Archive for Front Office
Root, root, root for their old team
Posted by: | CommentsWhen the Yanks won the World Series against the Phillies a mere 10 days ago, Yankee fans all over breathed a collective sigh of relief. The team had finally beaten down the ghosts of 2001, 2003 and 2004 and the lack of pitching depth in the years after.
In a sense, this year’s victory let Joe Torre off the hook for his lack of postseason success over his final years as a Yankee. Our lasting postseason images wouldn’t be Jeff Weaver pitching in Florida before Mariano Rivera, A-Rod’s batting eighth in a playoff game or midges swarming Joba Chamberlain in Cleveland as Torre stood idly by. Rather, we can toast Hideki Matsui, A-Rod, CC, Andy Pettitte and, of course, Mo. We could feel confidence in Joe Girardi and look back fondly on the Joe Torre Era while recognizing that it probably had to end when it did, if not sooner.
The divorce, though, between Torre and the Yanks was an ugly one, and it followed a decade-long tradition of ugly divorces between the Yanks and their coaches. Don Zimmer had a public split with George Steinbrenner; Mel Stottlemyre continually felt undermined by the Yankee brass and left on bad terms. Torre and the Yanks engaged in public battle over their one-year offer following 2007, and no one felt too good about it.
But time — and World Series wins — heals all wounds. Speaking yesterday at the annual Safe at Home gala, both Torre and Zimmer revealed that they were rooting for the Yanks to beat the Phillies. Torre called it “surreal” to watch his Yankee friends playing in the Fall Classic. “To watch what they’ve done with Joe Girardi at the helm really made me feel good, even though I’m supposed to be a National League fan and all that stuff,” he said. “When you’re as close to these guys as I’ve been for all these years, I was just really pleased for them.”
Torre spoke at length about his trepidation at facing the Yankees. He and Derek Jeter have a tight bond, and it would have been weird, to say the least, to see Torre managing to get Jeter out. Still, the Yanks head to Los Angeles next June, and those games should make for compelling baseball.
Zimmer, who has known Joe Girardi since the Yanks’ manager was a rookie with the Cubs in 1989, was even more emotional in his support for the Yanks. “I was pulling so hard,” the Rays’ adviser said. “I spent the first 10 years he was in the big leagues, we were together. Joe’s quite a man and a very good friend of mine. I was happy for him and I was happy for the Yankees.”
In a way, now, the ball is in the Yankees’ court. The team should retire Joe Torre’s number 6, and they should have Zimmer — and all of the rest of the dynasty-era Yankees — at the ceremony. It sounds to me as though Torre is more than willing to thaw out this relationship, and it’s only a matter of time before the Yankees do too.
Yanks won’t rework Girardi’s deal this off-season
Posted by: | CommentsAs the Yankees moved through the playoffs, many of us wondered whether a World Series win would mean a contract extension for Joe Girardi. They got the win, but it appears the team is content to let Girardi manage 2010 as a lame duck. Joel Sherman has the details, which are few. Instead of rewarding Girardi for a job well done, the Yanks will take their normal tack of letting a contract expire before negotiating a new one. It seems like a reasonable enough stance.
Brian Cashman has made it clear that this is how the Yankees will operate. Before the 2007 season he had a chance to rework deals for Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada, but declined to do so until after the season. While that decision might have cost the team several million dollars — both Posada and Rivera played hardball after having great seasons — it appears they’ll continue to apply the policy across the board.
While football teams prefer to avoid having a lame duck coach, baseball teams don’t seem to averse to it. Joe Torre signed four contracts after his first one with the Yankees, and two of them came after the old deal expired. In other words, the Yankees had two lame duck seasons under Torre, 1999 and 2001. His teams did just fine those seasons. He signed extensions for the 1997 and 2004 seasons, a year before his contract was to expire, and the teams did just fine then, too (though both seasons ended on sour notes).
