An article by David Murphy in today's Philadelphia Daily News about the Phillies GM Reuben Amaro considers a range of errors in decision making related to the $16M 2-yr contract to 37 year old Marlon Byrd.
He observes that the signing reflects a misuse of data by the GM for taking opinions from his scouts and acting on them without weighing, considering, waiting, questioning, analyzing or assessing. An error that pertains to investors and other in the world of information analysis.
Taking input without assessing it is ideal in the fast food world (do you want fries with that?), but in a decision making industry its a recipe for another losing season.
The writer says context and opportunity cost analysis are lacking in the decision making process. "[The GM is] responsible for placing that evidence [from the scouts] into the context of all of the other evidence available to a major league front office in the year 2013".
Regarding the Byrd signing he says, the problem "lies not in the justifiability of the signing, but in the method of justification that Amaro says he employed.
Quoting Amaro: "We talked to our scouts about how his swing path and approach changed. He's worked on it. I have to trust my scouts on it."
The writer's point is that in today's world, managers take in information and then weigh, assess and decide, not simply do what the scouts recommend. It's like a portfolio manager's actual job.
The writer says context and opportunity cost analysis are lacking in the decision making process. "[The GM is] responsible for placing that evidence [from the scouts] into the context of all of the other evidence available to a major league front office in the year 2013".
Regarding the Byrd signing he says, the problem "lies not in the justifiability of the signing, but in the method of justification that Amaro says he employed.
Quoting Amaro: "We talked to our scouts about how his swing path and approach changed. He's worked on it. I have to trust my scouts on it."
The writer's point is that in today's world, managers take in information and then weigh, assess and decide, not simply do what the scouts recommend. It's like a portfolio manager's actual job.
Most everyone agrees $16M seems like a lot of money for an aging and deteriorating ball player, that the Phillies recent history is rife with examples of large contracts to old free agents and they are not sufficiently developing their farm system. In short, that their leadership is making lousy choices.
Why - and how it's become this way - reflects a Phillies management team in disarray since Pat Gillick left, but who himself inherited the legacy of Ed Wade, in whose tenure from '98-'05 Pat Burrell (1998), Chase Utley (2000) and Ryan Howard (2001) were drafted and a new stadium built. The World Series was won around that core. Under Amaro, a loyal serf to the multi-partnered ownership family, the choices have been abysmal.
This will continue, the writer says - and I paraphrase here - until the GM makes better decisions, interprets and utilizes probabilities at least as much as he interprets a player's ability.
"Everyone sees the same numbers, the same games, the same video," the author writes.
In that regard, Amaro is a lot like every other investor. He just happens to be a really bad one.
Full article here: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20131115_Phillies_following_wrong_swing_path.html
This will continue, the writer says - and I paraphrase here - until the GM makes better decisions, interprets and utilizes probabilities at least as much as he interprets a player's ability.
"Everyone sees the same numbers, the same games, the same video," the author writes.
In that regard, Amaro is a lot like every other investor. He just happens to be a really bad one.
Full article here: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20131115_Phillies_following_wrong_swing_path.html
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