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Elrhino

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Everything posted by Elrhino

  1. Elrhino
    I would think that Theo would have interest in DaMarlo Hale if he's cut loose by the new Red Sox manager. He's also a Chicago native.
  2. Elrhino
    Does anybody love their manager, winning or not? Don Zimmer says hello. I can testify that the Ranger fans love Ron Washington, despite the fact that he makes some really dumbfounding in game decisions. Besides, he likes to party.
  3. Elrhino
    Joe Maddon, if I had to pick one. Honestly I mean sure, but I really just think managers only have to not be complete morons. As long as you aren't a Dusty or TLR batting pitchers 8th and bunting every inning then I can tolerate you. Why are most people (media) so afraid to admit how unimportant managers are? Or am I undervaluing them at this point? I think they're unimportant as long as you have a strong front office that is setting strict guidelines on things like pitch counts. If you don't have that, and the manager has carte blanche to throw the staff ace 130 pitches every game because "that's the way Bob Gibson did it", then it's important.
  4. Elrhino
    What about Ken Macha? You would think he would be stats friendly after coaching under Beane. When he was just a bench coach with the A's Theo tried to hire him when he took over the Red Sox GM gig, but Beane denied the request for the interview. Or does he carry too much baggage with midwest sports fans and media after the Brewers fired him? Guys who have coached under Scioscia always seem to turn out okay (ie Roenicke, Madden). Just grab someone from their staff. I've heard a lot of people think highly of Maddon's 3rd base coach in Tampa.
  5. Elrhino
    Ricketts deserves all the more credit considering he enticed Theo and the guys to come to the supposed backwoods sports wasteland of the Midwest as opposed to the East Coasts and SoCal. Particularly attracting Theo from Boston, the mecca of all things amazing, where everyone is offered free daily unicorn rides to work. Especially since the Cubs farm system isn't projected to provide a major league ready player until 2028, while Boston's farm system is stocked to the gills in future Hall of Famers. Hell of a sales job by Ricketts.
  6. Elrhino
    I hope Wilken sticks around. He's a good scout and would be a valuable asset. The only problem I ever had with Wilken is he was given too much carte blanche in the organization to chase any player he wanted with whatever draft slot he wanted, with no counter voice.
  7. Elrhino
    I'd have a hard time thinking of many examples of people who were really hurt by the aggressive promotions, but maybe they are out there. Fleita is definitely in charge of that though as well as somewhat dictating a minor league philosophy. He probably shouldn't be running the whole player development program although they can probably find a better role for him. Why not just find no role for him (I know it's kinda late to bark up that tree since they signed him)? What does he do especially well? I think he ran the Latin American operations when we got Zambrano, Cruz, Guzman (even though he was originally signed by the Royals), etc. With Ricketts actually giving some real money to signing international free agents, maybe he'd be good at that. I guess Pie, Soto and Marmol fit into that timeframe as well?
  8. Elrhino
    Yeah, I really can't see where the Yankees or Red Sox ending up with one of the 1B. Especially if the Red Sox resign Big Pappi to be their DH. Yankees have Tiexiera and they have to reserve the DH spot for all their old former superstars. Personally, I don't think Pujols is going to get the money he believes he's going to get and resigns with the Cards. If Boras goes Boras and signs his client to the biggest offer, Prince is going to be a National.
  9. Elrhino
    http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/mixmaster/the%20godfather.jpg I know it was you, Theo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!
  10. Elrhino
    Q:Who’s the most talented player you ever scouted? A: It’s got to be (University of San Diego High product) Mark Prior when he was at USC. (Stephen) Strasburg (West Hills/SDSU) would be up there. High school-wise, (Mt. Carmel’s) Eric Chavez, Justin Upton and Bryce Harper. I haz a sad.
  11. Elrhino
    Some of the Padre fans there bring up Darren Balsley coming to Chicago too. Do they know something we don't? As pitching coach or manager? Would be pretty ballsy to bring in a pitching coach before you've named your manager. Is Jaramillo still under contract as well?
  12. Elrhino
    Maybe the end of Tim Wilken's free reign here.
  13. Elrhino
    JeffPassan Jeff Passan I loved Theo Epstein going to the Cubs. Getting Jed Hoyer's like splitting aces and hitting two face cards. As I said: Cubs, sleeping giant. 50 minutes ago JeffPassan Jeff Passan Similarly, Josh Byrnes is an excellent fallback for San Diego. Still tons of brains in that front office (Hinch, MacLeod, Smith, Abbamondi). JeffPassan Jeff Passan Mistake on McLeod. Reportedly going to Cubs as well. Still, cupboard far from bare in San Diego was the point -- and ever richer in Chicago.
