know if this will end up translating to the football field, but the Browns inability to DEVELOP talent has been a key factor in their demise as much as picking the wrong guys.

Something has to change the culture of losing, Pettine tried to overcome the aura of negativity and years of ineptitude and eventually was the next victim. IMO, he's the closest to actually turning it around.

I'll never fault the Browns for putting intelligent, respected people in place to change it.

 

[MoFlo]

For those worried the Browns will let the analytics replace scouting, don't be worried.

View: https://twitter.com/MikeClayNFL/status/684433728144277504

 

[The Oi]

Though he is a baseball guy, he had a brief stint in the Canadian league and american hockey.


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Rumor is, the Browns had heavy competition with the Pittsburgh Penguins who were looking at him for Box seat sales.

The "regime with the ridiculous backgrounds" isn't complete yet without the Head Coach and General Manager...

I can easily argue the opposite - there are people clinging so desperately to bash the Browns over every move they make, no matter what it is, because it's the insanely easy thing to do.

Oh, it's easy alright.

I wouldn't say we're clinging desperately to it. I certainly would prefer to watch an entertaining product on Sunday as opposed to shitting on the Browns with my sick one-liners after each regime change.

@Deezus @bushwick_bill

At least the Browns seem like they have a clear direction and are focused rather than the random "hire whoever will take the job" approach that previous searches felt like. This is something you and a lot of us have ripped them for in past coaching/front office searches.

Now, whether or not it works is a whole other question.

I think you're projecting that clear direction thing on them. Same with the "they're not hiring whomever will take the job."

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe something has changed since the hot coaching prospects turned them down before the last regime change two years ago and Sashi and Depodesta were hot commodities that everybody wanted.

But they just promoted a lawyer from within their own shitty organization and hired a baseball executive. Seems like they're taking all cummers to me...

 

[The Wizard of Moz]

If nothing else I hope this gets rid of the "Haslam only cares about his investment appreciating, the Browns market value has increased so he is happy" meme.

Haslam isn't Mike Brown. You can not like him for other reasons, but it is blatantly obvious how much he wants to win. He isn't making cheap decisions.

 

[The Oi]

If nothing else I hope this gets rid of the "Haslam only cares about his investment appreciating, the Browns market value has increased so he is happy" meme.

Haslam isn't Mike Brown. You can not like him for other reasons, but it is blatantly obvious how much he wants to win. He isn't making cheap decisions.

Why would this get rid of that though?

I assume he wants to win because he's paying three head coaches and multiple front office guys that aren't with the team anymore, but I'm not sure these hirings are what would sell me on it.

I think all owners want to win. Winning helps the product appreciate, builds good will within the community and is great advertising for the owner's other interests as well.

But these hirings don't stand out as obvious winning moves.

 

[Jack Brickman]

It's not often the Browns hire a guy and get pretty much universally praised by major media members. That seems to be what's happening with the DePodesta hiring. Basically all I'm seeing on Twitter is positive comments from the network types.

 

[The Voice]

You guys are clinging so desperately to some level of optimism for this team that you can't let yourselves see it.

You're very intelligent guys. You'll see. And you'll acknowledge what some of us are saying today once this regime with the ridiculous backgrounds fails.

Then again...if the attorney and the baseball guy are smart enough to pick the elite QB, they'll be hailed as geniuses when he wins them games.

Pray Goff is great, that they take him and then we won't have to worry about it.

Then again...don't you guys feel like the potentially great QB would be the conventional pick?

Uh oh...

I think analytics will show that a great QB is a driving force to success. I'm not too worried about that because I think there's enough empirical evidence to prove this.

I would even venture to guess empirical evidence would show its the most important position in all of football. The Ravens and Tampa bay are outliers.

I think the better question is, what qb shows up best with analytics? Lynch, Goff, Mettenberger, Cook, ect...

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[Jack Brickman]

I think analytics will show that a great QB is a driving force to success. I'm not too worried about that because I think there's enough empirical evidence to prove this.

I would even venture to guess empirical evidence would show its the most important position in all of football. The Ravens and Tampa bay are outliers.

The Ravens won Super Bowls with Flacco playing like a pretty great QB. The same goes for the Giants with Eli. The problem with both those guys is that they just can't do it consistently, but they can catch fire.

 

[The Voice]

Double post


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[The Voice]

The Ravens won Super Bowls with Flacco playing like a pretty great QB. The same goes for the Giants with Eli. The problem with both those guys is that they just can't do it consistently, but they can catch fire.

Wrong Ravens team... I was talking their first ring.


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[The Wizard of Moz]

Why would this get rid of that though?

I assume he wants to win because he's paying three head coaches and multiple front office guys that aren't with the team anymore, but I'm not sure these hirings are what would sell me on it.

I think all owners want to win. Winning helps the product appreciate, builds good will within the community and is great advertising for the owner's other interests as well.

But these hirings don't stand out as obvious winning moves.

I more meant the whole offseason to date including the bolded.

All owners would rather win than lose, but I don't think all owners put a priority on winning as opposed to their bottomline. I think Jimmy's priority is winning.

With these hirings he is taking a big 'risk' going against the grain.

He could have easily done the GM first HC next method and preached patience for years knowing fan interest is basically perpetual. He took a risk and is trying something that could blow up in his face and have to pay even more guys he no longer employs.

I guess I am an eternal optimist. But I really like what's going on and I'm more sold on Haslam than I ever have been¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Ohio]

As long as he gets us a right handed bat i'm fine with the hire...wait, who hired him?

He could do seasonal work for both teams, no?

So we have a lawyer and Jonah Hill running the show now. Lehgo?

 

[AZ_]

You can have all the analytics you want, Goff is the best QB to come out this year.

Building a team around him is as important as picking the right front office, IMO.

 

[macbdog]

Go back and rep the shit outta this

Posting a link to it so folks could find it woulda have been nice...

Edit: Herp derp, was pointed out to me that the arrow links back to the original quote. So instead ' thanks for the link back', I was going to look for it before I first entered the thread.

 

[Ohio]

Anyone have any comments from MLB types? Media, other Front Office people, etc? I'd be interested in hearing what they have to say about this.