"publicly ponder", "threaten"... use whatever word you would like...none of them fit the mold of somebody who has "preserving history" at the forefront of their priorities, nor does being ok with moving a team with their entire 50+ year history in the NL to the AL. and forgive my cynicism for thinking that product sales may have been the larger reason for the uniform change than his sentimentality. but i didn't intend to devolve this thread into jim crane bashing. truth be told, aside from his slimeball past and the move to the AL, i love everything he has done.
My response was in reply to Major basically suggesting that Nolan Ryan could come in and be our Major League GM, while Luhnow would be our Minor League GM.
Nolan Ryan wouldn't be any kind of GM - just as he wasn't with the Rangers. He would be an executive with input in decision making and lots of PR / face-of-the-franchise responsibilities. And he'd be able to provide experience when Luhnow starts doing more MLB-level work as the team (hopefully) develops into a contender.
am i missing something? didn't mean that you literally wanted "Major League GM" on Nolan Ryan's business card. you are saying that you want him to hold luhnow's hand with any important decisions at the MLB level 2 or 3 years down the road and 4 or 5 years into luhnow's tenure as GM until the organization feels that luhnow is all grows up and the training wheels can come off the bike.
It seems evident that the only kind of job the Astros could offer Ryan would be a lesser one than he had with the Rangers. Much less. Scouting? Clemons kind of deal? Assistant Pitching Coach? Player development? Dont think he would accept anything in any of these areas, but maybe he his ready to settle down closer to Alvin and live a lower key life.
Is this really that complex? People don't make decisions in a vacuum - teams have braintrusts. They bounce ideas off multiple people. GMs get input from owners, team Presidents, assistant GMs, scouts, etc. I'm suggesting having an exec with significant, successful experience at the major league level could be beneficial for a GM that has none. How hard is this? I'm also suggesting that the idea that since Luhnow has done a great job so far, we should assume he's perfect and not to try to improve the front office or provide any additional experience to the team is dumb.
I don't have a problem with Nolan Ryan joining the Astros in some capacity nor do I dismiss that he would be helpful to them here in Houston. However, the idea that he was "integral" to getting the Rangers to the World Series is ludicrous. The Rangers went to the World Series by basically going against the one mantra that Nolan Ryan said was important. They used their relievers more than any team in baseball.
He's also the guy that pushed to convert their ace starter for those WS teams into a starting pitcher: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/albert_chen/10/20/rangers.wilson/index.html Wilson often thinks back to The Talk -- the day that everything began to change for him. "It can be really intimidating to go up to a living legend and ask him what he thinks about what you're doing," he says. "But it turned into a one-and-a-half hour conversation in his office." At the time he was a frustrated major league baseball player who "saw the writing on the wall that I'd never be a closer here. And setup guys don't have long careers. That's what I told Nolan. And he was open to listening to me. He liked my repertoire, he liked that I could do a bunch of different things with the ball, that I was a ground ball pitcher, was good at throwing inside, and I wasn't scared of certain types of hitters." Added Wilson, "Nolan was the first guy that was in my corner with me being a starting pitcher. He's a big, big reason why I'm in the rotation."
So he makes a good spring training instructor. Individual cases of him giving good advice to or about a pitcher are not indicative of him being a game changer as a baseball executive. I'm not saying he's a bad one. I just think his biggest value to the Astros would be as a figure head. Just like the Rangers apparently think.
Fine without him. Connection between Nolan and the Rangers success seems greatly overstated.(With Jon Daniels not getting enough credit.) Buster Olney's blog Cowlishaw: If Daniels and Ryan can't coexist, Rangers should show Nolan the door The Biz of Baseball: What happens if Nolan Ryan leaves the Rangers? Justice: Here's to Jon Daniels [and Nolan Ryan], who's[who've both] been good for Texas. Rosenthal: Texas better not lose Ryan
There's a wide gap between "game changer" and "figure head". I don't see why it has to be one or the other. My point on Wilson is that he's the primary reason they had an ace pitcher, which tends to be integral to making the playoffs and winning in the playoffs. So he - along with many other people and some luck - were fairly important to putting everything together to make those WS runs.
