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Flanagan Is Put In Charge Of Orioles
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"I think it was a frustrating year for the owner," one team official said. "Somebody had to take the brunt of it. I hate it for Jim because I thought he was capable and could have done a good job. Somebody had to take the fall."
Though the two GMs were friendly with one another, Flanagan's insistence on using psychological tests and quantitative analysis to determine player transactions was in contrast to Beattie's beliefs.
Specifically, sources said, Flanagan's close relationship with Dave Ritterpusch, the Orioles' director of baseball information who is in charge of the analytical information, proved bothersome for Beattie. Insiders say Ritterpusch's theories were pushed on Beattie.
"Dave gets in the way a lot," one team official said.
"The organization has been hampered by it," said another official. Ritterpusch "tries to get involved in everything."
Ritterpusch said he has tried only to provide helpful information.
"I'm really offended that the hard work we did, someone would try to use that as something negative," Ritterpusch said. "Everything that we put together was for the sake of the Baltimore Orioles. It's unfortunate people would use this for their own narrow-minded purpose. What Jim is able to do is between him and the owner and Jim and the other teams he negotiated with. This organization when we came in here was so weak and the farm system was so weak. It takes a lot of work to turn it around and you need all the tools available."
Ultimately, Beattie never asserted himself, according to team sources, perhaps because of Flanagan's close relationship with Angelos.
The two general managers, hired prior to the 2003 season, landed all-star shortstop Miguel Tejada, but did little to change the performance of the team. Baltimore finished this year with its eighth consecutive losing season.
Several executives around baseball said the duo often was difficult to deal with in trade negotiations and made ridiculous player demands.
"I tried to contact both for over a week this summer at the trade deadline to discuss players and did not get one call returned," one National League executive said. "The only club of the 29 that did not return a call."
Many had theorized that Beattie was hired to mentor Flanagan, who had never been in a front-office role.
