@werthless, that’s really interesting and great perspective. Thank you for sharing that.

Stinks they didn't choose you. Too radical for them?

cost. it was either him or bryce

God, that ama is awful

jamiethekiller wrote:God, that ama is awful

A bunch of questions about cheesesteaks wtf.

deGrom scratched from his start tonight

We got deGrom? Awesome

stevelxa476 wrote:deGrom scratched from his start tonight

Unfortunately, Phillies bullpen still available.

Slowhand wrote:

stevelxa476 wrote:deGrom scratched from his start tonight

Unfortunately, Phillies bullpen still available.

But we did get rid of Austin Davis! JoJo Romero is up.

jamiethekiller wrote:Stinks they didn't choose you. Too radical for them?

Some of it was on me, yes, if that is your question. I expected a much different interview than what I received, so some of that has to be on me.

There was not a single question about mathematical techniques, and that was one of the bright spots in my background and resume. Given that I was interviewing for an R&D position in a front office, I would expect that would have been the focus. That was a strong point in my background, as I have an advanced degree in a quantitative discipline that is valued in the field of baseball. However, I suspect that may have worked against me, as the folks hiring me had less rigorous educational backgrounds (and I had already been managing an analytics team at the time), so that could have made me "not a good fit" for an individual contributor role.

I did not know the backgrounds of the folks interviewing me in advance. I was expecting discussion and questions about how to approach and solve complex problems. For example, how might I approach the problem of identifying good starting pitcher trade candidates using publicly available data? How might I approach the problem of infield positioning, and how might it incorporate the pitcher on the mound? How might you use data to support the amateur draft process? What types of problems are clustering algorithms used for? Why do ensemble methods in predictive modeling sometimes outperform? I was expecting the interview to focus on that, but I was wrong.

I don't have my notes from the conversation, but I remember thinking that I prepared for a different type of interview, and I knew I would not be selected based on my mediocre performance. I remember realizing mid-interview that they would probably hire me if I first wrote some guest posts on Fangraphs....


It has definitely changed how I view the team, and the front office. I realize that we don't have a bunch of rocket scientists building proprietary models to drive decision-making, and that's ok. We are who we are. It's very difficult to change a culture with 1 hire, and even if Klentak is the right hire, he needs to find more people who are willing to challenge the status quo.

Cool stuff. Phil's loss.

This is so great...

https://twitter.com/GiraffeNeckMarc/status/1294368072447516675

mickbayne wrote:This is so great...

https://twitter.com/GiraffeNeckMarc/status/1294368072447516675

Classic

mickbayne wrote:This is so great...

https://twitter.com/GiraffeNeckMarc/status/1294368072447516675

only thing that could possibly been better was if it was gritty with his crazy eyes

Werthless, how long ago was this interview?

EDLS and Kelley went unclaimed and will report to the alternate site

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/ ... es-bullpen

"It really is a balancing act of trying to make sure that we're running out the best arms in the best situations but also allowing the players to get comfortable.

"I'll use Tommy Hunter as an example. I don't think he'll mind me singling him out. When Tommy Hunter is throwing 91 miles an hour, he's getting hit. When Tommy's coming out and throwing 94 or 95, he's as good a setup man as there is in the game right now. And we've seen both versions of that in the last week. It's hard for him not knowing which he's going to be on a given night. It's hard for Joe (Girardi) to make decisions. But I do think, as we get deeper into the season, these guys have more reps under their belts, some of these things are going to come around. We have to play that out."

The Phillies have not gotten the version of Hunter that Klentak claims is "as good a setup man as there is in the game right now" when healthy. His last high-quality season was 2017, before he was a Phillie. He's made 75 appearances over three seasons as a Phillie and has a decent 3.79 ERA but has been oft-injured. This is not meant to pick on Hunter, who could still be a decent piece of someone's bullpen, just probably not the answer. And if Klentak truly thinks a healthy Hunter is as good as any setup man in baseball, it helps explain how this bullpen was constructed so poorly.

Lol.

swishnicholson wrote:

CFP wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:And it wasn’t just his accomplishments, it was how he did it with a beautiful combination of power, speed and gracefulness.

While dealing with a bunch of racists who didn't want to see him succeed

Yeah, TMac gave him a nice salute, which is appreciated, but also said how "everyone who watched him in the 1960's said he was their favorite player." That's quite possibly what they say now, but he actually had to deal with quantum levels of hatred when he was here (including by my Dad, who said he was a bum).

My Dad, too, could just not get past it with Allen. Somehow in this I feel some small measure of redemption for the Phillies, the city certainly, and yes, even my father.

MoBettle wrote:https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/phillies/david-robertson-ranger-suarez-matt-klentak-phillies-bullpen

"It really is a balancing act of trying to make sure that we're running out the best arms in the best situations but also allowing the players to get comfortable.

"I'll use Tommy Hunter as an example. I don't think he'll mind me singling him out. When Tommy Hunter is throwing 91 miles an hour, he's getting hit. When Tommy's coming out and throwing 94 or 95, he's as good a setup man as there is in the game right now. And we've seen both versions of that in the last week. It's hard for him not knowing which he's going to be on a given night. It's hard for Joe (Girardi) to make decisions. But I do think, as we get deeper into the season, these guys have more reps under their belts, some of these things are going to come around. We have to play that out."

The Phillies have not gotten the version of Hunter that Klentak claims is "as good a setup man as there is in the game right now" when healthy. His last high-quality season was 2017, before he was a Phillie. He's made 75 appearances over three seasons as a Phillie and has a decent 3.79 ERA but has been oft-injured. This is not meant to pick on Hunter, who could still be a decent piece of someone's bullpen, just probably not the answer. And if Klentak truly thinks a healthy Hunter is as good as any setup man in baseball, it helps explain how this bullpen was constructed so poorly.

Lol.

This was a recent quote from Klentak? Wow.

mickbayne wrote:This is so great...

https://twitter.com/GiraffeNeckMarc/status/1294368072447516675

Now in gif form with the stupid mets beat writers cropped (h/t spiffyrob):