Baseball: Front office shakeup

The Somerset Patriots officially cut ties Tuesday afternoon with the architect behind their past two Atlantic League Championship teams.
Adam Gladstone served as the Patriots director of player procurement -- which means he was responsible for all player transactions -- from 2003-2005. He then co-founded a player procurement company (Baseball And Sports Associates) that ran all baseball operations for four Atlantic League teams -- including the Patriots -- last season.
One of those teams, the Lancaster Barnstormers, won the Atlantic League championship. The other three missed the playoffs.
Instead of retaining BASA's services, the Patriots will ask pitching coach Brett Jodie to pull double duty this season and serve as the team's chief player personnel source.
That's a lot of responsibility to place on Jodie, who is only two years removed from his playing career.
There were plenty of kinks in BASA's system last year -- the Patriots were down to eight healthy position players for two September games against Long Island -- but Gladstone proved himself a capable baseball mind when he brought in the players that led Somerset to championships in 2003 and 2005.
An inability to sign key players when needed was a major reason last season's team missed the playoffs, but it was not the only one. Still, manager Sparky Lyle and his players did not hold back in placing a majority of the blame on the player shortage.
"How are you going to be competitive when you have one company running four teams?" second baseman George Sandel said in September. "Last year (2005), when we had Adam Gladstone working just for us, when we needed something, we got it."

I'm thinking: Jodie is going to do a great job. A slow start is inevitable as he adjusts to balancing two full-time jobs, but he is not far removed from baseball circles. He knows plenty of agents and former teammates, and that's what player procurement is all about. Connections.
As for BASA, the company will survive just fine. The Bridgeport Bluefish have signed on for Gladstone's services this season. In all, I think it's a win-win for all parties involved.


Update: I wrote in Thursday's story that Adam Gladstone did not return my phone calls seeking comment for this story. While I still have not had the opportunity to speak with him, I did receive a voicemail explaining he is working in the Dominican Republic this week. I may hear from him soon. Stay tuned.