Interview with Andy MacPhail: April 17, 2006

[Chris]

On the night of April 17, I was able to have an impromptu interview with President and CEO of the Chicago Cubs, Andy MacPhail. A special thank you to Andy for taking time to answer some questions and listen to information about NSBB. In addition, thank you to Tim for providing questions for the session. As always, thank you to all of you for making NSBB such a wonderful posting community!

 

Interview with Andy MacPhail, April 17, 2006:

 

What does Dusty Baker have to do to earn a contract extension or is it a given that he’s already received one? Is it just a matter of finding time to sign the deal?

 

That’s an area for the General Manager to make the determination. I’ve been fortunate to be a GM over a 10 year period in my career and a very important relationship is dependent on the each other. The General Manager is dependent on the Manager to get the most out of the talent he provides and the Manager is dependent upon the Manager to get the best players he possibly can. An important relationship has got to be one of mutual respect and trust. Jim’s made no secret of that respect.

 

 

You were a GM while Jim Hendry was the Farm Director. During this time, there was a lot of emphasis on Latin American players. Since Felix Pie, Angel Guzman and Carlos Zambrano, many feel there has not been as much emphasis placed on signing Latin American players. What are the Cubs doing to address signing players in Latin America?

 

We’ve actually got a good program in Latin America. The gentleman to my right is Julio Garcia, who is in a new position, being the Field Coordinator for Latin America. He’ll spend two weeks per month over there. We have Ronny Cedeno playing short, Carlos Zambrano, both out of Venezuela. We have Felix Pie from the Dominican Republic and Angel Guzman from Venezuela. We’ve done a reasonable job. We can always get better, but there has certainly been an emphasis there and we certainly at bare minimum have an average group that has come out of those programs. There was also a period of time where we placed emphasis on trying to get in areas like Korea before they were mined by every other team. We came out of that with Hee Seop Choi and J.K. Ryu and some others. You have a finite amount of resources and you try to apply them where they can do the most good.

 

 

In regards to Japanese prospects, we were able to get Hee Seop Choi and J.K. Ryu. However, there still hasn’t been a replacement for Leon Lee. What are the Cubs doing in regards to recruiting players in Asia? After the World Baseball Classic, many realize how many great players are in Asia. What are the Cubs doing in an effort to sign them?

 

There are a lot of great players over there. Korea and Japan are separate entities as it relates to trying to secure players from them. In Japan you generally get players after their Major League career in Japan, a la Ichiro and that nature. That is pretty much a free agent bidding process. There isn’t anything the Cubs can do to have a geographic leg up on the competition like Seattle. In regards to Korea, when other teams got in there in a heavy way, we started to look at making a greater investment in the Dominican Republic in terms of a new facility and that sort of thing.

 

 

Rich Hill and Angel Guzman are playing great in AAA. Any comments on whether or not we will see either of them with the Chicago Cubs before long?

 

There’s never been a team in the history of the Major Leagues that has ever had too much pitching. That doesn’t apply to the Cubs, it applies to everybody, everywhere. If somebody is pitching well at AAA and they think they can get Major League hitters out, they’ll find their way to the Major Leagues.

[Outshined_One]

Thanks DJaxx!

[Banedon]

Great great job Djaxx!

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Excellent stuff! This should be on the front page.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Awesome!

[Chris]

Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate it!

 

Joshua Parrott of the Jackson Sun also had an interview with Andy.