  14. Elrhino
    http://sonsofsamhorn.net/wiki/index.php/Jason_McLeod
  15. Elrhino
    JeffPassan Jeff Passan Similarly, Josh Byrnes is an excellent fallback for San Diego. Still tons of brains in that front office (Hinch, MacLeod, Smith, Abbamondi). 43 minutes ago JeffPassan Jeff Passan Mistake on McLeod. Reportedly going to Cubs as well. Still, cupboard far from bare in San Diego was the point -- and ever richer in Chicago. 40 minutes ago
  16. Elrhino
    From the same feed... JeffPassan Jeff Passan Similarly, Josh Byrnes is an excellent fallback for San Diego. Still tons of brains in that front office (Hinch, MacLeod, Smith, Abbamondi). 41 minutes ago JeffPassan Jeff Passan Mistake on McLeod. Reportedly going to Cubs as well. Still, cupboard far from bare in San Diego was the point -- and ever richer in Chicago. 38 minutes ago Come on down Jason McLeod... http://www.nctimes.com/sports/baseball/professional/mlb/padres/article_d71db36e-f4b2-56ce-a0dd-b8417cc6c443.html
  17. Elrhino
    BA quite likes the current Padres farm... http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2011/10/padres-rays-post-most-top-20-prospects/ He's also done a pretty good job of finding good low to mid market value for pitchers in free agency. Harang this year, Garland the year before. Although I'm sure Petco has a lot to do with that.
  18. Elrhino
    I think Mike Maddux will be a good manager someday.
  19. Elrhino
    Kind of interesting that Hoyer would want to make such a lateral move (at best), unless he felt like he just couldn't compete at San Diego. I found an article online of him lamenting what a small scouting budget they had when he took over the job, though he had been able to talk Moorad into investing more money into it. He also said that Petco has been a huge factor that he hadn't quite been able to wrap his head around yet. Also get the feeling he knew that he was skating on thin ice after a 70 win season, and that he wasn't going to survive another bad year. If Mooread wouldn't extend his contract that had to be a huge red flag. He and his wife are expecting their first child, and is maybe seeking more stability in the longrun. Gotta figure he knows he has a stable gig in Chicago as long as Theo is around (which should be a very, very long time).
  20. Elrhino
    I also can't imagine him going back to work there either. That's why I think it will happen. It will take as much time as Henry can drag out of Ricketts. It's a huge PR mess for them. Dragging this thing out is about the only face saving gesture they can do at this point. After it's over they will sling mud on Ricketts and Theo and hope the masses buy it all. I mean legally they can't keep him under contract and prevent him from fulfilling his duties. I assume his contract gives him pretty broad baseball decision authority that they'd need someone to use. They can't just usurp that without letting him go one way or another. The Red Sox have always operated their front office by committee approach. They can, and have when Theo resigned in 2005, operate their front office with one leg missing from the stool. That's why it's fuzzy who is to blame for all those putrid contracts. They can just relegate Theo to the basement with a stapler for the next 12 months, like Milton from Office Space, if they want to while Cherrington does all the GM work. I don't know why they would when there is 6.5 million on the books and they can get compensation for him today, but it's not the first time upper management in a business has done something dumb/petty when huge egos and pride get involved.
  21. Elrhino
    That's the point where I'm at now. I think their philosophies are identical. I don't see Hoyer doing anything in the next 12 months that wouldn't fall right in line with what Theo would've done if he were here. I'd also love to hear Peter Gammons spin how the Red Sox are in the right to hold an employee hostage for 12 months from taking an obvious promotion with another team out of pure, unadulterated spite.
  22. Elrhino
    IMHO, the Red Sox were willing to let it go on forever until the Cubs caved in to their ridiculous and unprecedented compensation requests. The Red Sox could easily continue on with Cherington as the GM, while the Cubs were held hostage. Things reached a stalemate, and Selig stepped in (probably at Rickett's request) and resolved the situation.
  23. Elrhino
    As long as the organization has established standards on things like pitch counts, the manager is basically just the face of the clubhouse who gives interviews.
  24. Elrhino
    It's really hard to come up with a national sports media figure like Gammons who is such a completely unabashed fanboy of one particular team. I guess Bill Simmons, but he came up through blogs and "new media" where you're not required to be objective. There's ex-players in the media who unabashedly cheer for their former teams, like Michael Irvin and Joe Theisman, but that's different from a hard beat reporter that came up through the journalism ranks. Maybe Beano Cook with Notre Dame.
  25. Elrhino
    Sounds great, frankly. This is a situation where I don't want one guy with a big brain running the show. I want a bunch of really smart people all working together toward the same goal and figuring out how to build the model franchise. Same here. The celebrity name is fine, but I generally find the brain trust and entire collection of intellectual talent makes the difference.
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