After winning the World Series in his second season at the helm, it seems that missing the playoffs in 2010 is the only result that could lead to a new manager in 2011. Even then, with the World Series championship under his belt, perhaps the Yankees will be a bit more forgiving with Girardi if his team fails to make the playoffs next year. In any case, they’re leaving that option open, no matter what the team does. Even so, save for some unforeseen event unrelated to the team’s play (e.g., Girardi insulting the owner, as he did in Florida), I don’t see anyone else managing the Yankees for the next few years.
Joe Girardi has his good points and his bad, and although many of us were puzzled by some of his moves, I still think he’s a good manager. While we as fans tend to focus on the manager’s tactical moves, a manager is responsible for more than just that. He must hold together a team of 25 personalities over a six-month season and month-long playoff process. From all appearances, Girardi has done that well. As Alex Rodriguez said after the team won the World Series, “You have 25 guys who bought into Joe Girardi’s system.”
Eppler not interviewed for Padres’ GM opening
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s still not official, but the Padres are expected to introduce Red Sox assistant GM Jed Hoyer as their new general manager sometime soon. The team had reportedly expressed interest in Billy Eppler, the Yanks’ director of pro scouting, for the position, though apparently he was never interviewed for the gig. Like Hoyer, Eppler’s one of the game’s better young GM prospects, so it’s only a matter of time before someone hires him away from the boys in the Bronx. For now though, the Yanks are more than happy to have him.
Yanks could bolster coaching, scouting with Peterson and Towers
Posted by: | CommentsWhat better way to take your mind off the rain than with some proposed additions to the Yankees coaching and scouting staff?
After Kevin Towers lost his job earlier this month, Mike wondered whether he’d be a good addition for the Yankees. With his scouting acumen, it certainly couldn’t hurt. Earlier this week, Buster Olney noted that the Yankees might be a good fit for Towers:
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has long been friends with Kevin Towers, who was recently released from his duties as GM of the Padres, and given that relationship, there would appear to be excellent odds that Towers will land with the Yankees as a special assistant sometime in the months ahead. Towers could serve as an evaluator for Cashman, taking on responsibilities like looking for pitching — which is considered to be Towers’ specialty — or scouting minor leaguers, or helping to prepare the Yankees as they consider options before the trade deadline.
After the Padres fired him, Towers said that he’s not looking for an office gig.
“I know I don’t want to be in an office if I’m not a general manager. And I’m not looking for a job where I feel the GM might be in jeopardy, that’s not me.
“I want to be with a team where I know and trust the people I’m working with and feel I can make a contribution. I’d be happy to scout and to be the eyes and ears for a GM if that’s what is needed. I just want to be in a position where I can help a team compete,” added Towers.
That would seem to make him an ideal candidate for the Yankees. With the team running deep into the postseason, it appears Brian Cashman’s job is not in jeopardy. Towers would be free to scout, evaluate, and contribute. That’s the way he wants it, and it appears that opportunity could exist with the Yankees.
In what seems like a throwaway line in his latest column, Jon Heyman connects Rick Peterson to the Yankees. “Peterson, a New Jersey resident, also might have a chance to become a pitching coordinator for the Yankees.” This would be stupendous, especially if he’d be working with the minor league pitchers.
It might seem like this would be stepping on Nardi Contreras’s toes, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Peterson, an expert in biomechanics, could evaluate in a different way than Contreras. Plus, you can never have enough information on pitchers. For more on Peterson, check out his video breaking down the Yankees pitching, and his Pitching Perspectives archive at Full Count Pitch.
The Yankees might not add major free agents this off-season, but they’d do well to look into Peterson and Towers to boost their behind the scenes staffs. Sometimes those moves can be just as important as the player personnel ones.
Eppler rumored in Padres GM search
Posted by: | CommentsAccording to MLB.com’s Corey Brock, with a hat tip to MLBTR, Yanks director of pro scouting Billy Eppler has been rumored as a candidate for the Padres’ vacant GM spot. The Padres, however, have not yet asked permission to speak with him. Eppler has been Brian Cashman’s most trusted adviser since 2005 and runs a department of 12 scouts who cover the Big Leagues and Japan. Assuming San Diego’s rumored interest is in fact true, this should be the first of many GM opportunities for Eppler, just 33 years old.
