Forst off the board
Conor · October 10, 2008 at 7:34 pm · Filed Under
Mariners
Hickey reported this morning that the Mariners received permission from Oakland to interview assistant GM David Forst. But Buster Olney just reported that Forst said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
Comments
Well that was short lived.
Smart man, really.
Susan Slusser had it on her blog early this afternoon
Can’t say I blame him really. . .
Kinda like leaving Google to go to a 8 employee start up.
It’s like, in High School, asking for a hot chick’s snickering Dad’s approval to ask her on a date, then subsequently being shot down by the girl herself. The Mariners are zit-faced losers.
I’d understand why a person wouldn’t be interested in the M’s job but the A’s organization has a glass ceiling. His name is Billy Beane.
Barring some unforeseen circumstance Forst won’t be running Oakland anytime soon.
SOS…He would not be running things here in Seattle for a long time either…the way Chuck is talking
Conor,
Greatly appreciate the updates on the candidates, even though I doubt whoever wins out will have any power thr first year or three.
Do you or anyone else have any info on the status of Engle and Fontaine?
Hopefully we can retain atleast one of them with all these draft choices coming…or this losing will be going on a lot longer than 2011.
Schtick – Maybe not. Seems crazy, but Ringolsby reported this June that Beane might begin focusing on soccer…
Why the heck would Billy Beane want to walk away from that job to run a soccer team?
I don’t get it.
So painful. So true.
That reminds me! This is an awesome book.
I guess if he doesn’t want to come, we don’t want him, either.
BTW: I propse to change the site Banner as follows (additions bold):
Beane loves soccer, and some say Wolff bought San Jose (with Beane as a part-owner) because of Beane’s fascination with soccer & the Spurs.
Larry Stone has a bit more on the story
I hope the new GM just doesn’t do anything stupid, but I fear that’s a lot to ask for. Take a look at this article. We were even doing dumb stuff in 2001.
Despite other needs, team trades for a young catcher
Kinda like leaving Google to go to a 8 employee start up.
Uh, lots of people leave big, successful companies to go to work for little start ups. For someone with a lot of energy and ambition and vision — exactly the kind of person you’d want, btw — a big company, no matter how successful, is a very restrictive environment; a small start-up, by contrast, is a fun environment where every day brings a fresh and interesting challenge and you’re not hemmed in by procedures and hierarchies. (Of course, you wait for your options to vest at the big company before you leave 😉 )
The problem, however, is that the analogy is wrong. The M’s are not an 8 person start-up. They’re another big company, just less successful and less-competently run. This would be like leaving Google for Yahoo. Or like leaving Toyota for General Motors.
Why the heck would Billy Beane want to walk away from that job to run a soccer team?
Because he enjoys fresh challenges? (See my start-up comment above) Because he’s not entirely walking away from the A’s, since he still has an ownership stake and a front office filled with his proteges who will continue to run the team The Beane Way? Because this is an even bigger opportunity than running just one baseball team?
Beane has already transformed baseball about as much as one GM can, though it’ll take a generation for his influence to be fully felt in the most hidebound corners of the league (like Seattle). But with MLS, Beane has the opportunity to use his talents not just to transform a sport but in many ways to invent one, to establish American soccer as one of the major sports worthy of the same attention as (at least) Hockey and NASCAR. If Beane genuinely loves soccer, that’s got to appeal to him.
Forst in my opinion is being naive. As a manager and business school graduate it has been hammered into my head to look at every opportunity. Staying stagnant and waiting on handshake deals for your promotions, in many cases, can become career suicide. This opportunity may never come his way again and Beane may not follow through on his plans because of changes in economy, ownership mentality or any million other reason. Also, other baseball organizations that may be more appealing to him may not even ask to interview him because they didn’t like the public rejection he did to the Mariners. In all likelihood Beane used Forst as a tool to further damage the image of the Mariners.
“Also, other baseball organizations that may be more appealing to him may not even ask to interview him because they didn’t like the public rejection he did to the Mariners.”
Uh, did you actually read either one of those links? He didn’t say anything at all disparaging about the Mariners. And I utterly disagree with your premise – it makes no sense. The Ms are the stupidest organization in MLB if not all of pro sports, rivalling Donald Sterling’s old Clippers team for sheer futility and meddling management. Their peers are keenly aware of this fact. If anything Forst just showed that he’s smart enough to stay out of the Kobayashi Maru scenario that is your Seattle Mariners which is a feather in his cap to prospective employers.
Forst, objectively, has more information than you.
More than anyone else, he knows where Beane is and isn’t going, and how much power he’d get in the near future.
Scuttlebutt around Oakland is that Beane will become team president, a la John Schuerholz, in the near future and that Forst will take over the GM job. Beane will then split his attention between soccer and baseball. Again, that’s just the word on the street. Forst’s decision reinforces that rumor.
Uh, did you actually read either one of those links? He didn’t say anything at all disparaging about the Mariners.
I never said he did. It is very public though. Also, who are you to say that The Ms are the stupidest organization M’s organization is the stupid. What do you know about baseball organizations? The team sucks but the organization has ammassed one of the best stadiums in baseball, large media contracts both foreign and domestic and they have a solid scouting/farm system to build on. Doesn’t sound like the stupidest people I’ve ever heard of. Let go of emotion and deal in facts.
Forst, objectively, has more information than you.
More than anyone else, he knows where Beane is and isn’t going, and how much power he’d get in the near future.
I have a friend (was my boss as well) who’s been waiting to become the next plant manager where I use to work. Rumor has had it for years the plant manager is ready to become a VP. My friend is slated to take his place. I was slated to take my friend’s place. I kept my eyes open and took a promotion at a different company. My friend’s still waiting for that plant manager job. My point is no matter what look at every opportunity.