Ricketts' List of GM Candidates (Chicago Tribune)

[Guest]

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/6883564/jon-greenberg-chicago-cubs-gm-tom-ricketts-first-big-baseball-decision

 

Judging by Ricketts' interview on Friday, his previous hire on the baseball side (Ari Kaplan) and by talking with a few of his friends and associates in the past year, I'm convinced the Cubs will be run by a forward-thinking general manager with a strong emphasis on advanced statistics, and reliance on cheap, farm system labor. So you can basically cross off the old-guard candidates.

 

Hendry's fate was basically sealed in late May 2010 when Ricketts hired Kaplan, an industry expert, to be the team's statistical analyst manager.

 

That was Ricketts' only known entrée in the baseball operations department, which signaled a clear change of philosophy in the traditionalist scout-heavy Hendry era. I'm guessing Kaplan, who, like others of his ilk, has only talked informally to reporters, will be one of the informal advisors Ricketts turns to in the coming weeks. He's worked for two-thirds of the teams in baseball, so he knows the candidates. You have to wonder if he's been scouting the scouts already.

 

Andrew Friedman, the 34-year-old executive vice president of baseball operations for the Tampa Bay Rays is my (and most people's) prospective frontrunner for this job, based on the criteria Ricketts talked about in his news conference Friday.

 

Friedman, like Ricketts, comes from a financial background. After college, Friedman was an analyst for Bear Stearns and a private equity firm before joining the Rays in his mid-20s, working for fellow Wall Street whizzes Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman.

 

By 28, Friedman was running baseball operations for the club. If he joins the Cubs, get used to hearing the word "arbitrage."

 

It's unfair to simply lump Friedman in with the statheads. Like most people in his former line of work, he's more a risk-taker with research. He left behind a lucrative career and refused to sign a contract when he started working with the Rays. So he knows his own value.

 

Ricketts made his own money in the retail corporate bond market, and of course, the family fortune that bought the team came from taking TD Ameritrade public.

 

I think the personalities would mesh as well, not a small factor considering the awkward meshing between the new and old employees of the Cubs' front office.

 

Friedman, though good with the media, was purposely circumspect about the inner workings of the Rays in Jonah Keri's book on the organization, "The Extra 2%," and he tends to avoid the limelight -- qualities Ricketts wants in his team. (Todd Ricketts' "Undercover Boss" appearance notwithstanding.)

 

Keri wrote: "Friedman was not only baseball's first Wall Street-trained GM but the first to describe the concept of arbitrage in baseball while ejecting a stream of tobacco juice from his mouth."

 

Friedman also has a bit of street cred as an athlete, having played baseball at Tulane.

I so have a crush on Friedman.

 

I want him.

[mookie]

He is only a few miles from me. I am going to go talk to him. Lay it out for him to play it out.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Hahn: He's bright, overly educated and more than qualified to take the next step — and the 40-year-old from Winnetka grew up a Cubs fan. Ricketts knows all this, of course, and thinks highly of him, according to one baseball source. Hahn's only drawback would be that he hasn't sat in the big chair. But don't dismiss him.

Overly educated? What the hell does that mean? More anti-intellectual garbage from "baseball men"? I'd hope that a GM of our team held an advanced degree or at least a bachelor's degree (in finance, business, economics, etc.) from a top tier university.

 

Yeah, I could hardly read the rest of that article after the "overly educated" statement. He's too smart to be a GM? Uh, OK.

 

 

 

Also, even with their dream move to San Jose, I struggle envisioning the A's becoming a more valuable franchise than the Giants.

 

 

I think you guys are taking his use of the word "overly" a bit too literally.

 

Or maybe just reading a bit too much into a poorly worded comment, Maybe just saying he gots him some good book smarts would have sufficed.

[bukie]

At this point I want Friedman even more, because I don't want Houston to get him.

[Butterscup1679666578]

I'm trying not to get my hopes up re: Friedman, but it isn't easy.

[SouthSideRyan]

At this point I want Friedman even more, because I don't want Houston to get him.

 

If they get the owner Bud's trying to push through, I'm not sure Friedman can save them.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Tampa fans seem pretty confident that Friedman is super-best-friends with a bunch of people in their organization and that he has Unfinished Business there.

 

Houston fans seem pretty confident that Friedman has a bunch of Astros gear from when he was a kid in a secret drawer in his office and can't wait to break it out.

[Little Slide Rooter]

At this point I want Friedman even more, because I don't want Houston to get him.

 

If they get the owner Bud's trying to push through, I'm not sure Friedman can save them.

 

They're the worst team in baseball with the worst farm system in baseball, though that has been upgraded with recent trades and could be even more so if they trade Wandy. Still, this is a team far from salvation.

