The Phillies were long criticized for failing to enter the 21st century and use analytics to construct their baseball team. The departed general manager begs to differ. Ruben Amaro, Jr., now the first base coach for the Boston Red Sox, openly said that his Phillies teams did indeed use analytics all along.
In a David Laurilla Fangraphs piece earlier on Wednesday, Amaro said that the team used them…but kept it quiet:
“I’ve always believed in analytics. I just didn’t make it all public (in Philadelphia). I thought it was more of a competitive advantage for me to keep our thought-process about analytics closer to the vest. We didn’t boast about what we were doing — we didn’t discuss it openly — because I didn’t think it was anybody’s business but our own as to how we evaluated."
Former Phillies president and now chairman David Montgomery was often accused of being behind certain deals over the head of the general manager. Amaro declined to say that he was a puppet, but said that the team had a great collaborative effort in the front office:
“I had a great working working relationship with David Montgomery. I felt I had great autonomy. The same with Pat Gillick. We made decisions… I was one of those guys whose concentric circle was fairly large. I enjoyed getting opinions and thoughts from everyone. That’s how I like to operate. During the course of winter meetings, and the trade deadline, that’s when you get to involve everyone — international scouting, amateur scouting, professional scouting, the whole nine yards. For me, it’s always been a group effort.”
Much of that administrative structure besides Montgomery and Amaro remains in place.
Read Laurilla's full Fangraphs piece here.