The Brian Cashman Appreciation Thread
Posted by: | CommentsThis thing might seem a bit Pinstripe Pollyana-ish…
Since February 1998, 28 of the 30 MLB teams have changed general managers at least once. The only two not to are the Giants, with Brian Sabean, and the Yankees, with Brian Cashman. Even as the Yankees have faltered in the past few years, Cashman has remained aboard. New boss Hal Steinbrenner has faith in the GM and his philosophies, and in his fourth year of autonomous control we’re finally seeing what Cashman wanted to do when he re-upped after the 2005 season.
Despite the 12 years at the helm, despite 11 playoff appearances, five World Series appearances, and three championships in that span, there are some who think Brian Cashman has done more to hurt the Yankees than to help them. As the argument goes, he’s nothing more than an idiot with a checkbook. After all, if you can go out and spend $450 million on the top three free agents in an off-season, what can’t you do? In appreciating Brian Cashman, we’d like to debunk this thought process.
The charge: He can’t evaluate pitching
The biggest slam on Brian Cashman is that he’s a poor evaluator of pitching talent. The Yankees teams from 2004 through 2008 share two traits: lack of top-end pitching, and a general lack of pitching depth. Aging veterans like Mike Mussina and Randy Johnson headed rotations, and the back ends were filled with scrubs like Darrell Rasner, Sidney Ponson, and Kei Igawa. How is a team supposed to win like that?
The pitching evaluation argument stems back to the 2004-2005 off-season, when the Yankees acquired Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, and Randy Johnson. Pavano, infamously, missed the entire second half of the season with an injury which was thought to keep him out for a month, tops. Wright got hurt before the season was a month old, in perhaps the most predictable moment of the season. Johnson pitched well enough, but completely bombed in the playoffs.
It was after the 2005 season that Cashman gained the autonomy he said he needed to run the team properly. While Cashman was certainly to blame for some of the team’s moves from 1998 through 2004, it’s tough to pinpoint exactly what was his idea and what belonged to the Tampa contingency. But looking at his pitching moves from 2005 forward do tell a story.
Heading into the 2006 season, the Yankees had pitching problems. With Johnson, Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, Jaret Wright, and Carl Pavano signed up, the team had five starters, but getting 30 starts from each was as long as long shots get. They had some depth in Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small, but those are small, almost nonexistent consolations.
The Yanks could have used another starter, and there were a few available on the free agent market: A.J. Burnett and Kevin Millwood headed the class, but each had his flaws. Cashman smartly avoided that free agent pitching market, knowing that any short-term benefit these guys would provide, there would be long-term consequences. He passed on them, and while the 2006 pitching staff was far from stellar, it was still the right move.
The 2006 draft is also where the Yankees got a lot more serious about their minor league depth. In June they drafted Ian Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain, Zack McAllister, George Kontos, Tim Norton, Dellin Betances, Mark Melancon, and David Robertson. The team got serious about building their pitching depth from within, so they wouldn’t have to settle for what the free agent market offered. The Yanks echoed this approach in 2007, as three of their top five picks were pitchers, as were eight of their top 20.
Cashman’s approach is clear. From the off-season of 2005-2006 to the off-season of 2007-2008 he signed just two free agent pitchers: Andy Pettitte and Kei Igawa. The latter is an inexplicable signing that ignited the Cashman hatred. The former has been a constant positive. Then, in the 2008-2009 off-season, Cashman added CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, two signings which, other than some blips from Burnett, have worked out smashingly.
Think about that for a moment, if you will. In the time Cashman has been the sole person in charge of the Yankees roster decisions, the Yankees have signed four free agent pitchers, and three have worked out. That sounds like a pretty good record to me. In fact, that’s impressive even before you consider the non-move that allowed the Yanks to keep Kennedy and Hughes (and others), while using the money that would have been spent on Johan Santana for Sabathia. It wasn’t a fool-proof plan, but the Yanks took the risk and it worked out.
