Who do you want considered and why...and who do you favor?
(feel free to replace who with whom at any juncture)
(feel free to replace who with whom at any juncture)
I doubt very much that Hazen is going to get a serious look. This looks like a sea change for FO personnel, and Dombrowski probably wouldn't have taken the job without autonomy to pick his own team.SoxVindaloo said:Any chance Hazen gets a serious look at the GM job? Has been coming on as a GM in waiting league wide, and as a 1st timer any potential power struggle with Dombrowski might take a couple of years to percolate to a boil (see Theo, Gorilla suit, 2005). The idea of working for such a powerful Head of Baseball Operations would seem to be more appealing to a younger and less experienced candidate.
Buzzkill Pauley said:I doubt very much that Hazen is going to get a serious look. This looks like a sea change for FO personnel, and Dombrowski probably wouldn't have taken the job without autonomy to pick his own team.
No thanks on John Farrell. I want someone who is immune to Craig Breslow's dark magic.Yossarian said:Here's an admittedly crazy idea -- John Farrell.
I think this is an excellent point. For example what is Jed Hoyer's job description?The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa said:No thanks on John Farrell. I want someone who is immune to Craig Breslow's dark magic.
If DDski is going to be in total charge then it seems unlikely any of the A list GM candidates (especially established guys like Dipodesta) would want to come to Boston to play second banana.
SouthernBoSox said:That's not surprising. Also, if I'm being honest, I don't really have one but of worry into who the GM is.
The next General Manager of the Red Sox is going to be an assistant. They will have no decision making power. Zero.
This is Dombrowski's team now
I'm not saying whoever the GM is won't have any say. They'll have as much say as Jed Hoyer has. Dombrowski even said in regards to the GM's role "Well, they'll be working beside me everyday."Red(s)HawksFan said:
To the bolded, Allard Baird has/had no decision making power in his role under Ben Cherington, but it is believed he had a lot of influence with regard to major league player scouting and acquisition (specifically Carl Crawford but others as well). It's not out of the realm of possibility that Wren or whomever is the GM will have input and influence even if they ultimately have no decision making power. Why else would Dombrowski hire them in the first place if he didn't trust their judgment enough to go with it once in a while?
soxhop411 said:Via mlbtr
After speaking with multiple industry sources, Sean McAdam of CSN New England writes that four candidates for the Red Sox’ GM opening include former Braves GM Frank Wren, former Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd, former Angels GM/current Red Sox advisor Jerry Dipoto and Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler. Wren has been oft-mentioned in the past few days, and O’Dowd has also popped up more recently in reports. Regarding Eppler, McAdam writes that he’s blocked in New York by Brian Cashman, and many expect him to land a GM job elsewhere this winter.
Does Ed Barrow count?soxhop411 said:When was the last time a NYY OR BOS front office member went to the opposing team?
What made Cherington so fascinating was the way all of his moved seemed theorized: short term deals to old mid-level FAs like Napoli, Vic, and Dempster! big commitments to younger FAs like Porcello and Sandoval! Collect all the bats like Hanley and Sandoval! But maybe putting so many eggs in one intellectual basket is what has put the team on the boom or bust cycle we've seen. When he hits on something, the team improves by 30 wins in one off-season. When he doesn't...
jasail said:While this may be a sea change in the front office, I don't see the team moving too far from an analytical approach irrespective of the hiring of Dombrowski. John Henry is still the owner, he's a stats driven guy and was an early advocate of this approach to team building, and the Sox have been very successful using this approach (despite the last two years). So, even though the new President of Ops is a "baseball guy", I can't see him authorizing his new President to throw the baby out with the bathwater and hire a guy like Wren (or Leyland to manage). So, I think Wren's name as top candidate is speculative based entirely on his relationship with Dombrowski and without consideration that the Sox are likely not turning their organization philosophy on its head. IMO, it's far more likely that they bring in a young guy in the Theo circa 2003 mold that understands the numbers aspects but is also someone that Dombrowski can mold. This not only sets them up with a nice balance in the short term, but also lets them groom a future head of the front office. Perhaps that guy is Dipoto, but I think it's more likely someone like Eddie Romero or Mike Hazen who understands the Sox organization and has excelled in their role with the team.
He went into his current situation voluntarily with 2 years left on his San Diego deal, so quite possibly not.TheReal15 said:I can't imagine that we'd expect a young GM to stick around 10 years without more autonomy as the major voice in baseball ops. With a lot of organizations they have a system like we've had. A team president who has a say and sometimes meddles and a GM who has the loudest baseball operations voice, right?
If Dombrowski is the main guy, I can't see his GM hire riding it out for 10 years until he retires. Sure, the Sox GM chair is a plum job, but Dombrowski was obviously hired to be the final say in the room. Is another GM going to be okay being what seems like essentially a jumped up assistant?
If say, Jed Hoyer was given a chance to be a GM someplace else where he'd be the main voice in the room, wouldn't he take it?
twoBshorty said:He went into his current situation voluntarily with 2 years left on his San Diego deal, so quite possibly not.
LahoudOrBillyC said:The Red Sox are using title inflation here. Dombrowski is what we used to call the GM, with full authority over baseball ops. He's looking for a right hand man. The titles are confusing people.
I don't imagine there are any jobs where major choices aren't ran past the owner. Most rich guys don't like being committed to giving out nine figure deals without being consulted first.JimD said:Dombrowski is going to have complete autonomy to choose his team - why would he agree to take another job where he'd have to fly his choices past the owner?
Drek717 said:The more I think about it the more I'm betting that Dombrowski will pick a first time GM, using the title "GM" to land better talent, and likely position one of his core people like Frank Wren in place of Allard Baird as the senior VP of player personnel type position. The GM title would mean less to Wren, he's held it before and regardless of the title he'll still report, ultimately, to Dombrowski.
Well .. The worry is the non SABR guys would start relying on stupid statistics like Batting Average, RBI and Wins and raw counting stats in general. Even if you have a front office stuffed with SABR assistants it doesn't matter if the GM simply ignores their input. It really helps if everyone in the Organization Is on the same page.geoduck no quahog said:Sabremetrics.
My understanding is that identifying market advantages has run its course, because every team now has access to all the data it needs - and there's nothing new under the sun.
Are there any statistics that supersede the eye test now? I'm contending that statistical data is only useful insofar as a team can't have a scout at every game, every day, to see with their own eyes what the statistics only confirm (player X has trouble with sliders, player Y has been hitting the ball really well - but right at people, player Z can't hit lefties anymore but his stance could be tinkered with, Hanley Ramirez can't play outfield...)
Is it really that important now to have a SabreGM? I assume the math-savvy assistants feed necessary information to these guys so that real life scouts can focus in on particular players.
2nd question: Are sabremetrics more useful for minor league and/or draftable players (despite the huge range in park, league and competition)? There's a million of these guys and no one can scout them all.
edit: Sosh.com kind of belies what I'm saying, particularly the articles that go deep into the data - just trying to broaden the discussion on how important a sabre-friendly GM is these days.
I guess the Dipoto/Scoscia battle is a good example of how I could be very wrong.
Is there an organization in baseball that still looks at those twentieth century stats as meaningful? Hasn't that ship sailed? (Real question- no snark)BCsMightyJoeYoung said:Well .. The worry is the non SABR guys would start relying on stupid statistics like Batting Average, RBI and Wins and raw counting stats in general. Even if you have a front office stuffed with SABR assistants it doesn't matter if the GM simply ignores their input. It really helps if everyone in the Organization Is on the same page.