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![]() He asks ‘ What’s his personality like? What’s it like when things are going good? What’s it like when things are going bad?’”Įpstein also wanted medical information. “With Theo you always feels like he knows he has people working for him who can be a resource, who know people, like if you want a background check on somebody. Cubs catcher coach Mike Borzello told Verducci: Fans and media alike would take aim at the team with the first sign of trouble each season and Epstein wanted to build a team capable of sticking together and responding positively to that inevitable adversity.Īnd scouts weren’t the only source of information. The Cubs were also facing a century-long history of disappointment and failure. #NHL 2004 REBUILT 2016 WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY 2016 PRO#The exercise forced scouts to do their homework and dig deeper than surface level descriptors, but it also helped to screen for “how he’s going to respond in pro ball.” And you have to dig and figure out what makes this person tick and how he’s going to respond in pro ball.”Įpstein got his scouts to adapt by asking them to find three examples of how a player responded to adversity on the field and three examples from off the field. Everyone’s life is really complicated and involved and there are myriad influences and background factors and transformative experiences and challenges and times when they responded the right way to adversity and times they responded the wrong way. “I saw it a hundred times”, Epstein told Verducci. When it comes to makeup of players, he wants his scouts to go beyond a check-the-box exercise. Those are all elements you can optimize over time with investment and appropriate feedback loops in place. He wants them seeing the right players and he wants his scouts seeing them more often. He wants the Cubs to have more scouts than the competition. The Cubs look at scouting information, makeup information, and medical information.Įpstein sees scouting as a numbers game. ![]() For example, Chayka said that during interviews with prospects at the Draft Combine he’s “looking at how they say things as much as what they say.” The Coyotes posted a behind-the-scenes video of Chayka leading up to the 2018 NHL draft and he also said “we view the draft as an information game.” Chayka is big on understanding a player’s mindset. ![]() But the currency of the draft is information.” We’re probably going to have some that are not so great mixed in. The currency in the draft is not, I’m a little bit better of a scout than you. “We built our scouting department around the idea that the currency in the draft is information. It’s not about focusing on any one area, because if you do that you may miss the biggest piece of information.”įor the Cubs - and almost all sports franchises - it starts with the draft. Jed Hoyer, GM of the Cubs, said Epstein “believes in never having enough information and asking for more. Cubs President Theo Epstein feels more information is better. We like to keep our front office footprint small and focus on the key pieces of information that really matter.”īaseball executives differ as well. More info sounds great until you get paralyzed by having too much of it. Stats, numbers, anything you can think of. Years ago, one NHL GM pointed to a competitor and told me, “they collect mountains of information. While many General Managers believe that more information is better, some feel it’s more important to identify the right information. One of the ways NHL front offices differ from each other is in how they collect, process, and use information. Here are my five key takeaways and a few notes on how they relate to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Arizona Coyotes: (1) Epstein Believes More Information is Better The Cubs Way described how Cubs President Theo Epstein rebuilt the franchise through data and analytics as well as a focus on finding quality people. #NHL 2004 REBUILT 2016 WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY 2016 SERIES#This book is on the Kyle Dubas (Toronto Maple Leafs GM) and John Chayka (Arizona Coyotes GM) lists and tells the story of the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs. The first book reviewed from the NHL Executive Reading List (click here to read about the list) is The Cubs Way by Tom Verducci ( Amazon). ![]()
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