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Young Fronkynsteen at last got two seconds to step away from the Double Slit Mag-No-Matic jumbotron. He dropped a few '27 baseballs into the giant hopper on the Mainframe XD and downloaded the intel on Jerry DiPoto. No, not the facts, obviously. We learned what people think, which as any closer can tell you, is far more important than the reality.
Maybe we even looked up which moves were his and which were Scioscia's / Arte's. More than that, we surfed the chat boards and DiPoto interviews. So, let us leave the realm of curved space, quark poltergeists and Hillary. We enter the realm of Billy Beane's GQ cousin.
Just something to start SSI off on this territory. The Mainframe groks at least 7 points of difference between DiPoto and Jack Zduriencik.
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HE LIKES TRADES. FINISHING THEM, AS IN
DiPoto has a rep. Namely, that he is able to deal gracefully with other General Managers. He's got the rep for ID'ing the Angels' strengths and weaknesses ... the Diamondbacks' strengths and weaknesses ... figuring out a WIN-WIN ... and then NOT hanging up on the Yankees to make a final check whether the Rangers want to cave in on Justin Smoak.
He's got the guts to pull the trigger on anything, sez they. Mark Trumbo was a big local fave, but DiPoto felt they needed a couple of 8-strikeout pitchers (Hector Santiago and Tyler Skaggs) more than they needed Zduriencik's Ideal Bat. DiPoto finessed this three-way, leaving all teams happy:
So we can end the article right here and now. Deal Mark Trumbo for two good pitchers one more time and call it a winter. BOOOOMstick
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Nah, one more example: ... he built a farm system in LA, but didn't hoard it. For example, he gave up three Pretty. Shiny. Pieces. to rent Zack Greinke in 2012 (Hellweg, Pena, Segura). Dr. D would not miss the deafening silences that we get on August 1st every blinkin' year.
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NATURAL GRACE Dept.
James' quote "most GM's have a natural grace about them" ... maybe at the moment he said that, Bill was seeing a giant imaginary Jack Zduriencik face in his mind and maybe he wasn't. But Jerry DiPoto for sure, that dude is definitely more like Pete Carroll than he is like ... um, a guy who inspires "Disgruntled Ex-Employee" national expose's in all 50 states.
The Mainframe received no data on whether playing for DiPoto would be like playing for Willy Wonka. Lloyd McClendon's chances would take a nice uptick, though.
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HIS *INSTINCTS* ARE SABER
DiPoto would daily prepare math reports, with Cliffs notes, to 25 players before the game. The word is that Mike Scioscia would deliver his GM's leaflets to the players with a sneering chuckle, like "Here's some more of this baloney. And we're out of TP in the stalls, just so you know."
Zduriencik of course listened to the numbers, but of course his instinct was his scout's eye. Scioscia and DiPoto got along on a personal level, sez they, but Scioscia never respected DiPoto's cutting-edge views on baseball, not from Day One. DiPoto put up with a year-and-a-half of blatant insubordination, and when Arte Moreno smilingly backed Scioscia ... well, what would you have done?
DiPoto is a 1990's major-leaguer who is (reportedly) as modern as Hardball Times in his outlook and priorities. Obviously that means the blog-o-sphere will love him to death, whatever his other attributes. At SSI, it means he's got one really cool thing starting off here.
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HE'S STARS & SCRUBS
Well, so is Jack. We're kidding around. But as you know, we're talking Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson in one swat, Josh Hamilton, ten other guys like them, and for all we know Jarryd Haynes. Just saying. Dr. D is married to Stars & Scrubs. So.
... they may very well be kidding themselves, but Angels fans assign DiPoto the intelligent or subtle moves, and then they see other things as "classic Arte / Sosh" meddling, such as giving Albert Pujols eight years rather than 10. Something to ponder. They're in touch with which camp said the gushy things after this or that move, so it's a camera angle worth taking.
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HE LIKES MEDIA and FANS
DiPoto oozes a friendly attitude, gets asked one question and answers two. Likes dinners with season ticket holders. Dr. D would definitely not miss that looking-for-the-cure-to-brain-cancer grimness from Jack, and would not miss the Area-51 class secrecy. At the least, Jerry DiPoto would not get a question about Craig Kimbrel, scream "STAT!" and plunge a tranquilizer into his own jugular.
Juan Tamariz, world's greatest magician, says that --- > you gotta love your audience and you gotta love magic. That makes the rest of it happen.
At a bare minimum, DiPoto's attitude would result in your fave baseball blog having much extra ability to deliver Tomorrow's News Today. B'lee DAT.
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HE WAS A PITCHER
DiPoto was asked his view of baseball. He said, pithily, "the team that controls counts, controls the game." If you just joined us, DiPoto was a major league pitcher in the 90's. You know that Pat Gillick was a pitcher, right? Not so many GM's were. As James says, baseball is about the strike zone. Okay, acceleration is the first derivation of velocity? Learning to "control" the count is the first derivation of wanting a nice K/BB ratio.
DiPoto on record that he likes Billy Beane style pitchers, though he didn't put it that way. College guy with demonstrated control over high school kid with a rocket arm. This to me is perhaps more important than the fact that he's super-sabr-centric. If you're watching for it, perhaps you can start to predict who can control a count.
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HE LIKES "MAKEUP"
Jack Z believed, "When all is said and done, talent wins." There are theories going around that Paul Ryan was whacked by the Illuminati, that Peter Parker is going back to high school, and that Jack has a Marine drill sergeant's view of personality's importance. There's a reason he expects his recruits to accept being chewed.
Gillick was the other way: you've got to shake a man's hand and look him in the eye before you sign him. DiPoto thinks character is way, WAY up the charts ... he used Raaauuuuul as a case in point. LOL.
I dunno where I go here. But an extra emphasis on personality can, in theory, feed intuition. :: shrug ::
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THE ANGELS WON A FEW GAMES HERE AND THERE
Zduriencik averaged, what was it, 71-91 over a thousand-plus games? Dr. D has a real enthusiasm for proven winners who have been kicked to the curb 'cause they were too newfangled. Hey, the back-channel vibe is that the M's are stacked, that the right GM could make a few moves and walk right into sunshine and rainbows. Get DiPoto in here, and we might not have to be doing our post-game 5K runs beginning in July.
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It's a start,
Dr D
