Bavasi’s trade record is considerable evidence that he is a poor negotiator.

How do you separate that from his talent evaluation?

Bavasi appears to be able to fgo out into the market and get the sort of player he wants while giving up only the sorts of players he undervalues. That’s incredibly successful negotiation.

What sort of player he wants and what sort of player he undervalues are the problem, but that’s beyond the scope of his negotiation skills.

Negotiating skills *are* very important – if you have leeway over the terms and parameters. But the role proposed here was for BB to finish negotiations without being responsible for parameters on either end (what you want, what you’re willing to give up). I fail to see how that’s valuable or much of a role for a major league front office.

If other talent evaluators give him detailed information about what each player he has or could want (from a given team, perhaps briefing him for a specific trade pitch), he’s then fully informed.

You’re correctly assuming that the negotiator needs to know everything about what he’s buying and selling, but where you’re wrong is the implicit assertion that Bavasi can only have that knowledge if he comes up with it himself.

Bavasi’s trade record is considerable evidence that he is a poor negotiator.

I’m realistic, though — there’s really one GM in baseball who has made that kind of change, and he’s running the Padres.

What about Dan O’Dowd? If anyone’s been to the proverbial drawing board and reversed course from past mistakes it’s him. Since his tenure started, the Rockies have seemingly tried a half-dozen team building methods, mostly in a vain attempt to compensate for their park. Now he has a solid young core of talent that he’s moved aggressively to lock up at reasonable prices, which plays well in any park.

Negotiating skills *are* very important – if you have leeway over the terms and parameters. But the role proposed here was for BB to finish negotiations without being responsible for parameters on either end (what you want, what you’re willing to give up). I fail to see how that’s valuable or much of a role for a major league front office.

Now, this

Get a better philosophy of players and better talent evaluation input and you’ll be surprised by how much better a GM does.

I agree with wholeheartedly. And I think that’s the key issue – can Bill improve in these areas himself or will it take a regime change?

People skills are tremendously under-rated by a lot of fans. Remember: Paul Podesta.

Get a better philosophy of players and better talent evaluation input and you’ll be surprised by how much better a GM does.

Those are totally different situations.

Not really.

If you really think negotiations and relationships is a major part of a GM’s job, then negotiation skills should be valued thusly. It’s NEVER just a matter of picking up the phone and making it happen; if it were, then we’d all be making fortunes at sales jobs….

I’m pretty sure we all know every reason there is out there, as to why we should hate this team by now. And this isn’t intended as the too common knock on the USSM staff… (if you’re being analytical, and the situation is one that’s negative, what do people want you to do? lie about it?) All I’m saying is, I believe in you guys, go give me a reason to believe in the M’s. Tell me about the great GM candidates out there, and that good SS down in Albuquerque.

(Really, just keep doing what you’re doing) Give me a reason to believe. Cause looking at fangraphs over and over doesn’t seem to help…

Au contraire; that’s a HUGE role. Why do you think unions, management, etc. pay big bucks for a negotiator?

Those are totally different situations.

Having someone on staff to be your trade negotiation closer for the 8 or 10 trades your organization makes a year is not a good use of resources. If you have a GM smart enough to accurately peg the value of in-house talent and identify and accurately value talent on other teams as part of a trade, he/she ought to be able to, you know, pick up the phone and make it happen.

And again, that doesn’t sound like much of a role.

Au contraire; that’s a HUGE role. Why do you think unions, management, etc. pay big bucks for a negotiator?