TORONTO - Alex Anthopoulos made his first moves as Toronto Blue Jays general manager Friday, reorganizing two areas he intends to make focal points of the organization -- scouting and player development.
The shuffle puts the entire player development department under the direction of assistant GM Tony LaCava, a holdover from the J.P. Ricciardi regime who becomes essentially the No. 2 man under Anthopoulos.
Running that department will be Charlie Wilson, the new director of minor-league operations, and Doug Davis, promoted to minor-league field co-ordinator. They replace former player development director Dick Scott, one of Ricciardi's first hires in late 2001 who was fired Friday.
Along with the promotions of former scouting director Jon Lalonde to pro scout, Andrew Tinnish taking to director of amateur scouting, and Perry Minasian to director of pro scouting, Anthopoulos believes he's taken the first steps towards building a player acqusition and production machine that will allow the Blue Jays to compete in the AL East.
"One of the things we need to focus on is trying to have an advantage with our employees," Anthopoulos said on a conference call from the team's spring base in Dunedin, Fla. "Instead of trying to go toe-to-toe and dollar-for-dollar in terms of player acquisition and so on -- and I think one day we may be able to do that with the fan base here and the upside of the market -- where we stand today, let's go toe-to-toe with staffing, let's go toe-to-toe in terms of employees.
"If we can get the best scouts, the best player development people that can come in here, the results from the players side that we're going to see from a development and talent aquisition standpoint, whether it's trade or drafting, should lead to great results up in Toronto."
That vision for building a competitor from the bright and energetic 32-year-old Montreal native will likely lead to further changes up-and-down the franchise, which is trying to climb out of the morass following a dismal 75-87 season.
There is still much work ahead for Anthopoulos, who wouldn't specifiy where his next area of focus will be. He did say that he has set weekly goals for now through the end of the World Series, when the free agency period begins and the off-season really takes shape, but offered little else on that front.
A long-term direction for the franchise also needs to be set, although reading into his words Friday, rebuilding seems to be his path of preference.
"Scouting and development is very important to me," he said. "It's going to be the pillar of what we do here."
Also fired were triple-A Las Vegas 51s manager Mike Basso and scout Rob Ducey of Cambridge, Ont., who headed up the team's fledgling Pacific Rim program. Anthopoulos says plans to cast a wider international net are being put on hiatus for now in favour of more established areas for player acquisition.
"Not all the the things that I'd like to implement can be done in a day, within a year and so on," Anthopoulos said. "The focus for me right now, and really the bulk of where players are coming from in the studies I've done, Latin America, very important, professional scouting, very important, amateur scouting, very important."
The splitting of Lalonde's duties allows the Blue Jays to increase their professional scouting, something Anthopoulos felt was important.
"I've been an advocate of adding more scouts," said Anthopoulos. "We all know that the success rate in getting players and evaluating players isn't high, that's just a reality of it.
"The thought process behind all this is the more looks, the more time spent, the more time getting to know these players, having more bodies, we should be able to improve the success rate."
Tinnish, 33, joined the Blue Jays in 2001 after completing his education at Brock University and pitching for the Quebec Capitales of the Northern League. The Ottawa native ran the pro scouting department this season.
Minasian, 29, came to Toronto this year as a major league scout. Prior to joining the Blue Jays, he spent seven seasons with the Texas Rangers.
Lalonde, 33, of Midland, Ont., joins the club's pro scouting staff after serving as the director of scouting since 2003.
Wilson, a 36-year-old Toronto native, has been with the Jays on a full-time basis since '97. He has been the club's manager of minor-league operations the past six seasons.
Davis, 47, joined the Jays in 2006 as the manager of the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats and worked with LaCava when both were with the Montreal Expos.
