As general manager candidates go, they were three can't-miss prospects, and Orioles owner Peter Angelos probably could have hired them all.
Randy Smith, Kevin Malone and Dan O'Dowd.
Each of them landed high-profile GM jobs, while critics wondered, "How could the Orioles let them get away?"
Each of them joined forces with new owners, who trusted them with their checkbooks, and everyone knew those three had more control than they ever would have had under Angelos.
Then the unexpected happened. Each of them stumbled.
Their spending sprees left three franchises bloated. Smith left Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch choking on his pizzas. With the Los Angeles Dodgers, Malone sent Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch running for the Hollywood Hills, and O'Dowd has Colorado Rockies owner Jerry McMorris staring at contracts that seem a mile high.
In baseball, meddling owners are lightning rods for criticism, but with Angelos about to hire his fourth general manager in less than 10 years, there is room for debate: How much control should a GM expect to have?
Angelos had no comment with regard to how other teams operate, but he addressed how he expects things to work for the Orioles. They have seven candidates to replace vice president for baseball operations Syd Thrift, and a decision is expected sometime next week.
Angelos compared a GM - or, in this case, VP of baseball operations - to an architect, who skillfully designs a blueprint for a building while sticking within a builder's budget. Inevitably, Angelos said, a builder will have some effect on the final product by controlling the budget, but the architect still controls the modifications.
"You want the GM to try to put the best team together, using his baseball knowledge and expertise," Angelos said. "Ultimately, the question arises: Can the franchise afford the cost of the players that have been identified and maintain fiscal stability? Ownership has the responsibility to preserve the franchise as an asset, for the investors and the community in which it operates."
In Mike Flanagan, the Orioles have one candidate who already has a long working relationship with Angelos. While working as a pitching coach and broadcaster over the past eight years, Flanagan has been one of the owner's key consultants.
Exploring external candidates this month, Angelos interviewed Detroit Tigers assistant GM Al Avila, former Montreal Expos GM Jim Beattie, Arizona Diamondbacks assistant Sandy Johnson, former Chicago White Sox GM Ron Schueler, Seattle Mariners VP of scouting and player development Roger Jongewaard and Milwaukee Brewers special assignment scout David Wilder.
"The people we're talking to are experienced and understand that ownership has a role to play," Angelos said. "We don't say who should play in the minor leagues, at what level. We don't get into who should be selected in the amateur draft. We don't comment on who should be in the lineup or the pitching rotation. We don't say which players we should be trading or acquiring, et cetera.
"Those matters are not within the purview of our expertise. Those decisions belong to the manager and to the general manager. But when you talk about the expenditure of $60 [million], $70 million or more in a given season, to suggest that's the unilateral decision of an individual who carries the title of general manager is absurd."
This has been a hot-button issue with the Orioles since July 1996, when Angelos overruled then-GM Pat Gillick on two potential deals. Gillick thought the team should move David Wells and Bobby Bonilla in separate deals for Chris Widger and Jeromy Burnitz, but Angelos decided he couldn't do it with the team just five games back in the wild-card chase.
The Orioles came back to win the wild card, then advance to the American League Championship Series before losing to the New York Yankees. Two years later, Gillick resigned. The Orioles had interviewed Smith before hiring Gillick. Smith had become GM of the San Diego Padres at age 29 and took over as the Tigers' GM in November 1995.
In six full seasons with Smith as the GM, the Tigers never had a winning record, and they fired him six games into this past season, along with manager Phil Garner. For the most part, Ilitch maintained a tight budget while Smith was there, but much of the Tigers' money went to waste. Jose Lima (7.77 ERA), Damion Easley (.224 batting average) and Dean Palmer (limited to 61 games in past two seasons because of injuries) combined to make $22 million this year.
Malone was the Orioles' assistant GM under Gillick and he looked like the probable successor until the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him to a four-year, $2 million deal on Sept. 11, 1998. The Sun ran a headline the next day that said, "Malone loss leaves O's bottomed out."
Within three months under Malone, the Dodgers handed former Orioles pitcher Kevin Brown a seven-year, $105 million contract, drawing fury throughout the industry. Brown, who turns 38 in March, has won just 44 games for the Dodgers. He spent most of last season on the disabled list and still has three years and $45 million remaining on his contract.
Malone, who also committed $28 million to Carlos Perez and Devon White, once talked about the Orioles' inability to "strike when the iron is hot." The Dodgers ended up getting burned, and Malone resigned under heavy pressure in 2001.
When Malone left for Los Angeles, O'Dowd became the favorite to replace Gillick. The Orioles interviewed O'Dowd twice, but the second session didn't go well with Angelos, and the club eventually hired Frank Wren.
The difficulties between Wren and Angelos are well-documented. Angelos fired him after 11 months and promoted Thrift. The Orioles have continued to struggle, suffering through five consecutive losing seasons and five consecutive fourth-place finishes in the AL East.
But things haven't exactly been rosy for O'Dowd. He received high marks his first year in Colorado for making trades that cleared Dante Bichette, Mike Lansing and Tom Goodwin from the team's payroll. But after the 2000 season, O'Dowd signed Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle to contracts totaling $172 million. Both pitchers received no-trade clauses and combined to go 38-47 over the past two years.
Desperate to clear payroll again, the Rockies recently moved Hampton to the Atlanta Braves in a three-way deal with the Florida Marlins. O'Dowd was rebuffed yesterday in attempts to trade Larry Walker to Arizona, as the latest rebuilding effort continues.
Granted, there are examples of teams giving a GM free reign and coming away winners. The Florida Marlins let Dave Dombrowski sign five free agents before the 1997 season - Moises Alou, Bonilla, Alex Fernandez, Dennis Cook and Jim Eisenreich - and that team won the World Series. There is seldom talk of meddling in Atlanta, where John Schuerholz has guided the Atlanta Braves to 11 consecutive NL East titles.
Gillick, who has been to the ALCS a combined nine times as a GM, has made it work with the Toronto Blue Jays, Orioles and now the Seattle Mariners. But the Tigers, Dodgers and Rockies' examples offer proof that the hands-off model doesn't work every time. Thrift has always supported Angelos, and the new candidates seem comfortable with the owner.
"Nowadays, with the amount of money that these [owners] have to invest in these franchises, I certainly would want to be hands-on," said Schueler, who spent 10 years as GM under White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. "The investment is so big and the stakes are so high, I'd want to know what's going on. I think the general manager has to realize he has a boss, too."
Avila has seen several sides of the spectrum, working under Dombrowski during the good times and bad times in Florida and now working under Dombrowski with the rebuilding Tigers.
"I'm going after this job because, from what I know, I feel I can work with Peter Angelos," Avila said. "He is the owner, and if you own a business, you want to be able to have control of what happens. If you're the general manager, you have to be accountable. In my opinion, that's a normal thing."