IBC

Hey guys, I know we're all very busy. Let's try to make sure we can check into ongoing ExCo discussions weekly in-season, minus vacation time etc.

I am probably going to have minimal input over the next month in terms of actual analyses since I'm swamped at work under a pretty insane CEO, but I'll do my best to make sure I'm checking in every couple of days or so. Right now, I'm guilty of reading threads, forgetting to mark them unread, and then they're totally out of my brain. I'll try to knock that out.

We have a few open item tickets here:

-- Are the new rules posted? If they are, let's make an announcement to the league.
-- We should make a decision on the Atlanta GM, as well as any sort of mentor system that would go in place there, too.

Rules are not posted, but they have been emailed to everyone, including an updated version tonight per the recent comments/suggestions about how foreign free agents are folded into the zips bidding process.

As for ATL GM, it's Jim 3 (Shawn, Aaron, JP), Judson 1 (me) right now with no response from Brett or Jim.

I'm happy to help whichever GM with a transition/mentorship. I think any new GM needs to know their trades will be scrutinized and they should be prepared for lots of offers quickly (especially w/ 2 weeks until our deadline). I would say they should make sure all moves (trades, drops, etc.) are discussed in advance w/ their mentor for some period of time and they should be in continual communication for a short period to explain nuances of the league, zips, league behaviors, etc. I don't know how long the time periods are because I think it depends on the grasp of the person, but we can discuss.

With it being this late in the year, I think we should wait until the season is over to hand over Atlanta to someone

I personally think both or either Jim or Judson would be fine. I don’t see a large difference between them and nothing either gentleman wrote disqualified them in my opinion. Similarly, nothing either one particularly distinguished one from another. I guess if you counted my vote as .5 for Jim and .5 for Judson, Jim wins or has a majority at 3.5. If we go this route, I hope we can tell Judson we appreciate his interest and ask him to be patient as he is first in line for the next vacancy.

Ok, Jim brings us to 3.5, but Aaron's apprehension is noted as well.

We have two weeks until the trade deadline. I'm OK bringing somebody in regardless so they can have a month and a half to learn how the season works.

Pirates wrote: ↑Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:30 am Ok, Jim brings us to 3.5, but Aaron's apprehension is noted as well.

We have two weeks until the trade deadline. I'm OK bringing somebody in regardless so they can have a month and a half to learn how the season works.

As for timing, do we want to expose a new person to the trade deadline or wait until 9/1? I think it would be terribly rushed to bring someone in and expect them to properly assess values enough to work out good trades. However, I also think there are some assets there that could help a rebuilding team trading with a playoff team. IF there was a strong mentorship process in place, I would be open to allowing someone to come in now. Otherwise, two months post-deadline would suffice to get a person used to the league.

A point I forgot to make: trade deadline is an arbitrary time. We'll still have trading available on 9/1, it just won't go into the database. So it's not as if a new GM wouldn't get ripped off then, either. We'd only be limiting the value of his expiring assets (if Atlanta has any - not sure if anybody is falling off a cliff this year but has a good projection on the team).

That's true, but I imagine there's a much higher level of activity pre-9/1 for the older players than post-9/1, which has no effect this year. Those trades can happen any time.

Without checking projections, guys like Didi, Jeffress, Lomo, Mauer, Tazawa(?) could be useful. But then guys like Sano, Swanson, Nimmo, Whitley, Greene, etc. will be targets as well. It sounds like Jim wants to clear out everyone but Whitley, so I could see a lot of activity there pre-9/1.

If we think a GM is that much of a danger that we need to put the baby gloves on and not bring them in until after the deadline, we shouldn't bring him in at all. That's another way we can take that post too.

We don't have to pick either of these guys if there's apprehension, which there appears to be plenty of.

Pirates wrote: ↑Tue Aug 14, 2018 5:18 pm If we think a GM is that much of a danger that we need to put the baby gloves on and not bring them in until after the deadline, we shouldn't bring him in at all. That's another way we can take that post too.

We don't have to pick either of these guys if there's apprehension, which there appears to be plenty of.

I'm probably the only one who has apprehension about Jim, but no one else seems to have that opinion. If everyone wants to hand over the keys, let's go for it, but either way, I thought we agreed to strong mentorship being in place to make sure there's some control and guidance.