POSIT: epstein has the best executive position in sports

[treebird]

theo epstein has obtained a position in which he:

 

is compensated as well as anyone else in his position

 

has no expectations for at least the next two years (and likely longer)

 

is allowed to rebuild the team however he sees fit without regard for the quality of the product on the field

 

will be allowed resources on par with just about everyone in his sport besides the red sox and yankees

 

works with an owner who went extremely out of his way to obtain him and seems perfectly content to let him control every aspect of the team

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i cannot come up with a job of this nature that i'd rather have. is there anything else out there that compares?

[Guest]

Nope. I would have to agree with all of that. For now, at least.

 

If the Cubs don't get really good eventually, he'll look bad and the hire would go down as a big time bust. But that's pretty unlikely with the guys in charge and the resources they'll have.

[El Duderino]

i'd be shocked if there's no expectations in 2014, but I agree with everything else.

[bcl412]

Being in charge of baseball operations for the Cubs (or any other team) would pretty much be my dream job so I'd say I agree.

[Guest]

With the caveat that his situation is unique in that he holds those advantages despite not achieving any success in his current role/franchise combo, I'd agree.

[NewUserName]

anything short of a World Series Championship within 5-6 yrs will not bode well for his public perception though. Truth is he will probably have more expectations than Hendry with a shorter leash.

[davearm2]

The GM of the Cowboys has it pretty good too.

[KingCubsFan]

Seems like Billy Beane just gets paid to watch soccer and have someone else do his job.

[jersey cubs fan]

anything short of a World Series Championship within 5-6 yrs will not bode well for his public perception though. Truth is he will probably have more expectations than Hendry with a shorter leash.

 

Doubtful. Hendry really only had negative public perception after back to back losing seasons and a 90-loss one. The public bent over backward to praise the man who brought back to back .500 seasons and many still thought he should keep the job through last season. The Cubs need to win a playoff series and avoid abysmal seasons (not counting this upcoming one) for Theo to maintain most of his faith. If they make a world series they will adore him for life.

[davell]

It may be the best gig around, but ONLY because Theo took it. He's earned the right to build his way and should(mostly does) have a longer leash than anyone, because of what he's already done.

 

If we had hired ANYONE else, the fans, in general, would at least be hesitant to give the longer leash approach. Maybe Friedman would have been given one, but we'll never know, because we got the only guy we targeted. He deserves the leash, the cash, and I don't think for a second, he's doing anything other than trying to get us there as quickly as possible.

[jersey cubs fan]

It may be the best gig around, but ONLY because Theo took it. He's earned the right to build his way and should(mostly does) have a longer leash than anyone, because of what he's already done.

 

If we had hired ANYONE else, the fans, in general, would at least be hesitant to give the longer leash approach. Maybe Friedman would have been given one, but we'll never know, because we got the only guy we targeted. He deserves the leash, the cash, and I don't think for a second, he's doing anything other than trying to get us there as quickly as possible.

 

He's absolutely not trying to do it as quickly as possible.

 

The fans and media are eating up this dismantling thing. They love it. Anybody else who was willing to blow it up would be praised as well.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It may be the best gig around, but ONLY because Theo took it. He's earned the right to build his way and should(mostly does) have a longer leash than anyone, because of what he's already done.

 

What makes me nervous is that he's not doing things the way that earned him this leash to begin with. This is the guy who ran half of the epic Yankees/Red Sox arms race that defined the sport for a decade.

 

Now we're settling for Bryan LaHair as our starting 1b in November, because he's there and we don't really care to look for an upgrade.

[davell]

I knew I shouldn't have posted that, THAT way. Because we certainly COULD have signed a Fielder or a Pujols and a Darvish or something else and put ourselves into immediate contention. But, we don't know whether it would have kept us there either. He's doing it his way, that WILL keep us there. As much as I wanted us to make a splash or two, I've come around to thinking at least on some level, that maybe he truly wanted to see everything for a year, before we spent bigtime money and I can understand that. I still don't see us tanking for 3-4 years, collecting picks and trying it the Tampa Bay "way" either. I expect some money to start being spent next offseason. By either FA or acquiring gys through trade.

[Guest]

It may be the best gig around, but ONLY because Theo took it. He's earned the right to build his way and should(mostly does) have a longer leash than anyone, because of what he's already done.

 

What makes me nervous is that he's not doing things the way that earned him this leash to begin with. This is the guy who ran half of the epic Yankees/Red Sox arms race that defined the sport for a decade.

 

Now we're settling for Bryan LaHair as our starting 1b in November, because he's there and we don't really care to look for an upgrade.

 

 

Or because, rather than overpay the hell out of Prince Fielder (or Pujols, but not as badly), we acquired one of the top 1B prospects in the game.

[jersey cubs fan]

I knew I shouldn't have posted that, THAT way.

 

Because it was the complete opposite of reality?

[davell]

I knew I shouldn't have posted that, THAT way.

 

Because it was the complete opposite of reality?

 

No, not at all. Should have added, to get us there in a sustainable way longterm. We can debate all day about whether or not it's possible we could sign a Pujols, Fielder, etc, and get good and stay there, but we don't truly know if we could or not. Letting it sit for a year, finding where our true holes appear to be, is what Theo chose to do. He has a little more experience at this than you or I do, so I'm taking the approach he knows what he's doing and he's doing it as quickly as he can. If you want to think he's procrastinating and trying to field a Margaret Phelps team, be my guest.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It may be the best gig around, but ONLY because Theo took it. He's earned the right to build his way and should(mostly does) have a longer leash than anyone, because of what he's already done.

