TORONTO - Dana Brown remembers well the first time he met Alex Anthopoulos with the Montreal Expos in 2002, and the impression the young man 10 years his junior left on him.

"Contagious energy," Brown said on a conference call. "When Alex came on, he was so energetic and passionate that he was putting us to shame, the guys that had been in the game a little while."

That's one of many reasons why Brown -- who promoted Anthopoulos to co-ordinator, scouting operations with the Expos and mentored him -- was so eager to join the Toronto Blue Jays as a special assistant to the new general manager.

Brown, 42, is excited about moving into an expanded role after spending the past eight seasons as scouting director for the Expos and Washington Nationals once the team moved from Montreal, and doesn't find it strange to now be working under his former star pupil.

"Not at all," said Brown. "I truly believe there's power in humility and if you're humble, you get all the answers right. When you're proud, there's nothing good that's going to come out of it.

"I highly respect Alex, I like his passion, I think he brings a lot to the table. I know that my background is baseball and I'm going to lean on Alex and learn a lot of stuff about what goes on in the front office and things like that, so I can improve myself maybe with aspirations of becoming a GM one day."

That hunger to get better is something that Anthopoulos wants across the organization as he seeks to reshape the front office after eight years under former GM J.P. Ricciardi.

Anthopoulos believes that while the Blue Jays may not be able to spend as much on players as the Yankees and Boston, there is no reason why they can't compete with the AL East titans in management, scouting and player development talent.

Brown is part of that plan.

"Dana's going to be used in a lot of ways," said Anthopoulos. "He's going to be a very valuable part of the team because he can do so much, he's got experience in development, he's got experience in scouting and experience as a player, too, so the perspective he brings is going to be invaluable to me because those are certainly some areas that are not my strengths."

Also Tuesday, Ryan Mittleman was promoted to co-ordinator, amateur scouting while Harry Einbinder was appointed co-ordinator, professional scouting, and more changes are coming.

Anthopoulos said Sal Butera, a special assistant to Ricciardi, will be reassigned to a yet-to-be determined role, likely in scouting. He's also looking to fill a director of baseball operations post and is scouring the majors for potential candidates.

One thing that sticks out for Brown about his new boss is the leadup to the draft in 2002, when Anthopoulos over and over pushed for the Expos to choose Prince Fielder with the fifth overall pick.

He lost that argument, and the Expos instead drafted right-hander Clint Everts, who got hurt and hasn't thrown a pitch higher than triple-A yet. Fielder went seventh to the Brewers, after the Royals picked ace righty Zack Greinke.

"That's one of the lessons you learn as a scouting director," said Brown. "Sometimes you never know where the truth is coming from."

That mindset is something the Blue Jays intend to put into action.