At the same time, they’ve restocked the farm system. It might be a middle of the pack one right now, but looking back on its state when Cashman took over, there has been a marked improvement. The Yanks have seen a few of their guys graduate in this time, and still have some more prospects in the system. This has been accomplished through the drat, through international free agency, and even by deals with the Mexican League. To the latter, Cashman acquired both Al Aceves, current bullpen cog, and Manny Banuelos, who made this year’s Futures Team roster.
Like all GMs, Brian Cashman has made some poor trades and acquisitions over the years. The problem is that before 2005, it was tough to determine who was responsible for what move. Since then we know it’s been all Cashman. In that time he’s backed off free agent pitching acquisitions, saving his money for a select few. He’s also bolstered the amateur talent acquisition to provide the team depth. It takes more than a few years to rebuild a baseball team, and while Cashman had many pieces already in place, he’s done a good job to supplement them.
The results speak for themselves. A year after missing the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, the Yanks rallied to the best record in baseball. They have their best pitching staff since 2003, and perhaps their most balanced lineup of the decade. For this, we appreciate Brian Cashman and his efforts to rebuild the New York Yankees. It has worked this year, and I have faith that we’ll see the team, especially the pitching staff, improve for years to come.
Should the Yanks try to bring Kevin Towers aboard?
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Late last week the Padres let Kevin Towers go, the longest tenured general manager in the game. He took over control of the Friars in the winter of 1995, when Derek Jeter had a grand total of 12 big league hits and Mariano Rivera just two games finished with zero saves. We know that seven or eight teams have already contacted Towers about immediate work, including the Mets, but he said he wants to take his time before making a decision. Would it be smart for Brian Cashman – one of Towers’ closest friends in the business – to get in touch the ex-Padres GM about joining his front office braintrust?
Think about it, the way Cashman’s front office is currently structured, there’s two key principles that stand out:
- There’s no one that could immediately replace him.
- There’s no one to challenge his ideas.
The first point is obviously by design and a very smart business move by Cash. Without someone readily available to replace him, his job is that much more secure. The second part can be a problem. Cashman’s only assistant GM is Jean Afterman, who’s expertise lies in negotiation and contracts and things of that nature. She’s not a “baseball person,” as some are wont to call it. Mark Newman is the VP of Baseball Ops, but he’s basically the farm director. Damon Oppenheimer obviously handles amateur scouting. That’s pretty much it in terms of senior executives. In fact, after getting his autonomy in 2006, Cashman pulled a Michael Corleone and axed club officials like Lin Garrett, John Cox, and Chuck Cottier, among others.
The reason the Red Sox have such a successful front office is because of all the voices with input. Beyond Theo Epstein there’s assistant GM’s Ben Cherington and Jed Hoyer, special assistants Allard Baird (former Royals GM) and David Howard, senior advisor Bill James, and statguy Tom Tippett (officially Director of Baseball Information Services). That’s seven guys bouncing ideas off each other. Cashman doesn’t have anyone like that, except Stick Michael every once in a while.
Towers’ credentials are undeniable. After seven seasons in the Padres farm system as a player, he doubled as pitching coach for Single-A Spokane and a scout in 1989 and 1990. After three years as a scout for the Pirates, he became San Diego’s scouting director, then moved up to GM. If there’s one thing Towers can consider his specialty, it’s pitching. He’s proven to be an exceptional evaluator of talent on the mound, and frankly there’s 30 clubs out there that can use a guy like that.
Since Towers shouldn’t have any trouble finding another GM gig, his close buddy Cash would need to pull off a pretty wicked sell job to bring him aboard. Hell, with any luck, maybe he’d bring Paul DePodesta along with him. I’m of the belief that the more information and the more input the better, so obviously I’d love to see KT join the Yanks front office. What do you think, should they make run at Towers?
Photo Credit: John R. McCutchen, Union Tribune
Girardi ‘the man’ but not for an extension yet
Posted by: | CommentsHal Steinbrenner speaketh and so we listen.
Yesterday afternoon, prior to the Yanks’ last home game of the regular season, Hal Steinbrenner made a rare appearance in front of the media. As the Yanks’ beat writers grilled him on topics ranging from Hank and George to the team’s postseason hopes, Hal talked a little bit about Joe Girardi’s future.