 

What makes me nervous is that he's not doing things the way that earned him this leash to begin with. This is the guy who ran half of the epic Yankees/Red Sox arms race that defined the sport for a decade.

 

Now we're settling for Bryan LaHair as our starting 1b in November, because he's there and we don't really care to look for an upgrade.

 

Or because, rather than overpay the hell out of Prince Fielder (or Pujols, but not as badly), we acquired one of the top 1B prospects in the game.

 

Partial credit for the possibility that the front office knew they'd be able to get Rizzo, I guess. But that still leaves about half-a-lineup's worth of players that we made no visible attempt to upgrade.

[bukie]

It may be the best gig around, but ONLY because Theo took it. He's earned the right to build his way and should(mostly does) have a longer leash than anyone, because of what he's already done.

 

What makes me nervous is that he's not doing things the way that earned him this leash to begin with. This is the guy who ran half of the epic Yankees/Red Sox arms race that defined the sport for a decade.

 

Now we're settling for Bryan LaHair as our starting 1b in November, because he's there and we don't really care to look for an upgrade.

 

Or because, rather than overpay the hell out of Prince Fielder (or Pujols, but not as badly), we acquired one of the top 1B prospects in the game.

 

Partial credit for the possibility that the front office knew they'd be able to get Rizzo, I guess. But that still leaves about half-a-lineup's worth of players that we made no visible attempt to upgrade.

Considering they got Rizzo before Fielder signed, I have to assume they knew they'd have Rizzo when Fielder was signed.

[jersey cubs fan]

I knew I shouldn't have posted that, THAT way.

 

Because it was the complete opposite of reality?

 

No, not at all. Should have added, to get us there in a sustainable way longterm. We can debate all day about whether or not it's possible we could sign a Pujols, Fielder, etc, and get good and stay there, but we don't truly know if we could or not. Letting it sit for a year, finding where our true holes appear to be, is what Theo chose to do. He has a little more experience at this than you or I do, so I'm taking the approach he knows what he's doing and he's doing it as quickly as he can. If you want to think he's procrastinating and trying to field a Margaret Phelps team, be my guest.

 

Nonsense. He's not doing it as quickly as possible. He knows he has a ridiculously long leash nobody else has and he's willing to let that leash extend as long as possible. There are absolutely zero signs of any sense of urgency or any interest in any sort of "quickly as he can" aspect to the plan. It will be as long and as drawn out as possible, like McClellan preparing the Army of the Potomac. Thankfully there aren't any lives on the line and he can still end up with great success despite taking his sweet old time. But there is nothing close to true about the statement that he is doing it as quickly as he can.

[Guest]

Partial credit for the possibility that the front office knew they'd be able to get Rizzo, I guess. But that still leaves about half-a-lineup's worth of players that we made no visible attempt to upgrade.

 

They made moves to address 3B and RF, kept a cornerstone at SS, kept moderately productive pre-FAs at C and 2B, and have prospects ready to take over midseason at 1B and CF. I guess they could have sold Soriano and tried to fill LF a different way, but outside that, they either kept productive guys or made moves at every other spot.

[jersey cubs fan]

Partial credit for the possibility that the front office knew they'd be able to get Rizzo, I guess. But that still leaves about half-a-lineup's worth of players that we made no visible attempt to upgrade.

 

They made moves to address 3B and RF, kept a cornerstone at SS, kept moderately productive pre-FAs at C and 2B, and have prospects ready to take over midseason at 1B and CF. I guess they could have sold Soriano and tried to fill LF a different way, but outside that, they either kept productive guys or made moves at every other spot.

 

Wait, "keeping Castro" was a thing they did?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

They made moves to address 3B and RF, kept a cornerstone at SS, kept moderately productive pre-FAs at C and 2B, and have prospects ready to take over midseason at 1B and CF. I guess they could have sold Soriano and tried to fill LF a different way, but outside that, they either kept productive guys or made moves at every other spot.

 

Yeah, they "made moves." They plugged in other people's scraps and bargain-hunted for guys who are past their prime, coming off terrible seasons, or both.

 

That's not the way Theo Epstein built the reputation that got him here in the first place.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Wait, "keeping Castro" was a thing they did?

 

So far. But if this team starts to go all Major League and turning off the hot tubs doesn't make them worse, who knows.

[Guest]

Partial credit for the possibility that the front office knew they'd be able to get Rizzo, I guess. But that still leaves about half-a-lineup's worth of players that we made no visible attempt to upgrade.

 

They made moves to address 3B and RF, kept a cornerstone at SS, kept moderately productive pre-FAs at C and 2B, and have prospects ready to take over midseason at 1B and CF. I guess they could have sold Soriano and tried to fill LF a different way, but outside that, they either kept productive guys or made moves at every other spot.

 

Wait, "keeping Castro" was a thing they did?

 

The verb isn't really important, the point was that they didn't ignore a bunch of black holes. They still need impact players and it's not a finished product, but the obvious sentiment was that they ignored/didn't try to fix a bad offense, which isn't the case.

[davell]

We'll have to disagree obviously. I totally understand wanting to take a year to evaluate guys like Shark, Volstad, Dolis, Castro, Barney, Stewart, LaHair, Sappelt, Campana, Brett, Rizzo, Vitters, McNutt, Rhee, etc......Then placing emphasis on what's actually needed. If we spend next offseason, signing guys to short term deals and not trading for anyone either, I'll change my tune. Until then, giving the guy an evaluation process seems perfectly feasible and shouldn't be looked at as anything other than that. Does NOT mean we're going to suck outloud until 2015 or so.