Dodgers hire new GM

[mojorisin71]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2225383

THIS is Dodger tradition?

[Bluesteve32]

First an Oakland assistand now a SF one. McCondo must love the bay area people, too.

[Jake83]

Colletii is a decent baseball man but not someone who is worthy of the Dodger GM role

[dabum1]

disappointing...

[ElCaminoSS]

disappointing...
exactly wat im saying :(

[Elvis]

Reserving judgement...

[Ravenlord]

:laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh
the irony is just delicious.

[Elvis]

:atthepc From Baseball Prospectus:

Ned Colletti's finishing his seventh season as Assistant General Manager of the San Francisco Giants. A former sportswriter who got his start in baseball in the Cubs public relations department, Colletti cut his teeth under Dallas Green and Jim Frey in Chicago and Bob Quinn and Brian Sabean in San Francisco. One of the most prolific contract negotiators in the game, he's completed about 350 player contracts worth $750 million during his career, including the last two Barry Bonds contracts for the Giants. Colletti and GM Brian Sabean have presided over a Giants team that's been eliminated from playoff contention for a total of 11 days over the last seven years, on track for a fourth playoff appearance this season. He recently chatted with BP about the role of an assistant GM, the Sidney Ponson trade, and why the Giants sign and trade for the players they do.

Baseball Prospectus: What's a typical day for you? What's your role with the Giants?

Ned Colletti: Though we haven't done this as much this year, in the past Brian (Sabean) and I would take a walk after most games, sometimes for as much as two hours. We'd go through every player on the team, talk about everyone, who's performing well, what areas do we need to improve. Between the two of us we watch every game, often together, talking about everything we can do to make the team better.

My role here encompasses a lot of things I'm not sure every other assistant GM gets a chance to do. One of Brian (Sabean)'s strengths is his ability to delegate--there are no territorial problems here. In that sense he's been great with me in broadening the scope of my career. He's helped me in making trades, to where now everyone's open to suggestions and anyone--whether it's myself, Brian, or (VP, Player Personnel) Tidrow--might be the person to go after a deal.

Brian knows to take advantage of people's strengths too--I don't think he's done a contract in the last seven years, because he knows that's an area where I feel comfortable, and it's one of the things he allows me to run completely...I've done the last two Bonds contracts here, and I'll also do the deal for the last man on the 40-man roster. The same way people have scouting reports on players, I have them on agents. I go way back with a lot of them--I've argued with them, talked to them, had a drink with them. I want to know who's pulling my leg, who stretches the truth from time to time, who has the player's best interests in mind and who has his own best interests in mind.

BP: When the Giants re-signed Bonds those two times, as great as he'd been, did you have any idea how good he'd be given his age? How did you get a contract done that would keep Bonds happy while making sure the Giants got a good deal out of it?

Colletti: Of all the contracts I've done--and that includes Ryne Sandberg for $28 million which was at the time the biggest deal ever, a Greg Maddux contract with the Cubs, Bonds' first contract extension--none had as many twists and turns as the last Bonds contract. We're talking about a player who's if not the best one of the best to ever play. He's invaluable to the franchise, he'd just broken the single-season home run record the year before and he'd raised his game to a level never seen before.

That said, whenever we'd talk to Scott Boras about a deal, he'd say 'whoever signs Barry would get home run number 700, 715 and hopefully number 756 included,' plus the farewell tour and everything else that went with him. We all believed in keeping all that in San Francisco. But we also knew we couldn't pay high dollar figures for a player who wouldn't perform in the later years of the deal. We also didn't want to have to play Bonds and eight Fresno Grizzlies every day.

Brian and I talked almost every day after the All-Star break that year then every day in the off-season, along with Peter Magowan and Larry Baer. We finally sat down and massaged the numbers until we had an idea of what we could pay. Then when we sat down at the Winter Meetings, they wanted money near the A-Rod level, plus a signing bonus. We said we couldn't pay that kind of money, we could pay a signing bonus, but for the deal to work cash flow-wise, we had to defer some of the compensation. At the end of the day we knew that Barry's desire to stay was huge, as was our desire to keep him. We were both willing to be creative, and eventually we got it done.