As the Yankee writers are wont to do, talk eventually turned to Girardi’s job security. “Would Joe be fired if the Yanks do not capture a crown?” they asked. Hal answered diplomatically, “Joe has had a tremendous year this year. We all know that. He’s got the best record in baseball. As far as I’m concerned and the family’s concerned and the organization’s concerned, he’s the man for the job.”
Later in the day, Jon Heyman clarified the Yanks’ thinking. “Regardless of what happens in October,” Heyman wrote, “the Yankees don’t plan to extend Joe Girardi this winter. Team policy is to let every contract run to the end. And that includes Girardi, and even Derek Jeter, whose contract also expires after 2010.”
So Joe Girardi will head into 2010 as a lame-duck manager no matter what. Should the Yankees win the title, he’ll feel pretty good about his job security. Should they falter early in the playoffs, he’ll have to manage while looking over his shoulder all season. That can’t be a very comfortable feeling.
So far in his short Yankee tenure, nothing Girardi has done has led me to think he’s a bad fit for New York. Much as Joe Torre did, he knows how to handle a team of high-paid veterans and up-and-coming rookies. Despite a rocky start over injuries in 2009, he has shown an ability to handle a critical and fickle New York sports media. He has also shown a tendency to win games. His in-game strategy has led to a Major League-best 102 wins this year.
In the end, Girardi probably will get an extension. Hal seems to recognize that the playoffs are of a different beast than the regular season. The battle is getting there, and after that, the manager — as long as he doesn’t, say, bat A-Rod eighth — has less of an effect on the team than we would want. My money is on an eventual extension, but similar to Derek Jeter, Girardi won’t earn his until after a solid 2010 campaign. That’s just the way things work in the Yankee Universe.
Is Joe Girardi right for the Yankees?
Posted by: | CommentsWhen the Yankees and Joe Torre parted ways after the 2007 season, the team lined up only three interviews for a replacement. The Yankees said they had only those men — Don Mattingly, Tony Pena, and Joe Girardi — in mind for the job, but even if they wanted to look outside the organization they might have found few takers. Who wants to follow Joe Torre, he of the dynastic late 90s Yankees? When the Yankees named Girardi, they handed him the universal task: win now.
It wasn’t an easy first season in pinstripes for Girardi. Not only was his team falling apart on the field, but he had troubles dealing with the media to explain it all. Fans and media, used to the stoic Torre, didn’t take to Girardi’s rigid ways. Add in a few gaffes, such as lying about injuries, and it’s an instant bad reputation. By season’s end, when the Yankees were headed home for the first time in 14 years, many fans wondered if this would have happened to a Joe Torre team.
Girardi still gets plenty of crap from fans, but it’s mostly in the form of second-guessed bullpen and bunting decisions. His handling of the media has improved, and I haven’t heard many, if any, complaints about him this season. He takes the blame and deflects it like his predecessor. Oh, and he allows ice cream in the dugout.
Tyler Kepner wrote an excellent profile of Girardi that dives a bit deeper into the changes he’s implemented this season. There haven’t been many, but the ones he’s made have made a difference. While Kepner spends a lot of time on the family-like atmosphere Girardi has built in the clubhouse, there’s one bit at the end which strikes me as pretty important:
Girardi has worked on other faults, improving his relationship with the news media by being more honest about injuries. He solved that problem by telling players what he planned to tell reporters, and finding that most understood.
Emphasis mine. This seems like it should be standard operating procedure. Why say something to the media that hasn’t already been said to the player? The player is the more important part of that scenario (sorry, beat writers), and should know what’s going on beforehand.
