He used to concern himself with pulled hamstrings, wins and the team's number of runs. Now, Aaron Wells is more likely to scrutinize buns.

Wells, 34, has passed up two more traditional career paths to lead the Orem Owlz as their general manager.

Owner Jeff Katofsky bought the rookie-league team before the 2005 season and is on his second GM. Both choices by the successful Los Angeles businessman went way outside the box.

Wells could be the team's trainer, which he had done in the past. Or he could finish his Ph.D a little faster at BYU and likely become a professor of exercise science -- he's taught classes in the past.

"I think Jeff is creative enough that he's not looking for the right resume, he's looking for the right person," Wells said. "Hopefully, I'm the right person. I think I am."

Wells was hired last November. It wasn't long before that he decided that his current job wasn't cutting it.

Married with three children, the Pleasant Grove resident was on the infamous Owlz bus swing through Pioneer League towns Helena and Missoula of Montana. Trying to get some rest, sprawled out on the vehicle's floor, missing his family, Wells decided he'd had enough.

He was promoted in 2006 to work in Arkansas with parent club Anaheim's Double A team. But climbing the Angels' professional baseball ladder didn't outweigh the guilt he felt seeing his family every six weeks.

"Let's move on," Wells thought.

He did that by returning to Utah County, but the summertime duties were still taxing last season -- all of the long travel to places like Montana, northeastern Wyoming and Idaho. None of the summertime with family.

Which is how he wound up in the home-team dugout during a Sunday home game, borrowing a pen and compiling a list of what he felt was good and bad with the way the Owlz were run.

Zachary Fraser was the first Orem GM, a public relations major at Utah Valley University who was with the organization for four years (the final three as GM). Believed to be the youngest in his position at the minor-league level upon his hiring, Fraser opted to leave in the middle of the 2007 season, citing family reasons, and eventually moving back to his native New York.

That leaves Wells, with a revamped staff, trying to create a success similar to what friend and manager Tom Kotchman has produced on the field.

"We're having a tremendous year," Katofsky said. "Everything that we weren't doing right has been fixed. Everything we were doing right is a little better. Everything has been positive."

Minor league baseball isn't quite like the major leagues. At that level, wins and losses can drastically alter ticket sales.

The Owlz, however, must rely on providing an experience that gets Boy Scouts, high school and college daters and other groups that may not be necessarily root, root, rooting for the game's outcome.

Wells guesses that if the Owlz draw a crowd of about 3,000 for one of the 38 home games, maybe 10 percent will pay notice to the particulars of the game itself.

Though one of his goals is to try. The Owlz have a standings board to alert fans to the goings-on of the 76-game Pioneer League race.

He's also having employees pass out information at the ticket gates about the team, "so they can feel that connection to the team," Wells said.

That's left Wells a lot less time to finish his Ph.D dissertation: "Low frequency Ultrasound for Transdermal Drug Delivery." It addresses the use of low-frequency ultrasound to drive medicine through the skin in order to increase drug delivery while avoiding organ damage, discomfort and infection. ("It sounds fancier than it really is," Wells says.)

More importantly to Katofsky and even Wells right now, perhaps, is that the team appears to be on better terms with landlord Utah Valley University. There have been rocky moments at Brent Brown Ballpark in the past

"Everybody likes Aaron," the owner says.

Wells deflects the praise to the entire staff, but says: "We're trying to say 'Welcome to the ballpark' when they come in, and 'Thank you' when they leave. We want to have a positive presence in the community."

During a four-hour job interview, then dinner, Wells said he thinks he said one think that stuck with Katofsky.

"I said my goal was to drop off my kids at school and see other kids wearing Owlz gear," Wells said.

Wells lacks a business background, but he understands the impact baseball can have on a community. He was a trainer for the team at the University of Nebraska in 2001 when the team went to its first College World Series. He spent the past seven years in the minor leagues.

Katofsky calls him a "sponge ... a really smart man," while also noting that he talked with Kotchman and Angels general manager Tony Reagins, who each gave glowing reviews of Wells' work.

Wells has long days when the Owlz are in town, and his life is a 9-to-5 when they're on the road. His family loves going to the ballpark.

The on-field folks appreciate that Wells understands their lives.

"He understands what it's like on the other side of the door," said Brett Crane, who returned from Triple-A Salt Lake to rejoin his close friend this season as director of baseball operations.

What's Crane mean by that? Wells is savvy enough to alert the dugout when he knows a between-innings promotion is running long. That helps the pitcher to time his warm-up tosses.

He's also understood how to use his new authority to make better travel plans for the team.

So he's not icing and wrapping and massaging (worst part of the job). But he is helping.

"The relationship I have with the players now is definitely different," Wells said. "But I think I can still help them in this role. But I have to admit, at the end of the night I pay every bit as much attention to our attendance as I do to whether we've won or lost. Both are important to me now. They have to be."

• Jason Franchuk can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it