Author Topic: Next GM for the Cubs  (Read 28408 times)

Reb

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #15 on: August 24, 2011, 02:03:12 pm »
Buster Olney speculates about Theo Epstein and others and, more generally, about Cubs GM search:

it's fairly apparent that the Cubs will have an opportunity to hire a big name for their next general manager, if they so choose. Executives say privately that they view the Cubs' job as an opportunity with enormous potential, under Tom Ricketts, because it's evident he is devoted to the idea of turning the team -- the ballpark and the baseball operations -- into something great, as John Henry's group did when it took over the Boston Red Sox. The Cubs have the potential to be to the NL Central what the New York Yankees and the Red Sox have been to the AL East, one rival executive explained this week.......Whoever gets the Cubs' job, though, is almost certainly going to be a heavyweight. "It seems like it's more a matter of who they want, as opposed to who would agree to go there," one high-ranked executive said.

























JeffH

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JR

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #17 on: August 24, 2011, 09:46:23 pm »
One thought if we do hire away someone like Friedman, Beane, Epstein, or Cashman, there's probably a good chance we'd have to give up compensation to their current employers. 

Anybody like the idea of giving up say Brett Jackson for Andrew Friedman?  Or Andrew Cashner?

Deeg

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #18 on: August 24, 2011, 09:50:37 pm »
I might give up Jackson for Kinky Friedman, but not Andrew.

Jes Beard

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #19 on: August 24, 2011, 10:39:58 pm »
One thought if we do hire away someone like Friedman, Beane, Epstein, or Cashman, there's probably a good chance we'd have to give up compensation to their current employers.

I say we offer to let them talk to Hendry.....

shasson

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #20 on: August 24, 2011, 10:48:48 pm »
Not sure if this has been discussed here, but Ricketts and Friedman share a background in finance. Per wikipedia on Friedman, "Friedman was then an analyst with Bear Stearns from 1999–2002, and then was an associate at MidMark Capital, a private equity firm, from 2002-04." And Ricketts, of course, "Thomas S. "Tom" Ricketts  is chairman of the Chicago Cubs, and the chief executive officer of Incapital LLC, a Chicago investment bank that packages corporate bonds for retail investors. "

Not sure if that matters, but it does mean they probably value some similar evaluative tools, but in terms if finance & investment, and baseball.


StrikeZone

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #21 on: August 25, 2011, 12:53:12 am »
Brian Cashman and Andrew Friedman are both in the last year of their contracts.

BullingersEars

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« Last Edit: August 25, 2011, 07:42:57 am by BullingersEars »

BullingersEars

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #23 on: August 25, 2011, 07:47:01 am »
Just adding the New York perspective, I feel like Cashman would be more than willing to leave the Yankees for the right position.  His relationship with the Steinbrenner kids has been very tenuous.  Things seemed to peak when the Steinbrenner's forced the huge $$$ signing of setup man Rafael Soriano.   In one of the more bizarre things I've seen, Cashman came out and said it wasn't his idea, and he thought it was a bad move.

Cashman is used to the big budget, but has shown the propensity to hold onto young talent over the last few years, even to the owner's dismay. 

brjones

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #24 on: August 25, 2011, 08:27:46 am »
Colletti would be a disaster.  A less personable version of Jim Hendry is the last thing the Cubs need.

That article also talks about Ryne Sandberg being willing to come back to the organization now that Hendry is gone.  I find it interesting that Sandberg seems to be the only guy in baseball who can't get along with Jim Hendry.  I don't know if that's a personality trait I'd want in a manager...if his ego/sense of entitlement about the manager's job is so big that he can't get along with one of the most popular guys (personality wise) in professional baseball, that doesn't give me much hope that he'd be successful at managing the people side of a major league team.

Ron

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #25 on: August 25, 2011, 09:56:51 am »
"While Colletti is viewed by many as cut from similar old-school-GM cloth as Jim Hendry, one attraction to him, a source said, is the likelihood he would try to bring Ryne Sandberg back to the organization as the Cubs’ manager. Sandberg has told those close to him that with Hendry out, he wouldn’t hesitate to return to the Cubs." (from the Sun Times article)

That strikes me as rather bizarre reasoning.  I can't imagine that Ricketts has a major consideration in hiring his GM whether or not he's likely to bring Sandberg back.  In any event, it wouldn't take Colletti to do that.