The final deal was for five years ($90 million), though we have a way out of the fifth year, based on number of plate appearances--basically an injury clause. Barry had always shown a willingness to be charitable within the community, so we put some of that in writing. Plus he has a deal for 10 years after he's done playing, at $100,000 a year, to keep him around the Giants, have him do appearances, work with young players, things like that. One amazing thing about this franchise is the number of past greats doing this already--Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Jim Davenport, Vida Blue, Bobby (Bonds) before he passed away. It's really like a big extended family.

BP: One of the biggest fears with that deal, or really with any deal, has to be weighing past performance vs. how you think a player will perform in the future, especially in the case of older players. How do the Giants try to mitigate the risk of a player not performing up to his past standards?

Colletti: Well we always keep past performance in mind, because that's still one of the best predictors for future performance we have. But when we're signing a player, especially an older one, many times it's not the dollar figure that holds you back, it's the number of years. We can't send $5 million to a mailbox because the player we have under contract isn't playing anymore.

BP: How much of a role does (Head Athletic Trainer) Stan Conte and his staff play in making sure those mailbox checks aren't sent in terms of injury prevention and keeping guys on the field?

Colletti: We find that players who have been with us for a while tend to stay in shape and injury-free more so than some of the players we acquire. Stan and (Assistant Athletic Trainer) Barney Nugent and (Assistant Athletic Trainer) Dave Groeschner work these players 11 months a year. They're all given their own conditioning program, and we make sure they're pretty religious with it, watching them almost non-stop. When we acquire a player, they're surprised at how much effort is put into conditioning, and it usually takes players that whole first season to get into that kind of good shape.

BP: Is there a specific age group you look for when pursuing free agents?

Colletti: It varies as far as age goes. We signed Jose Cruz Jr. in his late 20s. Alfonzo was around 30, Durham a little over 30. Marquis (Grissom) was in his mid-30s. It's just a matter of how long we believe a player can be productive at the dollars they're being paid.

A big thing we look for is to find overachievers. When we acquired J.T. Snow, Jose Vizcaino, Jeff Kent--all those guys were character players who had something to prove.

When we had Matt (Williams) and Barry, they made up something like 30% of the payroll, so we knew we had to trade one of them, and it had to be Matt. Cleveland came forward, and we were looking at Kent. People would tell us he's a selfish player, a loner, not a glowing report at all. So we went back to the Mets organization--where he'd played before--and we asked them what we could expect. They said he'd play hard every day. Would he go to all the team parties? No. Some teammates maybe didn't appreciate that he's a quiet guy who preferred spending time with his family, and that on the field he was all business. He came to us as a good player, and he left as a great player, a potential Hall of Famer.

BP: The Giants have fared much better against lefty pitchers (.281/.360/.482) this year than against righties (.256/.328/.401). Does the team take platoon splits into account when putting together the roster every year?

Colletti: Not really. We concentrated more on being more athletic. Having played Anaheim in the World Series, seeing them go first to third and other things like that, we wanted to bring some of that to our own team, run more, steal bases. It hasn't worked out as far as stolen bases go with Cruz not running as much and Durham being hurt. But we'd also stressed increasing our versatility and depth, and we feel with Neifi (Perez), (Pedro) Feliz, Galarraga, Jeffrey Hammonds and some other players, we've done that.

BP: You mentioned Neifi Perez. This was a player who last year, and really throughout his career, has been one of the worst hitters in baseball. You got him off waivers, non-tendered him, then signed him to a two-year contract (for $4.25 million plus bonuses). What made the Giants believe he was worth that much money? Were there no other alternatives out there? Could someone like say, Cody Ransom have done the same job for the league minimum instead?

Colletti: When we were first in conversations with Neifi, we didn't know what would happen with Kent, or David Bell, and we had players like Reggie Sanders and Kenny Lofton possibly leaving too. So we really wanted a player who was versatile, who could play a bunch of positions for us to help make up for those losses. Talking to Felipe (Alou) about him, he said Neifi could play second, shortstop and third, that he'd be an above-average fielder, a guy who'd occasionally get a big hit and who knew how to play the game. We felt that was a player we could use.

BP: More and more we're hearing about the concept of a GM being the boss and the field manager being like a middle manager in the company. How do you and Brian Sabean interact with Felipe Alou? Does (Alou) have a lot of say in player personnel decisions? Does the front office get involved in a lot of on-field decisions?

