Front Office Chat: 8/14/26
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Anthony Franco
3:42
We debated whether he should be on there but he's so young and while he's been very good in Double-A (especially relative to age), he's not steamrolling it the way Konnor Griffin did
3:44
If Pratt has a setback and doesn't come back this year, maybe that changes things, but I couldn't quite talk myself into it this soon
Old School Stirrups
3:44
How far do the Braves get in the playoffs?
Anthony Franco
3:46
Still think they're the clear 3rd best team in the NL so Division Series for me. Have to be slight underdogs against MIL/LAD when they're running Mahle and Elder against Harrison/Henderson or Skubal/Snell
3:47
Obviously Sale can match up with anyone Game 1 but it's pretty close to a coin flip against Yamamoto or Miz and Atlanta needs that one more than those other teams would
Ao
3:47
If a manager had a perfect 162-0 and swept the playoffs/WS,would that alone get him into the hof?
Anthony Franco
3:50
If he's a league average manager the rest of his career, yes. If he's actively terrible in every other season or just retires after one year, I feel like they'd give the credit to the GM and the eight or nine players on this team who finished top 10 in MVP balloting
Omar
3:50
Any upcoming GM conversations? As an Angels fan, I'd like to hear more from Mozeliak from your guys' POV.
Anthony Franco
3:51
Did a great job for the majority of his time in St. Louis, fell behind the curve last few years in pivoting away from their traditional reliance on ground-ball pitchers to bigger swing-and-miss stuff (which Mo has acknowledged publicly)
3:53
Having Yadier Molina can paper over a lot of flaws for a long time, but the Cards' bread and butter in the 2010s was getting production out of mid-round college draftees who weren't huge prospects (e.g. Allen Craig, Brendan Donovan, Tommy Edman)
3:55
The Angels have lagged in player development for years, and while a lot of that falls on ownership (who unfortunately backed away from the plan to fire himself), I expect Mozeliak's group to be a marked upgrade over the previous front office if he keeps that job
Gavin
3:56
How dangerous are the Padres in the playoffs?
Anthony Franco
3:58
Still think they're a clear step down from the division leaders but they're probably on par with the Cubs in October. CHC better overall team but shorter series and more off days play to SD's strengths in allowing them to bullpen every game
Chris
3:58
You think the AL is going to have a team make the playoffs while not having a winning season?
Josh
3:58
handicap the wild card races. AL central really sending to two teams to October or will they beat each other up
Anthony Franco
4:00
One of those teams will get to 82 or 83 wins. Tigers certainly feel like the best of this group (excluding the inexplicably terrible Mariners)
Little Texas
4:01
What’s going on with the Texas Rangers and the rest of the western division, nobody wants it.
Anthony Franco
4:02
Just don't think this Rangers team is particularly good but the division being so wide open made it disappointing that they didn't choose either direction this summer
4:03
Steve and I were debating this earlier today but if they miss the playoffs again, there's no justification for me in not trading Gore and trying to move whichever of the vets will waive the NTC to start over around Langford
M
4:04
Do you think we come out of this off season (post lockout) with news about expansion?
Anthony Franco
4:05
I feel like it's more of a 2027-28 offseason topic. Vegas ballpark will be opening, Rays will need to have decided something by then with the Trop lease up after '28
4:06
Have the core economics battle this offseason, hopefully without losing games so you've got some positive feelings in Year 1 of the new CBA and then figure out expansion
matt arnold
4:06
What qualifications are necessary for a MLBTR job? I've seen you post before but is it just knowledge of programs like R or does a prospective hire need a baseball/writing background or something similar?
Anthony Franco
4:08
I don't have any coding background. Had a little bit of baseball writing experience but not much, just applied to one of the hiring posts and Tim, Steve, Jeff Todd, etc. liked my work on the sample prompts enough to give me a shot
4:11
We're not hiring right now but it'll be the same process whenever we need someone. High school degree is required but we really don't place a whole lot of emphasis on the résumé. It's far more about breaking down all the sample prompts, so the best tip I can give you is to read our stuff and familiarize yourself with rule minutia (options vs. outrights, the DFA process, things like that) and how teams value players on the trade and FA markets
4:13
And then availability's a big differentiator. The hiring calls are for part-time employees (I started part time and then got promoted up) where we're often going to need someone who's available for either a regular weekend shift or odd hours to help cover on the weekdays
Rico
4:14
Sonny Gray’s been great for the Sox this year.  Any chance they bring him back?
Anthony Franco
4:16
Yeah I don't see why not. There's always talk about the geographical preferences with Gray but he waived the NTC to go there and seems pretty happy. They were willing to pay a big AAV for this year and he's probably looking at two years
4:17
Alright, I have to wrap this one up. Thanks as always for all the questions and for continuing to support the site! We all truly appreciate it
Happy to take anything else on X @affranco10 if I didn't get to yours here
4:18
Will do this again next week. Steve might take Monday off so possible we'll flip the chat days and I'll grab Monday, but it'll be two between us as usual
4:19
Hope you all have a great weekend! We'll do this again soon
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