"Another long-odds scenario Ricketts has talked about this week, according to sources, is trying to woo New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman and getting a package deal for Cashman and managerJoe Girardi." (also from that article)

Girardi has two years left on his contract after this season.  Why on earth would the Steinbrenners want to release him from that, particularly at the same time as they are having to replace their GM? 

craig

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #26 on: August 25, 2011, 10:31:03 am »
I don't know any of these guys, of course.  I think Bullinger's idea is interesting, that Cashman might be happy to get a fresh start with different ownership and a different media market.  Of course, I have zero idea whether or not Cashman is actually any good as a GM, or would help the Cubs.  He inherited a bunch of young stars and had a limitless payroll.  I have no idea how he'd do if he came into a deal where he inherited Tyler Colvin, Tony Campana, Casey Coleman, and Randy Wells, that's not quite Jeter, Mariano, Posada, and Bernie Williams.  And with a $125 payroll instead of $203, that could be a little different.  Might be different without the ability to have a dozen starters with averages salary of $14, and then still have $35 million left to fill out the rest of the roster. 

Friedman obviously seems like the guy.  He's young, energetic, really smart, and has been enormously successful within very limited resources at Tampa.  If he was interested, how could you not be interested in a guy like that?  Who knows whether he's interested, good chance he isn't.  But certainly worth calling and asking.  Maybe he's after the Yankees job instead? 

Colletti, I don't get that at all.  He's been around a long time, and his Dodgers are only a couple of games better than the Cubs.  I don't get how he'd be the guy.  Not sure how much all the McCourt stuff may have limited him, though. 

For a while Dodgers seemed to have a really productive draft-and-developement system going, but I think they've been on a very low-budget procurement situation for some time.  Perhaps if he did come, and got the Ricketts procurement budget, and brought over some of the best scouts, so that Wilken ended up with the better half of the Dodger scouts and the better half of the Cub scouts, maybe you'd end up with a stellar scouting staff, I don't know. 

But the Suntimes notion that you'd hire Colletti because he'd give you a 5-day PR boost by hiring Sandberg, that is absurd to the extreme.  Sandberg's status as a player won't help much as soon as the team dips below .500 next season.     

CurtOne

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #27 on: August 25, 2011, 11:00:29 am »
If Sandberg felt he didn't get a real shot, I could understand that logic.  If Sandberg felt that Hendry was so buddy buddy with the players that it effected his decisions about them, I could understand that logic.

brjones

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #28 on: August 25, 2011, 11:11:22 am »
If Sandberg felt like he didn't get a real shot, then that tells me that his ego or sense of entitlement is out of control.  At least IMO.  Very few managers are in the major leagues after 4 years of minor league managing experience and no major or minor league coaching experience.  If it takes less time than that, it's usually someone who had been pegged as a future manager since he was a 24 year old rookie player (Girardi, Scioscia). 

I only know what's in the press, obviously...so maybe there was more behind the scenes.  But I think it's probably easier to argue that Sandberg didn't even deserve the token interview he got than it is to argue they didn't give him enough consideration.  Most managers with 4 years experience (who had also never shown serious interest in coaching before he got his first managing job) wouldn't even get a sniff from a major league team. 

Ron

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Re: Next GM for the Cubs
« Reply #29 on: August 25, 2011, 11:30:12 am »
Sandberg seems like a very unusual, perhaps even unique, case.  He's a Hall of Famer whose entire major league career was with the Cubs, and someone who is known for his devotion to "playing the game the right way."  How may HOFers have ever managed in the minors, for one year, much less four?  I have no idea.  Hendry told him to go get minor league managing experience in order to prove he could manage.  And his record managing in the minor leagues has been very good, at least, it seems to me.  If he was told, as one interview said, that he wasn't even in the top several candidates being seriously considered, from his point of view, I can see why he would not only be disappointed, but perhaps feel a bit disrespected.


Hendry has always been someone who valued lots of experience.  Maybe four years in the minor leagues just didn't rate high enough for serious considerations, when compared to guys with major league experience and even Quade who had lots more years in the managing and coaching trenches than Sandberg.



Who knows what kind of manager he really is, or that he would be in the major leagues.  And he hasn't coached at the major league level.  Maybe there were specific, performance based reasons Hendry didn't consider him.