New GM: Dana Brown

I don't think Click will have a hard time finding another job. He performed relatively well here and if anything his firing probably limited Crane's options more than it limited Click's options moving forward. I don't think an established exec like Stearns or Sig is going to come work for Crane after what he pulled.

 

I like it.

 

What did Crane pull?

And Sig isn't necessarily a GM commodity at the moment or on anybody's radar, is he?

Stearns, or any other GM candidate, would certainly want to work for an organization with this much talent and this much pedigree of success.

 

People have some sense about you.

He didn't sign for a year.

This is our guy for the remainder of this decade at minimum.

 

He treated Click like **** making him sweat over a new contract in the final year of his original one only to give him a one year offer in the off-season for reasons unknown. Imagine having as much success as Click had in Houston only to be treated like that by your boss? Why come here when you can be pushed out irrespective of your own success because the boss and his drinking buddies don't like you?

 

He was here for 3 years with continued questions as to how much of an impact Click actually had. He also wasn't on the cusp of getting tons of GM offers elsewhere and wouldn't have gotten one here if not for the scandal. By year 2 Crane was likely ready to move on regardless of success, hence why he didn't give him a new deal. Then you add him being wrong about JV, Yuli, Pena, with continued dysfunction with Dusty, and it wasn't that hard of a decision. Not sure why you're bringing personal insults and "drinking buddy" rhetoric into this.

Click's unprofessionalism at the meetings is why he may not get a ton of opportunities any time soon.

 

What is this damn infatuation with Ausmus?

F Ausmus and honestly F Bagwell's feelings on the matter.

Get a grip people.

 

He has a more diverse background than it looks at first blush. He wore a lot of hats with the Blue Jays and with the Braves.

As far as questioning if he is innovative, he worked a lot with Mike Fast (formally of the Astros) who is extremely innovative. He also is willing to take risks, he has drafted players higher than expected and has switched positions on some guys like Michael Harris.

Will he HIRE innovative people? I don't know if we know for sure, but because of his strong relationship with Fast and that he has his own formula of evaluation, I would think so.

If you look at the players he took in Atlanta (where he got to pick who he wanted according to the Braves GM), it is fairly progressive and he is known to use analytics as well.

At the end of the day, he has a very strong background in scouting in the USA and Latin America. When he was with the Jays, he had a lot of input in who they went after. He also played a part in setting up the Braves player development system and minor league systems.

Can he make good trades? I cannot answer that, but he is very passionate and he will most likely get Crane to spend a lot on the farm system and that is a pretty good start.

 

Crane now has a black manager and a black general manager... and Enos Cabell is also high up in the organization. If he really hated black people like the claims made years ago, I don't think he would have so many people of color so high in the organization.

As for Brown, there are no guarantees but the general response from Atlanta has been that he will be sorely missed and it will hurt them.

 

I was referring to @Nick 's post above me. I'm not saying he signed for 1 year.

 

Dana you’re needed with the Rockets and Texans also

 

Major props to @Nook for calling this a ways back. Appreciate the great insight you continue to provide.

 

I can answer this question.....a lot of the younger GM's over the last dozen or so years were put on the executive track. In other words, if they did a good job, they would potentially move up fast in the organization. Also, many of the guys that moved up fast came from Ivy League schools with special degrees.

Brown came into the league way back in 1994 as a scout and there was never any view of him as a potential front office guy. He was with the Pirates as a scout in the Northeastern region of the USA for almost a decade. He was then offered the job of scouting director of the Expos, a job that had very little budget for scouting. He did that through the move to Washington D.C and had a lot of success.

The first real opportunity he had for a job in the front office was in 2009 with the Blue Jays. He took the job because he was tired of being pigeon holed in scouting and wanted to get into other areas. He was very successful with the Jays and moved to the Braves when they agreed to name him a Vice President.

If you look at his career, he is very loyal and doesn't hop around much. He was turning down interviews with other teams because of his loyalty.

 

I disagree.

Crane has won a lot, has shown a willingness to spend money on the organization and has won a lot. The situation with Click is a "one-off" so far, and he was hired in a short window of time after the scandal. Also, it isn't like Crane fired him, he worked through his contract.

As for Click, I am sure he will get another job, possibly with the Rays. He is still very close to a lot of people in Tampa and is known as very laid back and down to earth. I suspect the draft he just had, will be remembered as a good one. Under the radar, the Astros internally are very high on that outfielder, Melton, that they drafted.

 

We know why Crane didn't offer him an extension going into the last year of his deal. Crane wasn't confident that Click was the best choice to lead the organization and there were also personality problems. Click and the manager didn't get along, Click and Crane didn't always get along either.

So while it is very unusual for a GM to not get an extension offer of longer than one season, it also wasn't entirely unexpected. It had been known for sometime that there were issues between Click and some in the organization.

Click screwed up in how he conducted himself at the meetings after the season, that will not help him with future GM job prospects.

Having said that, Click did a lot of good things too...... but it was a perfect storm of Click being wrong on 4-5 major things over the last couple of years that cost him his job.

I can see if from both sides honestly.

 

I wonder what Luhnow thinks about all of this.

 

delete

 

Crane is the opposite of Cal.