While it feels like Girardi just got here, the subject of his next contract will loom this off-season. As Tim Smith of the Daily News says, any extension talks will depend on how the Yanks do in the playoffs. A first-round exit will probably preclude extension talks, meaning Girardi will head into the 2010 season as a lame duck. While football teams tend to avoid the lame duck coach, it doesn’t seem to be as big an issue in baseball. It would probably take a World Series appearance to earn Girardi another two or three years.
iYankees wants to see the Yankees let Girardi’s deal expire and let him walk. I’m not too sure. Then again, I wanted to bring back Torre for 2008 and beyond. Regardless of what we want, the Yankees will probably consider an extension if they make the Series. If not, it’ll be a lame duck 2010. I wouldn’t really mind that. It’s fun to say. Lame duck.
Not a peep out of Hank
Posted by: | CommentsOn June 11, after the Yankees had dropped their eight straight game to the Red Sox, there was no outburst from ownership. On June 23, after the Yankees had lost five of six, including the final two games of the Nationals series, Joe Girardi’s job was not publicly threatened. The Red Sox had rolled since beating the Yankees, widening their division lead to five games. Still, all they got was a visit from Brian Cashman. There was no statement to the newspapers, no subtle threat that if things didn’t turn around, heads would roll.
Such are the days post George Steinbrenner. As recently as a few years ago, The Boss was still working his old angle. He hadn’t fired a manager on an impulse in over a decade, but it seemed he was ready to let Joe Torre have it. In 2005, when the team got off to a slow star, Steinbrenner mused, “It is unbelievable to me that the highest-paid team in baseball would start the season in such a deep funk. They are not playing like true Yankees. They have the talent to win and they are not winning. I expect Joe Torre, his complete coaching staff and the team to turn this around.”
The Yankees turned it around that year, but found themselves in a similar spot in 2007. After an April sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, the Boss again threatened Torre’s job. They made a turnaround in the second half, though, and convincingly took a playoff spot, only to find themselves down 2-0 to the Indians. Said Steinbrenner: “His job is on the line. I think we’re paying him a lot of money. He’s the highest-paid manager in baseball, so I don’t think we’d take him back if we don’t win this series.” The Yankees did not win the series, and although they made a PR effort to bring back Torre, it did not appear to be a sincere one.
As the 2007 season turned over, it appeared as though there would be a successor to Big Stein: his eldest son, Hank. It was a natural fit. Right away he displayed the temperament of his father, constantly issuing public statements that sometimes made us laugh, sometimes made us cringe. He certainly looked the part, but he clearly wasn’t a natural at it like his father. But it appeared we did have our succeeding Steinbrener.
Over that winter, Hank personally negotiated a new deal for Alex Rodriguez, after the superstar opted out of his contract. Brian Cashman had said multiple times that the team would not negotiate with the superstar if he exercised the opt-out clause in his contract. Yet once A-Rod came begging back to the team, Hank was receptive.
Then came the Johan Santana situation. The Yanks were going to be major players in the sweepstakes, and the Twins knew what they were dealing with. They insisted on the inclusion of Phil Hughes in the package, and Hank took the bait. He said that they’d add Hughes, but that there was an expiration date on the offer. What that was supposed to accomplish, none of us knew. It blew over, though, and by that time Brian Cashman and Hank’s younger brother Hal had wrested enough power to decline a deal for Santana.
Since then, Hank has been mostly silent. Jim Baumbach of Newsday tackles the subject in a recent article. He has quotes from multiple Yankees executives claiming that Hank is “intimately involved” with the team’s doings, but there’s never any concrete roles mentioned. In fact, Baumbach said he had trouble tracking down Hank at his office, and noted that his employees “described him as not quite a 9-to-5-er.”
Most surprisingly, Hankenstein has changed his phone number. That must have irked a reporter or two, who could just hit up his speed dial for an easy quote. According to Baumbach, Stein “was sick of seeing his words get twisted in the papers and then see himself get ripped for it.” He can view it that way, but it doesn’t seem his words were twisted much. It seems to me that they were just misguided words in the first place.
At his height, maybe George Steinbrenner would have fired Joe Girardi after the Yankees eight straight loss to the Red Sox. Maybe if Hank and not Hal had been named general partner, the same would have happened. The Yankees made the right choices along the way, and they’re reaping the benefits now. This is to say that I don’t think anyone really misses the outbursts of Hank Steinbrenner.
