The Astros have received permission to interview Tampa Bay Rays general manager

I hope he decides to take the GM position. Would be great!

 

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastro...ive-permission-to-interview-rays-gm-friedman/


. . . .

I don't think he takes it but, hey, good that he's at least interviewing.

 

If we're cutting payroll to rebuild this team, than you pay this man what he deserves plus a little extra to do the job. The astros have no business being a **** organization especially with the freaking rangers dominating the AL.

Pay Friedman and let him turn this thing around. Don't get cheap here Crane.

 

The Astros are willing to pay Friedman very, very, very well.... if he declines taking the job it won't be because of financial considerations.

Essentially the Astros are asking Friedman to give up all the close relationships he has developed in Tampa to do the same job in Houston.

As much as he loves Houston and his family, based on the little I know, I don't think he will turn his back on his collegues in Tampa.

 

Well, Sternberg has openly expressed his displeasure with the low fan attendance and financial situation in Tampa. Also, he was previously rumored to be a potential buyer for the Mets (although that was just a rumor). So, maybe if these feelings/rumors materialized into anything, or they told Friedman behind the scenes that they could materialize, Friedman would be more likely to leave.

And are we really not going to interview Hunsicker? Maybe that means we think we have a chance to get Friedman...

 

get it done CD!

 

Not for GM. That'd kind of be a demotion for him, wouldn't it? He hasn't been a GM since he left us 7 years ago. Now if we tried to lure him away to take Tal Smith's old job, that's a different story. That'd be a promotion.

 

Ah, right. It would seem weird if we were to take both from the Rays. Seems like it would/should be one or the other.

Hunsicker does still own a home in Memorial.

 

Some Rays fans want compensation if Friedman does leave, go ahead and take Carlos Lee or/and Brandon Lyon

 

shouldn't the title read: "The Rays Give Friedman Permission to Interview the Astros"? doesn't seem like much questioning needs to be done on our end.

 

from what I hear..if he doesn't leave for this situation, he'll never leave Tampa. the Astros were his boyhood team...he's a big fan. Crane is gonna dump an assload of money his direction. I think he's going to make it a very tough choice for Friedman, to say the least.

 

Strangely enough, had we been staying in the NL, I think he'd be more intrigued to come to a league where he doesn't have to compete with the Yankees-Red Sox-Rangers on a yearly basis (much like Theo Epstein did).

Now, it strictly has to be about Houston vs. Tampa. One is a solid baseball marked currently ostracized by losing and being forced to switch leagues. The other is an awful baseball market that will NEVER get better, no matter how many division winning/pennant winning/playoff appearences you deliver. Tampa, despite its success is the definition of a city that does not deserve a franchise, cannot really support a franchise, and should honesly be either moved or contracted to a city that can/will. If he whiffs on ANY of the high round draft picks, or they don't get adequate quality back when they trade their pending star free agents, they will suddenly be just what the Oakland A's are now.

I guess Billy Beane never left Oakland, but the Red Sox were not his hometown team either. I'd put the odds at 40% right now... if he had absolutely zero interest, he wouldn't be taking the interview.

 

Interesting tidbits. Any guy that remembers Game 6 as "traumatic" is ok in my book:

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastro...to-throw-a-pitch-to-rays-wunderkind-friedman/

For the last six months, Jim Crane and George Postolos have had just one wish with regard to Andrew Friedman.

That is, they wanted the opportunity to sit down with the Tampa Bay Rays’ general manager and pitch him the idea of coming back to his hometown and running the baseball team he grew up rooting for.


They believe Friedman will listen to their pitch. Whether the conversation goes any further is a separate issue. They’ll tell him he’ll have the freedom — and the resources — to shape the franchise’s baseball operation to his liking.


“I grew up going to the Astrodome,” Andrew told me in 2008. “A lot of kids go off to summer camp. My summer camp was going to Astros games.”

He started memorizing the statistics on baseball cards when he was 4.

“When my mom would leave the house, I’d sit by the door and lay out all my baseball cards along the corridor,” he said. “I’d spend hours engrossed in the players and the stats and different teams.”

He hung out at visiting teams’ hotels, collecting autographs and striking up conversations. The Tampa Tribune reported he once gave Tony Gwynn 60 cards to sign.

“Come back tomorrow,” Gwynn told him.

He showed up the next day, and Gwynn had signed every card. He became such a familiar face that players gave him bats, wristbands and hats. He remembers the Astros’ 1986 16-inning playoff loss to the Mets as being “traumatic.”

Friedman graduated from Episcopal High, played baseball at Tulane and got a degree in finance. From there, he was off to New York to work as an analyst for MidMark Capital and Bear Stearns.

That he’s No. 1 on Crane’s list speaks volumes that the Astros are going to be dramatically different. They may lose for another year or two, but convincing Friedman to return home would be a huge step in the right direction.

 

That would be a major coup, indeed.

 

Friedman would completely change the dynamics of the organization. It is not so much that he is brilliant, as it is that he would hire hard working smart people through out the organization.

I agree with Nick, the fact that we are in the AL now, I believe hurts us.

 

Eh, does it really though?? You don't think he would embrace the challenge of turning this franchise around and competing against teams he knows EXTREMELY well?? He just spent the last several years taking down the teams of the AL with a Rays team that used about 25% of the payroll of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rangers. I think, if anything, it actually might work in our favor. At the end of the day, I believe the draw of coming home, turning the Astros into a perennial contender, and becoming a cult hero will ultimately prevail. At least I really, really hope so.

 

I'd be so stoked if they hired Friedman. I don't think the AL thing will hurt. He'd be leaving the AL East for a much more evenly-balanced division in the AL West. We are capable of spending as much or more than as Anaheim, Seattle, and Texas.
I think he's done as much as he can do in Tampa with their budget and fan support. We will never be the Yankess, Red Sox, or Cubs, but we can be an upper middle-class spending team like the Braves of the 90s or Cardinals of the 2000s, and that would be 2 or 3 times the amount of money he has to work with in Tampa.
I hope he's ready to come home for a new challenge.

 

See theyre ticking off the 4 dozen Tamp Bay fans already creating new rivals

 

↑↑ outstanding.