Post by hembo36 on Aug 30, 2007 21:57:01 GMT -5
Five and Fly: Astros are lost in space
By Tim Brown
Thursday, Aug 30, 2007 2:59 pm EDT
As the Houston Astros begin the process of filling the space beneath Drayton McLane's thumb, opinions differ over whether this particular general manager's job is one worth pursuing.
This much we know: There are qualified baseball people who, given the freedom to do the work, would turn the Astros into something other than the last-place team they've become.
McLane and president Tal Smith say they will contact potential candidates next week, a list that should include Dan Evans (Seattle), Mark Newman (New York Yankees), Tony Bernazard (New York Mets), Chris Antonetti (Cleveland Indians), Ruben Amaro Jr. (Philadelphia), David Forst (Oakland), Tony LaCava (Toronto) and David Wilder and Rick Hahn (Chicago White Sox).
It might also include two other interesting possibilities in Walt Jocketty, who has a team option in St. Louis for 2008, and Bob Watson, the former Yankees GM and Astros player currently doling out discipline for MLB.
Unless Jocketty comes free, there does not appear to be a hammer candidate out there. Unlike recent searches in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston (briefly), Arizona and Kansas City, Pat Gillick's got a job, John Hart seems reasonably content in Texas, Gerry Hunsicker has a good gig in Tampa Bay, and Theo Epstein has come to terms with life in Boston.
That throws open the job to a broad assortment of youth and age, Moneyballers and old schoolers, and, if it means anything to McLane and Smith, guys who played and guys who didn't.
Depending on who is doing the talking, the Astros are a disaster with more disaster ahead or a sleeping giant, a franchise that spends money in a winnable division.
One Astros official called the firings of Tim Purpura and Phil Garner a mistake, saying, "It masked what ails us. The players aren't very good."
Of course, Purpura had at least some responsibility for that.
But, an American League front-office man countered, "That's where you want to be, in the National League Central right now. You don't have to do too much."
Considering McLane's heavy-handed nature, one assistant GM said, the job might be less suited for some of the younger candidates – Antonetti or Forst, say – than for those who've been through it before: Jocketty, Evans, former Philadelphia GM Ed Wade, even Newman, who has not been a GM in title but has experienced his share of intrusive ownership.
"I think it's going to be more of an established guy," he said.
By Tim Brown
Thursday, Aug 30, 2007 2:59 pm EDT
As the Houston Astros begin the process of filling the space beneath Drayton McLane's thumb, opinions differ over whether this particular general manager's job is one worth pursuing.
This much we know: There are qualified baseball people who, given the freedom to do the work, would turn the Astros into something other than the last-place team they've become.
McLane and president Tal Smith say they will contact potential candidates next week, a list that should include Dan Evans (Seattle), Mark Newman (New York Yankees), Tony Bernazard (New York Mets), Chris Antonetti (Cleveland Indians), Ruben Amaro Jr. (Philadelphia), David Forst (Oakland), Tony LaCava (Toronto) and David Wilder and Rick Hahn (Chicago White Sox).
It might also include two other interesting possibilities in Walt Jocketty, who has a team option in St. Louis for 2008, and Bob Watson, the former Yankees GM and Astros player currently doling out discipline for MLB.
Unless Jocketty comes free, there does not appear to be a hammer candidate out there. Unlike recent searches in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston (briefly), Arizona and Kansas City, Pat Gillick's got a job, John Hart seems reasonably content in Texas, Gerry Hunsicker has a good gig in Tampa Bay, and Theo Epstein has come to terms with life in Boston.
That throws open the job to a broad assortment of youth and age, Moneyballers and old schoolers, and, if it means anything to McLane and Smith, guys who played and guys who didn't.
Depending on who is doing the talking, the Astros are a disaster with more disaster ahead or a sleeping giant, a franchise that spends money in a winnable division.
One Astros official called the firings of Tim Purpura and Phil Garner a mistake, saying, "It masked what ails us. The players aren't very good."
Of course, Purpura had at least some responsibility for that.
But, an American League front-office man countered, "That's where you want to be, in the National League Central right now. You don't have to do too much."
Considering McLane's heavy-handed nature, one assistant GM said, the job might be less suited for some of the younger candidates – Antonetti or Forst, say – than for those who've been through it before: Jocketty, Evans, former Philadelphia GM Ed Wade, even Newman, who has not been a GM in title but has experienced his share of intrusive ownership.
"I think it's going to be more of an established guy," he said.
