In the abstract I agree with you. But here’s the thing: that’s exactly what they did do previously. When Theo quit in '05, they interviewed a succession of candidates to fill his role. The other front office people, who would be working in subordinate positions, were in the loop on this process. When none of that worked out, they installed Ben Cherington and Jed Hoyer as “co-GMs.” Then they managed to talk Theo into coming back, thus demoting those two, and they were in the loop on that as well, to the point that Jed went on the radio in the aftermath to reassure fans who thought he’d been mistreated that he and Ben had been fully aware of the situation the whole time and nobody should be worried about them.
So having had that experience, it’s understandable to me that Cherington might have been taken aback and upset by how things went this time. Because it sounds from his quotes as if Henry told him one thing and then did something else.
That is all true, and it sure sucks to be Ben Cherington in this situation. But I still don’t see how Ben, or anyone, can be surprised that he was not involved in the hiring of his boss.
The situation now and the one with Theo differ in other ways too. It is obvious that ownership wanted Theo back, so keeping his staff involved in their thought process made sense, in that A: it gave the team an interim GM option to keep the seat warm, and B: kept Theo’s staff in place for his return. Also, C: Red Sox ownership was also trying to maintain a successful management team in place - one that had been around for only 3 years at the time. And finally D: Ben and Jed were both seen as potential candidates to replace Theo - and both have succeeded to the title General Manager of a MLB team.
Now, it is a decade later and ownership is looking to overhaul team management. By title at least, Dombrowski is replacing Larry Lucchino who has a small ownership stake in the team. I looked, but have not found anything about Dombrowski getting any percentage of the team as part of his compensation, but he is moving into a much higher level in the food chain than GM. When it was announced that Larry was leaving a few weeks ago, there was no mention anywhere of Ben being viewed as his possible replacement - so less of a reason to have him in the discussion loop. Also, Dombrowski worked for Henry in Florida - and it is obvious Henry wanted him again. With other teams in the mix courting Dombrowski, Red Sox ownership just went out and got him only two weeks after he was fired by Detroit.
I think this is a special case, and that if Dombrowski was kept on Detroit until the end of the season, no one was going to be hired as Red Sox President until the end of the season. But when he became available, Henry jumped at the chance to hire him, and Ben’s feelings were of little concern.
As jsc1953 pointed out, it was as much a commentary on the sad state of the Giants’ bench as the hitting prowess of Bumgarner…but the man isn’t totally lost at the plate. And in this case it seems to have worked out beautifully; not only did he get the hit, he rattled the pitcher, leading to two consecutive walks to load the bases (the hi batsman by the relief pitcher was just icing on the cake).
Slightly less entertaining was bringing him in to pinch hit again in the next game…down a run with 2 outs in the 9th. In that at-bat, he looked every bit like a pitcher going up to bat against the other team’s closer. Although, it was almost worth watching it just for the slight chance that he would manage to get hold of one, tie the game, and forever[sup]*[/sup] silence all of the “bring the DH to the National League” supporters.
[sup]*[/sup]OK, maybe not quite forever…but at least for 30 seconds or so. And maybe not all of the DH supporters, but at least the ones in San Francisco…all seven of them.
Replace ‘bullpen’ with ‘starting staff’, and ‘infielder’ with ‘outfielder’, and you could be a Giants fan!
I don’t know which is worse: the Dodger fans’ irritation that their team can’t pull away while the Giants keep losing games, or the Giant fans’ irritation that their team can’t catch up while the Dodgers keep losing games. Either way, it’s looking more and more like it’s going to come down to “winner take all” when the Dodgers visit AT&T Park for 4 games 9/28-10/1: one team wins the division and goes to the playoffs, and the other gets to go home and watch the Pirates and Cubs in the wildcard game.
It should be an exciting final month of the season…assuming we all survive it.
Is he? He has the exact same title as Theo does in Chicago. But when Theo left for that position, the Red Sox threw a tantrum and demanded exorbitant compensation because they believed it wasn’t really a promotion, just the same job duties of a GM with title inflation. It can’t go both ways. Lucchino was involved in marketing, media, real estate development, and a bunch of other pies besides baseball ops and I’ve seen no suggestion that Dombrowski is stepping into any of those roles.
Bias disclosure: I’ve never forgiven Henry et al for the way Terry Francona left. I also think they handled Theo’s departure badly (both of them). Josh Byrnes was also thrown under a bus. I’m not arguing that Ben should have been kept on or that there should have been particular care taken towards retaining him in some capacity. With the job performance in 3 of the last 4 seasons, that’s a very poor position to stake out. But I’m not particularly inclined to cut Henry any slack for his interpersonal management skills given some of the episodes I’ve seen from this team. Was he obligated to inform Cherington that he was going to speak to and probably hire Dombrowski? Of course not. Should he have? I think so.
Yeah, it would have been nice for Ben to be told/ involved in the conversation. It would also have been nice for Ben to have had lengthy discussions with every single player he has traded or DFA’d over the years. The handling of Tito’s exit was inexcusable. The fact that such barbs have not come out for Ben yet does make me wonder if the character assassination was Larry’s doing.
You are right on where Dombroski will sit on the org chart - Sam Kennedy will most likely pick up the non-Baseball duties that Larry did. Actually, said chart has been updated since this morning.
I totally agree about Hernandez and Turner playing way over their heads but they are still better then replacement level players both ways. Even last year Turner and Utley were about equivalent by WAR (4.1 - 4.4) this year it’s not close.
On one hand we’re better then average FIP for the bullpen so there should be better games coming for them but they’re still not in the top 10 which seems to be a minimum for a deep playoff run.
I’m not sure what the right move would have been but I think at least grabbing another starter would have allowed us to move the back end of the rotation into the pen and help keep us from using them as long or as often.
Ok seriously, 8 inning, 10 strikeouts, 0 walks by Kershaw and we still fucking lose, what the hell. Jensen can’t even claim he’s tired since it was his first appearance in a week.
The more I think about the one-game wild card playoff, the more irritated I get. The idea that one of (most likely) the Cubs or Pirates is going to be eliminated by one game after 162 games in which they have amassed the 3rd and 4th best records in baseball is just tremendously stupid. I’m not sure precisely how to fix it without wreaking havoc, but good grief.
Real simple.
Eliminate interleague play.
Keep the divisions so teams can feel good about winning a divisional title.
No playoffs, best record in each league goes to the World Series. (3 or 5 game playoff in case of a tie.)
Which, of course, may not help the Cubs or Pirates this year…
I will say it’s a bit silly to be complaining about having to win a play-in game with the 3rd or 4th best record, when you don’t have to go back very far at all to find a time when having anything less than the second-best record means tough shit.
Or, to be more direct, there’s still plenty of season left. You want to make the NLDS, come catch the Cards.
It’s not obvious, though, that they are necessarily the third and fourth best teams in baseball. Maybe they just get to beat up on shittier teams than, say, the Blue Jays and Yankees and Astros do. And where were they in 2006 when the Cardinals won the division 82-79?
It is inevitable that a playoff system will create situations where a good team doesn’t have a chance a team with a slightly worse record does.
Another issue: the teams that are the best over the course of the whole season are not necessarily the best teams at the end of the season, thanks to all the things that happen over the course of the season: trades, injuries, call-ups, improvement, exhaustion…
It’s a matter of opinion how you want to weight the two types of “best.” running coach’s plan of “best record in each league goes to the World Series” leans entirely on the former, but could lead to a World Series between two exhausted teams with all their best players on the DL.