Colletti: We have great conversations with Felipe. He's seen so many different things in the game. Even when we have a brief conversation to say hello, you can learn so much. There's really no 'play this guy', 'or hit this guy' going on though. Once in a while, if we want to make a suggestion, we might say something like, 'what would you think about...'? But there are no mandates. We trust the manager to do his job. It goes back to Brian's style: he delegates and he doesn't micromanage other people's positions.

[Lasptsfan]

McCourt is an Idiot, he does not know anything about the DODGER tradition and there way's. He hired a SF GIANT executive to be our GM he now contaminated our whole system, all the DODGER greats are rolling around in there graves !!

[Lasptsfan]

:grouchy :eek:
McCourt is an Idiot, he does not know anything about the DODGER tradition and there way's. He hired a SF GIANT executive to be our GM he now contaminated our whole system, all the DODGER greats are rolling around in there graves !!

[Elvis]

McCourt is an Idiot, he does not know anything about the DODGER tradition and there way's. He hired a SF GIANT executive to be our GM he now contaminated our whole system, all the DODGER greats are rolling around in there graves !!

:grouchy :laugh :coffee :atthepc :confused: :) :rolleyes: :eek: :crazy

[DODGER DEB]

First an Oakland assistand now a SF one. McCondo must love the bay area people, too.


Well, BS32, it certainly looks like THE BROOKLYN CURSE is alive and well.....and has literally taking over McCourt's "brain"!

I am sure you will soon be hearing from OUR good Professor, who will be delighted at the course his "Curse" has chosen to take.

c.

[RedSox2004]

I still fear McCourt will wind up with the Red Sox in a couple of years.

I don't think the problem is with Frank as much as it is with Jamie. She REALLY thinks she knows baseball.

[DODGER DEB]

I still fear McCourt will wind up with the Red Sox in a couple of years.

I don't think the problem is with Frank as much as it is with Jamie. She REALLY thinks she knows baseball.


BINGO!!!!

c.

[UnderPressure]

I still fear McCourt will wind up with the Red Sox in a couple of years.

Man, that's scary... and true.

[RedSox2004]

What a trifecta

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

I don't know what the LA Dodger tradition is, but just give the guy a chance. Maybe he is a hell of a GM.

[donzblock]

Thanks to the Curse, the LA NL team was never able to get near Theo Epstein. This new gentleman, as you will see, will prove to be just what the Curse ordered. My goodness, what a scourge has been turned loose to plague thee.

[mojorisin71]

I don't know what the LA Dodger tradition is, but just give the guy a chance. Maybe he is a hell of a GM.

I can't root against anyone working for the Dodgers, even if he was previously a Giant (i.e. Brett Butler, Jeff Kent, etc.). But if he wasn't the top candidate for the job, and it took almost a month to fill the position, it says a lot about the value of the Dodgers' GM job.

[DownUnderDodger]

Reserving judgement...

Me too....who knows, this maybe a master stroke!! :noidea Does anyone know if Kim Ng will remain as assistant GM?

Now to see who will be brought in as manager.

[Elvis]

Me too....who knows, this maybe a master stroke!! :noidea Does anyone know if Kim Ng will remain as assistant GM?

Now to see who will be brought in as manager.

Hopefully Ng will stay to be groomed a little more to succeed the position eventually. I doubt if Colletti will pick Orel for manager, or anyone else, that isn't a long-proven M.L. manager.

I'm optimistic about the coming season! Bring it on!:gt

[DODGER DEB]

The NY Times take on the Dodgers passing over KAREN NG for the GM job. Pay particular attention to the fact that McCourt now has almost his entire family running this club, all with little or no experience....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/17/sports/baseball/17dodgers.html?th&emc=th

c.