[Vanilla Ice]

I already posted it before, but it bears repeating.

 

If we get Friedman, I will nut all over the place.

[bukie]

Tampa fans seem pretty confident that Friedman is super-best-friends with a bunch of people in their organization and that he has Unfinished Business there.

 

Houston fans seem pretty confident that Friedman has a bunch of Astros gear from when he was a kid in a secret drawer in his office and can't wait to break it out.

Cubs fans seem pretty confident that Friedman will want to jump at the chance to be the next Red Sox or Yankees.

[Little Slide Rooter]

I already posted it before, but it bears repeating.

 

If we get Friedman, I will nut all over the place.

 

Note to self: have umbrella on hand if we get Friedman.

[Butterscup1679666578]

At this point I want Friedman even more, because I don't want Houston to get him.

 

If they get the owner Bud's trying to push through, I'm not sure Friedman can save them.

 

who's that?

[Vinestal]

Tampa fans seem pretty confident that Friedman is super-best-friends with a bunch of people in their organization and that he has Unfinished Business there.

 

Houston fans seem pretty confident that Friedman has a bunch of Astros gear from when he was a kid in a secret drawer in his office and can't wait to break it out.

 

Well he can bring a lot of his friends with him. Thats what Im hoping for anyway. I like Gerry Hunsicker, I think he's had a great deal to do with Friedmans success.

[SouthSideRyan]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sportsmoney/2011/06/14/why-jim-crane-could-become-baseballs-most-controversial-owner/

 

A lot of the article doesn't affect his ability to be a good owner(though it does make him a terrible person), but the breaches of fiduciary duty would have me livid if I was an Astros fan. The vote for his approval as owner has already been pushed back, which likely means Selig doesn't have the necessary votes to get him through.

[shnsajax]

Wow, Cashman is only 44.

[snoodmonger]

He wasn't using it to degrade him.

 

 

No, but it was a terrible word choice.

[Exile on Waveland]

He wasn't using it to degrade him.

 

Agreed. Making it an even worse word choice.

[SouthSideRyan]

I guess my standards have been dropped that low that I don't even flinch at stuff like that in sportswriting.

[Exile on Waveland]

I guess my standards have been dropped that low that I don't even flinch at stuff like that in sportswriting.

 

Ha. That's probably the most salient point made in the thread.

 

It just struck me maybe more than it would have normally, because I considered Hendry to be anti-intellectual/willfully ignorant when it came to the new(ish) empirical baseball analysis. So "overly educated" seems less a disqualifier than a prerequisite to replace Hendry. And while I know that's not what the writer meant, it seemed to just jump off the page with that meatball connotation.

[Have a seat, Neifi]

I already posted it before, but it bears repeating.

 

If we get Friedman, I will nut all over the place.

 

Note to self: have umbrella on hand if we get Friedman.

Same here, especially when you see tweets like this (even if facetious and hyperbolic)...

 

@injuryexpert

Will Carroll

I'm pretty sure Andrew Friedman has more people in his stats dept than the Cubs do in their whole front office.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Same here, especially when you see tweets like this (even if facetious and hyperbolic)...

 

@injuryexpert

Will Carroll

I'm pretty sure Andrew Friedman has more people in his stats dept than the Cubs do in their whole front office.

That's a weird way to say the Rays have more stats people in their front office than the Cubs.

[WrigleyField 22]

Same here, especially when you see tweets like this (even if facetious and hyperbolic)...

 

@injuryexpert

Will Carroll

I'm pretty sure Andrew Friedman has more people in his stats dept than the Cubs do in their whole front office.

That's a weird way to say the Rays have more stats people in their front office than the Cubs.

I read it as Rays stats guys > ALL Cubs Front Office guys, stats and non-stats guys. The Cubs have a small FO from what I understand though.

 

Hell, don't the Cubs basically have one stat guy at the moment? So our new GM will represent a 100% increase of our number of stat guys.

[KingCubsFan]

Same here, especially when you see tweets like this (even if facetious and hyperbolic)...

 

@injuryexpert

Will Carroll

I'm pretty sure Andrew Friedman has more people in his stats dept than the Cubs do in their whole front office.

That's a weird way to say the Rays have more stats people in their front office than the Cubs.

I read it as Rays stats guys > ALL Cubs Front Office guys, stats and non-stats guys. The Cubs have a small FO from what I understand though.

 

Hell, don't the Cubs basically have one stat guy at the moment? So our new GM will represent a 100% increase of our number of stat guys.

Don't forget Chuck Wasserstrom, inventor of the famous Bernitz Theorum

[SouthSideRyan]

http://fullcountpitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/willcarroll.jpg

[sneakypower]

he looks like a character from Guess Who?