By Scott Plack
 
4/30/2017 New Orleans, LA-

I sat down with New Orleans general manager Paul Tanner to discuss the first month of PEBA action and get his take on the near future.

SP: The 2017 Trendsetters, how much better than the 2016 squad?

PT: Wow, it’s a little early to make a huge judgment, but I am definitely feeling better about the team now that we have about a month under the belt. But last time I checked it’s a long season, and the heat of the summer is still around the corner. I mean we have either stayed the same at each position, or gotten an upgrade so on paper we are better, in my honest opinion. But injuries and other random factors could send it all crashing down, as well. 

SP: Surprised at how tight the Dixie has been so far this year?

PT: Not at all. Just taking a cursory look at each roster will allow you to see that every team has the ability to score runs. The scarcity in the PEBA is dominant pitchers. Florida seems to have the advantage there, but Mosley is looking like 2015 as opposed to last year’s performance. Is he a chink in the armor? Who knows? And their offense has been slow starting, but again the heat of the summer will reveal the pretenders and the contenders. I agree with the assumption that Florida is the team to beat until proven otherwise.  

SP: San Antonio…pretender?

PT: Wow Scott, don’t pull any punches do you? Well, for my part, I hope they are contenders, excepting when they play us of course. The offense has certainly gotten off to a hot start and carried their pitching staff. What happens when a player or two hits a slump? That will be the true test of the young team. And their pitching looks rough, so if the offense falters, they could be in trouble.

SP: Did you just wish your rival well?

PT: Well, I don’t really know that New Orleans has a rival team. Ask Jack Cobb and you will probably get a different answer. Truth is we have been battling San Antonio for who gets better draft picks, but when you lose as many games as we have over the past couple of seasons, rivalries become a bit laughable. I think doormat would be a better label. Don’t get me wrong, I love competing against the general managers in the Dixie, some of the best in all of the PEBA, but I don’t sit up late at night hoping to see futility out on the field. Competiveness is good for the sport of baseball in general. The fact that the closest teams we have to dynasties have yet to win more than one Rodriguez cup let’s the fan know that any year, any team can rise up and win it all. 

SP: So Charleston not a dynasty?

PT: Ok, well maybe Charleston, but let’s face it, they struggled last year, and are off to a slow start this year. And they always have seemed to float under the radar which doesn’t exactly make them feel like a dynasty.

SP: New Orleans seems to be transitioning back to a more tradition model of baseball versus one based on saber metrics?

PT: Yes and no. I mean there was stretch when Cooper Scott was managing that not striking out and walking became a major emphasis for the team. Unfortunately, it translated into some of the worst offensive production the team has ever known. In 2015 the team managed just 107 home runs, and so I definitely wanted us to produce some better power numbers. But if you don’t have players on base often enough, then all you get are solo shots and harmless doubles. 

SP: Is Morimoto a home run hitting robot?

PT: Ha, well he certainly has been a prolific home run hitter throughout his career. He has really settled well into the New Orleans locker room after the abrupt trade to Manchester and then us all in the same year. Most of last season he was quiet and rarely smiled, never showed much emotion throughout the record breaking season, this year he has turned a one eighty. 

SP: How so?

PT: Well apparently T-moto decided that during spring he would try to convince Parks (New Orleans manager) that he couldn’t speak English. While Shimizu was still on our roster, he acted as a translator between the two. They had Parks going so bad that when we traded Shimizu towards the end of spring training, he came to me to talk about getting a team translator for T-moto. I let him down as gently as I could and Morimoto gave him a samurai sword to hang on his wall as a peace offering. Parks, who has a reputation for being rough on his players, had a good laugh about it, and he hung the sword on the wall behind his desk. 

SP: I also heard Parks had a bit of a run in with Richardson.

PT: Hmmm..not exactly. Parks is a bit of a…what you might call…a little old school maybe. So when we signed Mark to a contract and he arrived in the locker room, Parks wanted to be sure to let him know where he stood. I believe the words “prima donna” and “not giving a care about who you are” were heard quite often as Mark looked around for help from any teammate. I am told Morimoto was laughing so hard he had to pretend to be coughing into his glove. Mark said a lot of yes sir and head nodding. Rumor is it that Morimoto even bought Mark a pink tutu after the incident. 

SP: You do realize that you are fielding a baseball team and not putting together a card collection, right? Richardson and Arnold both fit into the used to be category more than superstar.

PT: I believe in putting the best team on the field that we can, and Richardson and Arnold will be a big part of that process. I won’t lie and say that it also has nothing to do with marketing and being able to push player value with sales of jerseys and what not. However, if fans don’t watch the games and come to the stadium even that has limited value. To me they are both on low risk – high reward type contracts. Ten million is about the max I want to go on an older, declining player, and both those guys signed for less than that. Veteran players have not always worked out in New Orleans, for example Ollie Morris and John Gustafson, but the truth is they were on bigger contracts and we expected bigger things than they provided. Arnold is 34 and Mark is 33, which means that they certainly could have a lot of production left in their bats. But their production will not be worth premium prices they were asking for previously, and we certainly didn’t pay premium for either one. 

SP: Bargain shopping in baseball?

PT: Yeah, I mean there is definitely a breaking point, at least in my eyes, for what is viable to pay out versus what you get in performance. There are definitely some stars that are going to get their pay day, but we are pretty conservative as a team when handing out long term big paying contracts. For instance, Richardson never lived up to his potential at the end of his contract, and thus was derided for being so expensive. Look at what is happening in Charleston with Conan or what happened in Connecticut with Pedro. Yuma has certainly proved you can lose and still make money, but it is even more difficult to win and maintain the profit margin. But that’s the goal for teams…win and turn a huge profit.

SP: Doesn’t winning fill the seats though, so in theory, shouldn’t it be easier?

PT: Yeah, in one sense if you win you get more people to your games. However, good established players demand higher salaries, and older declining players do to. Winning often handicaps you, or handcuffs you and you tend to get locked into one direction. Losing gives you the freedom to take some risk because if you fail, you probably aren’t that much worse off than where you were. The best teams know how to walk the fine line between risk and reward, and even those who are really great at it miss the mark every now and then. And rebuilding teams have to know when to stop taking risks and stay the course. Every situation has its challenges!

SP: Last question. Strangest thing about working with Jack Cobb?

PT: hmmm….well lately, he has started wearing a Cooper Scott Trendsetter jersey at all times. If he has to wear a suit it is underneath his button up shirt. Guilt and regret does strange things to all of us.