From the last article posted by J.R.: Frankly, I find it difficult to believe that Daniels would be party to such a thing. He and Ryan come from quite different backgrounds – Ryan is a baseball lifer from Texas, Daniels a Cornell graduate from Queens, New York – but the consensus among Rangers people is that they enjoy an excellent working relationship. Ryan has served as a valuable sounding board for Daniels, helping him mature and grow as an executive. And while the two have had differences – notably, when Ryan hired former Astros GM Tim Purpura as farm director – so what? All front offices experience creative tension. Some on the baseball side bristle that Ryan too often receives credit for the Rangers’ success when it’s Daniels and his assistants who do the bulk of the work. Again, who cares? Ryan doesn’t ask for credit, doesn’t operate with a heavy hand. And the reality is, he’s the one who brought pitching coach Mike Maddux to Texas and helped smooth out the Michael Young mess before the 2011 season, among other things. I don't see why this same thing couldn't potentially apply with the Astros - just as Hunsicker and the Tampa Bay GM benefited from their partnership after TB had stocked up a strong farm system but no major league success.
you realize there is already one in place, right? i don't want to have to say "too many cooks spoil the broth" again. nolan ryan would come with an ego, and whether he's even worth a crap as an executive is debatable in the first place (as witnessed in this very thread). well i'm suggesting that there's also a chance that nolan ryan could come in and be a negative impact on whatever personnel decision-making that you want him to play a role in. firing 100 mph fastballs 30 years ago doesn't equate to brains and good decision-making. maybe the rockets can lure michael jordan away from the bobcats and see if he can show morey a thing or two.
You can choose to believe what you want but I can tell you for a fact that the Rangers were a gutter team when JD for here and they continued to be a gutter team after JD was here. It was not until Tom Hicks hired Nolan to run the team that the Rangers went from the outhouse to the penthouse. This is a fact. John Daniels was brought in by John Heart when he was the GM so he is not a Nolan hire. When Heart left Daniels took over as GM and and most people thought he did a horrible job. When Nolan took over as team President most people called for him to fire John Danniels but Nolan would not knee jerk and fire him. Nolan has been an outstanding baseball exec and its just wrong to assume otherwise. The Rangers turned around when Nolan took over and it's no coincedence.
That's not what's being said now. NOW it's come out that it was the other two owners (Simpson & Davis) who were behind forcing out Greenberg. Nolan was just providing them with cover. I find it quite entertaining that the Dallas radio waves are being saturated with this story. If only you could hear the sheer stupidity of the talking heads (Team Nolan vs. Team JD) who have tried to rationalize this ad nauseum. The story changes hourly and I've been worn down by the incessant chattering and speculation. What's driving all this is an unspoken fear that the Rangers may have peaked and aren't the same team that went to the past two World Series. The timing of all this is most interesting because if Ryan is indeed out the door, then the clock has to be ticking on Ron Washington as well which would be a mistake but that never stopped a Dallas team before. Just ask Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban.
I realize my views on any Dallas area team should be taken with a grain of salt, but on paper alone that point is inarguable. Of course, you don't play baseball on paper.
Yeah, I agree 100%. But in the end, it really doesn't matter as it's becoming increasing obvious that Nolan's days here are numbered. Well, for Daniel's sake, they (Rangers) had better get back to the WS or the fallout will be epic...at least in the press. The Rangersheep - much like their Cowsheep bretheren - will continue to flock to the stadium, buy the merchandise and line up for tickets (105K tix sold last Saturday).
They stopped showing up during the September fade last year...and the lone playoff game they hosted in Arlington was not a sellout. They've had a bad offseason. They've swung and missed on every FA they wanted to acquire...they lost Hamilton to a division rival...and from a fan perspective, Mr. Ranger (Michael Young) will be playing elsewhere. Last year was the first season in the team's history that they drew 3 million fans. Will be interesting to see how it goes this season.
