It’s a good sign
Me, back in “And we’ll know Zduriencik from his off-season”
I’ve always favored hiring someone with a lot of managerial experience, even if that’s in the minors. The failure rate of coach conversions is remarkably high. There’s no reason to risk it: there are tons of qualified candidates in the minors who’ve been grinding it out, and they’ve already dealt with more clubhouse madness than they could talk about.
The man himself, in an MLB.com story:
“I do think what we’re looking for is the best possible person,” Zduriencik said. “You know you have to start somewhere. It can be a guy who was a Minor League manager or a Major League coach. I’m not opposed to hiring somebody that has no Major League experience.”
[…]
“Joe [Maddon] is a good story because he was a longtime Minor League manager,” Zduriencik said.
I’m glad to hear this, if only to know that he’s open to candidates who aren’t retreads. It’s a good sign.
Derek, you’ve been pretty anti Ned Yost and I was curious why you feel that way. I didn’t catch an explanation and probably missed it in other posts.
Were there behind the scenes issues in Milwaukee with Yost?
I hope to see a post of your opinion of the potentials.
i.e. Yost, Valentine, (my hope: Tom Kelly), Kevin Kennedy, Davey Johnson, Larry Bowa, Joey Cora…
plus the good candidates.
why Kevin Kennedy?
FWIW, last month Joel Sherman in a blog about his belief that Girardi needs a ‘veteran’ bench coach mentions “[Tom] Kelly, the two-time championship manager of the Twins who has shown no inclination to want to work in a dugout again since retiring from the job after the 2001 season.”
I suggested a while back that Bobby V. might be on the radar and I think msb felt he wouldn’t accept less to come back to the majors – he’s currently the third-highest paid baseball manager in the world – but I read an article in the times recently saying he was lobbying hard for the M’s job.
I personally wouldn’t mind him as manager. What do the rest of you think?
He has lots of pros and cons…
I think I said that up to now he hasn’t– IIRC, the last time it came up was with the Dodgers’ opening in ’05, when he opted instead for the last contract with Chiba Lotte. If he stays in Japan next year, he gets paid $4M next year– that might in the end outweigh the allure of a MLB team not likely to pay that kind of money to a manager
Good lord, please not Kevin Kennedy — unless, of course, you really wanna see another valuable position player have his career damaged just so that KK can “save his bullpen”.
Good lord, please not Kevin Kennedy — unless, of course, you really wanna see another valuable position player have his career damaged just so that KK can “save his bullpenâ€.
‘Cause that’s what he does regularly, right?
I’m not saying KK is great, but seriously, that was a one-time thing.
Yost is one of the few managers who was so bad at in-game tactics that you could actually count the games he cost his team last year. Last year, at least, he was awful. Now… it really shouldn’t be that hard. Read a book, play some strat, figure things out. But unless he’s done that, Yost is terrible.
I think the last time Kennedy was a managerial candidate was 10 years ago, when Kevin Malone wanted to hire him to manage the Dodgers, and the owner made him take Davey Johnson instead.
in ’99 Mo Vaughn suggested he should be a candidate for the Angels after Terry Collins ‘resigned’. Oddly enough, he wasn’t on Bill Stoneman’s list.
and, of course, in 2000 Malone added additional nails to his coffin by calling both Kennedy & TK mid-season to sound them out about managing the Dodgers — even though Davey Johnson was still under-contract and had a winning record…
Amaro has hired Benny Looper to replace Mike Arbuckle in Philadelphia….