[Jake83]

Colleti's honeymoon will lasted a short time. The guy looks like Super Mario and according to reports he walks around with Snake skin boots and chains. You can not get any more Italian than him

[Elvis]

Colleti's honeymoon will lasted a short time. The guy looks like Super Mario and according to reports he walks around with Snake skin boots and chains. You can not get any more Italian than him


Wow... with fans like you, who needs enemies.:(

Go over to the other side, will you?:mad:

[nor*cal_UCD]

first let me just say, 'may the dodgers never win another game', im sorry it is important to the well being of all giants fan that the dodgers never win... :gt

i agree with most of you barring the stupid little man who had to take it to a racist level. as a life long giants fan, and firm believer/supporter of the rivalry, i consider it to be an abomination that a former giant or former dodger should ever, ever, fricking ever switch sides, even if a player spent as little as a month wearing the jersey, now for an executive who spent as many years as colletti did with the giants to go over to the dodgers is no less a sin against both teams then it would have been if jackie robinson had accepted the trade to the giants rather than to retire in your blue... and your owner or whoever hired colletti should be run out of town faster then you can say lickety split

p.s. i hate the dodgers, go giants, hope to see some of you out at pac bell, and may the rivalry never be tarnished by the likes of swarmy idiot owners

[Elvis]

p.s. i hate the dodgers, go giants, hope to see some of you out at pac bell, and may the rivalry never be tarnished by the likes of swarmy idiot owners

Pac Bell/Sbc/AT&T.

Candlestick/3-Com/Monster

Oakland/UMAX/Network Associates/McAfee

What is it with your stadiums up there? :crazy

[Bluesteve32]

What a trifecta



I keep looking at that pic and am still thinking that Jamie and Bug have something going on between them. :eek: But, then again, what woman would have wanted to be with Bug in the last decade or so?

[Elvis]

Oh, I almost forgot...

Anaheim/Edison International/Angel

and

San Diego/Jack Murphy/Qualcomm

[Bluesteve32]

Why not go after The Fabulous Forum and the Great Western Forum? That was among the first venues to sell naming rights.

It was wonderful that O'Malley got to trade the deed to old Wrigley Field for the much bigger acarage of Chavez Ravine and was able to build a private stadium on land virtually given to them by the city who also evicted the residents of that land, too.

Don't be surprised if McBankrupt does sell some sort of naming agreement for the Ravine, that is before he moves the team to a new ballpark and build those condos on that land. ;)

[Elvis]

Why not go after The Fabulous Forum and the Great Western Forum? That was among the first venues to sell naming rights.

Well let's see Blue...

a) I was only listing venues that had more than 2 official names changes, like Anaheim Stadium.

b) The Forum doesn't fall into that category.

c) I knew it would piss you off to mention the Big A/Ed/A.

d) Yeah, that's about it. Oh, and the Forum these days is known as, "The Forum", just like it was in 1967. The "Fabulous" nickname was given by Chick Hearn as requested by nutty Jack Kent Cooke.

[Bluesteve32]

The Big A, was almost three different stadiums, too in three configuarations and most casual baseball fan in the area actually prefers that venue to you hallowed ballpark. Frankly, I don't care what they supposedly call the Big A, I'll just go to games and enjoy myself. You did not mention that the venue made you list by having three names, you know that was coincidental.

Oh yeah, the "Fabulous" part of the Forum was a Jack Kent Cooke thing that he had the Kings' Jiggs McDonald and the Lakers' Chick Hearn to promote his new building. BTW, the Forum was built because of the Kings and not the Lakers and "Fabulous" was printed on the ticket stubs. Cooke decided to build the Forum when the head of the Coliseum Commission gave him problems because he receive the rights to the new expansion NHL franchise (the Kings) and he said he would build his own building. The head of the CC said, "HA! HA! HA!" in a scarcastic tone, and decides that day to build what became the Forum. The Kings opened the Forum in December 1967 on a CBS nationally televised event, and I believe lost to the Flyers, to whom they finished one point behind in the final and primier Western Divison Standings for the 1967-68 season.

Don't worry, McCourt will sell some sort of naming rights to the Ravine.

[Elvis]

You did not mention that the venue made you list by having three names, you know that was coincidental.

I didn't mention it because it was bloody obvious! :laugh And no, it wasn't coincidental, it just went right over your head. :noidea :dance

Oh, by the way, I'm "mentioning" that today is Sunday in case you thought it was a coincidence that tomorrow's Monday.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

I don't understand, why didn't Karen Ng get the job? :noidea

[Elvis]

Another interesting hindsight thread...