First Take on Phillies GM Matt Klentak

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The Phillies introduced Matt Klentak this morning as their new General Manager. Right off the bat, I like the Phillies lapel pin on his sports coat. I liked MacPhail rocking the old-school maroon in his tie. You gotta love your billionaire owner, John Middleton, wearing a Phillies tie to the presser. Middleton’s hair is always kick ass. I’m envious of that thick head of hair at his age! Kyle over at Crossing Broad beat me to the hair reference on twitter and I couldn’t say it better:

Klentak said all the right things after an exhaustive list of thanks to those people in his life that have supported him. That laundry list felt like it covered everyone from his “rock star” wife to the doctor who delivered him.

He intends to be methodical and calculated in his strategy. That strategy will follow a roadmap based on three things. 1. Who the Phillies are. 2. Who the Phillies want to be. 3. How are the Phillies going go get there. Klentak intends to be disciplined in following that roadmap. He ensured that the Phillies will collect and utilize all possible technology and information available from analytics to scouting and everything in between. Klentak also discussed his desire to bring energy, effort, and enthusiasm to the Phillies.

You gotta love his passion, energy and youth. He’s the polar opposite of Ruben. I didn’t hear many questions about his years as Assistant GM of the Angels, which is of concern.

Klentak joined the Angels after the 2011 season. He was in the front office when the team signed Albert Pujols to a 10 year/$240M contract and Josh Hamilton to a 5 year/$125M contract. Those types of contracts are what helped to lead the Phillies demise. They also signed 30-year-old Jered Weaver to a 5 year/$85M contract. As could be predicted Weaver isn’t living up to that contract in the later years. Those are Ruben-like contracts.

The Angels also finished 27th in team batting average and 26th in OBP. They had a flawed lineup outside of Mike Trout. Hopefully, all of these concerns were the result of the Angels’ GM’s and not decisions that Klentak helped to make. The Angels did finish 1 game out of the Wildcard, probably because of decent pitching and power numbers.

I’m cautiously optimistic that MacPhail and Klentak being reunited will provide results similiar to the Orioles, where they last worked together. The Orioles are a fun team to watch.

And hey, He’s not Ruben Amaro, Jr.