Hickey’s list
Hickey talks to a “former GM” who came up with eight people… I’m not sure why, exactly, the former GM would do that, and you can take your guesses at who this mystery author is. Anyway:
Towers (also mentioned by Stone, covered in our previous post)
Cashman (also mentioned by Stone, covered in our previous post)
Kim Ng (check, check)
Jerry DiPoto (mentioned in passing in my post as part of the Diamondbacks-Red Sox contingent)
Tony Bernazard, Mets VP of PD (neither us nor Stone had him)
Chris Antonetti (on Stone’s list, ummm…. we may have written something about him)
Mike Rizzo, Nationals AGM (neither of us had him)
David Forst, A’s AGM (check and check)
The continuing rumor-mongering that Towers might get out is going to get me to write a many-thousand word essay on the topic.
I don’t think you have, no.
Towers is probably the best blend of what we want and what the front office wants.
Atonetti and Forst still top my list.
I didn’t think that Towers was going to leave San Diego any time soon, but there’s been enough smoke lately that it’s making me think–perhaps the Padres have already tabbed DePo as his successor?
At any rate, I’d be happy with Towers if we can’t get Anto or DePo.
On Bernazard, considering that his personality conflict with Willie Randolph is supposed to have played a big part in undermining the latter’s position, is that something the Mariners want to be associated with?
Derek – If you had to guess, do you think if Towers came here that DePo would take his place? In other words, which would be more likely: DePo taking his place or DePo coming with him to Seattle? What about Grady Fuson and Sandy Alderson?
Was Towers the genius behind drafting Matt Bush #1 overall in ’04? *shudder* I hope it was just the scouting dept, and not Towers himself who made that call. FWIW, our next GM probably WILL be drafting #1 overall next year.
w/r/t Towers & DePodesta — I have no idea at all. The whole Towers angle is a total surprise to me. I’m shocked to see this much early speculation involve a current GM (much less two in him and Cashman).
I’d flip a coin to get an answer at this point. If Towers is hired and he brings DePo, my head will explode.
w/r/t Bush — no, that was ownership’s call. The baseball people wanted Verlander, if I remember.
Good thing its not a hard pick. Strasburg is number 1 talent. My hope is if we do get Strasburg, our new GM knows to start him and not use him in the pen *cough Morrow cough*
Yeah, I’d love to read a Towers post, because I haven’t been following the Padres closely (despite them being our Hated Designated Rivals), and I know it’s hard to build a team when you’re consistently bad and/or unlucky with your draft picks, but based on their record I have to wonder why the M’s should be interested in anything coming out of there (and doubly so if the Padres want to let him go). You sure don’t want to have anything to do with their domestic scouting organization.
Towers has run the Padres since the start of the 1995 season
Padres since 1995: 1071-1089 (.496), four division titles, 1 NL pennant.
Mariners since 1995: 1124-1033 (.521), three division titles + 1 wild card.
Isn’t the point of this exercise to get better?
What about Hoyer?
w/r/t Bush — no, that was ownership’s call. The baseball people wanted Verlander, if I remember.
And/or somebody didn’t want to deal with Boras (who represented several of the top picks, including Drew and Weaver)
Good thing its not a hard pick. Strasburg is number 1 talent. My hope is if we do get Strasburg, our new GM knows to start him and not use him in the pen *cough Morrow cough*
I suspect our new GM wouldn’t need to take the “must win right now” approach that Bavasi took to keep his job.
Bush
1 Win 0 Losses 1.23 ERA
He looks pretty good. 😉
One reason Towers would be same-old, same-old: he’s the guy we trade with when we have nothing better to do. Witness Baek. Witness Ben Davis. So he’s more of the comfort zone this team needs to get out of.
#12:
Boy – that’s quite a leap. Following the same logic, the Mariners shouldn’t be interested in anyone from Cleveland, either, since the Mariners do deals with the Indians as well.
Quick Question.
What do you think the timeline is for hiring a replacement?
national papers weigh in with articles on Avila, Gillick,
and of course, there are the requisite ‘it’s time for Pelekoudas’ stories from Portland and Tacoma
That’s what scares me. For some reason, watching that press conference, I got the feeling that Lincoln and Armstrong are already planning to end up with Pelekoudas as their favorite candidate after all the “interviews” are done. They sure went out of their way to lay the groundwork for his possible hire.
I don’t think any of us really know enough about Pelekoudas to determine that he’d be a bad choice, nor do we know enough about what the current thinking in the FO is to determine that they’re going to just rubber-stamp an organizational guy.
Really. Relax, take a deep breath.
I would assume the dropdead date for hiring a GM is going to be driven by having him, and his hires (assistants, etc) in place in time for the winter meetings. That still gives them a good 3 months, though. Strictly from a PR standpoint, you probably want to just keep a slow drip of news going (“M’s interview Yet Another Candidate”) all summer and then have the big announcement in September. Unless you think it’s going to be controversial; then you do it in August when attention is at the minimum.
Tony Bernazard has a leg up on all of these guys. He played for the M’s.
Probably Gillick. He’s always been willing to talk, he has a relationship with the Seattle press, and he’s not on the list (everyone else lists him).
Gillick’s not a former GM, though, he’s a current GM. I don’t think Hickey would describe him that way — he’d say “senior baseball executive” or something.
“Pat, when I credit you, do you want me to call you a ‘senior baseball executive’?”
“You always call me that. ‘Senior’ always make me sound like somebody in a white belt and shoes standing in line for the Early Bird Special at Denny’s.”
“But I’ve seen you wear a white belt. And you love Denny’s.”
“Yeah….but I don’t want people to think that. Besides, whenever you use that term everybody knows it’s me. How about you call me a ‘former GM’?”
“But you’re a current GM–”
“Sure, but I’m also a former GM. Heck, I’m a former Mariners GM. But the point is: everybody else thinks of me as current GM, so if you say ‘former’ nobody will think it’s me. Which means I can dish the real dirt.”
“Ok… well in that case, about that whole Brett Myers thing–”
“Ooops, somebody on the other line, gotta take this, see ya!”