Who is New Team President Molly Jolly and How Can She Help the Angels?

Longtime team president John Carpino will step down from his role effective April 6th. Promoted to the top executive office in November of 2009, Carpino took a team fresh off three consecutive AL West titles and helped turn it into the team with the longest postseason drought in all of baseball.

Along the way, Carpino was instrumental in choosing front office executives like Billy Eppler while firing renowned scouting director Eddie Bane. He also factored into getting over $70 million in improvement to Angels Stadium and landing the 2010 All Star game.

He will now be replaced by Molly Jolly, who will be the first woman at the helm of the Angels franchise and only the third woman currently serving as president of a Major League franchise.

Jolly's expertise is in finance and administration.

Jolly holds a bachelor's degree in Economics/Accounting from Holy Cross University. She then furthered her education with a Master's degree in Business Administration from UCLA.

She went to work for ARCO once she wrapped up her Master's degree and worked her way all the way up to the title of Financial Manager. She managed the merger team for BP-Amoco and the ARCO merger team.

From there she jumped to Anaheim Sports where she was the Finance Director of the Angels and Ducks who were owned by Walt Disney Corporation at the time. She was integral in pricing tickets, generating revenue, and reviewing revenue sharing agreements from Major League baseball.

Her tenure with the Angels began before Arte's ownership.

Jolly began her three year term as Finance Director of the Angels in 2001. Arte completed the purchase of the Angels at the very end of 2002.

At that time the Angels franchise was enjoying its best run of success and Arte largely kept the front office in place. Jolly was hired as a Senior Vice President in charge of Finance and Administration. Her 26 years of experience in the franchise means she has been in the executive suite longer than any other current Angels executives.

How can she help improve the Angels?

Unlike Carpino, Jolly joined Arte's staff with previous Major League experience. She has successfully aided in major mergers in the oil industry and has experience building successful staffs in both the oil and baseball fields.

With her expertise in administration she could potentially be instrumental in hiring a better functioning, more cohesive front office that better identifies and develops talent from the front office to the field.

Her lengthy experience in the financial world will be instrumental as the Angels and baseball navigate the collapse of the regional sports network. Jolly will be instrumental in arranging deals with cable and satellite providers for the new Angels network and help the team maximize revenues.

This promotion is likely 16 years overdue.

When comparing the resumes and experiences of Carpino and Jolly, the smart move probably would have been to promote Jolly to team president in 2009 and keep Carpino in sales where he was highly successful. The results of the last 16 years at all levels speak for themselves.

Not all can be laid at the feet of Carpino, but his tenure ends with the franchise in a much worst spot than when it began. Hopefully, Angels fans won't be saying the same about Jolly. Given the fact she has previous success and was hired by a company that was far more successful in running the Angels, there is reason for Angels fans to have tempered optimisim with the promotion.