Dusty Baker??? I must confess to not watching ESPN more than 2 or 3 times a year. [old joke]Whoever this new GM is, he darn sure better have a plan B![/old joke]
please please please please please please please no dusty baker. drayton, if you're checking in with the fans here....please no dusty. i'm begging you. i like him as an analyst on ESPN...i don't want him as my team's coach.
Yikes. Dusty Baker. Woof. If he gets hired, all the pitchers on the team better get Dr. Andrews on speed dial.
The first thing that comes to my mind with Baker is his 3 year old son almost getting run over in the World Series as a bat boy, not smart.
Couple more names to the list, and one removed: Smith out of Astros' running Aug 30 - Former Tigers GM Randy Smith is out of the mix for the Astros' job, reports ESPN's Keith Law. Others now reportedly in the running, though, are Indians assistant GM Chris Antonetti, White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn and Padres GM Kevin Towers. Law reported that the initial list of candidates included Smith, the son of Astros president and current interim GM Tal Smith; former Dodgers GM Dan Evans; Dodgers assistant GM Logan White; and Dan Jennings, the Marlins' VP of player personnel. Link
Had Mr. Law read the paper the day before, he would have seen the Astros eliminated him as a candidate at the press conference!
A few more candidates added on the list.... Five and Fly: Astros are lost in space By Tim Brown Thursday, Aug 30, 2007 2:59 pm EDT As the Houston Astros begin the process of filling the space beneath Drayton McLane's thumb, opinions differ over whether this particular general manager's job is one worth pursuing. This much we know: There are qualified baseball people who, given the freedom to do the work, would turn the Astros into something other than the last-place team they've become. McLane and president Tal Smith say they will contact potential candidates next week, a list that should include Dan Evans (Seattle), Mark Newman (New York Yankees), Tony Bernazard (New York Mets), Chris Antonetti (Cleveland Indians), Ruben Amaro Jr. (Philadelphia), David Forst (Oakland), Tony LaCava (Toronto) and David Wilder and Rick Hahn (Chicago White Sox). It might also include two other interesting possibilities in Walt Jocketty, who has a team option in St. Louis for 2008, and Bob Watson, the former Yankees GM and Astros player currently doling out discipline for MLB. Unless Jocketty comes free, there does not appear to be a hammer candidate out there. Unlike recent searches in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston (briefly), Arizona and Kansas City, Pat Gillick's got a job, John Hart seems reasonably content in Texas, Gerry Hunsicker has a good gig in Tampa Bay, and Theo Epstein has come to terms with life in Boston. That throws open the job to a broad assortment of youth and age, Moneyballers and old schoolers, and, if it means anything to McLane and Smith, guys who played and guys who didn't. Depending on who is doing the talking, the Astros are a disaster with more disaster ahead or a sleeping giant, a franchise that spends money in a winnable division. One Astros official called the firings of Tim Purpura and Phil Garner a mistake, saying, "It masked what ails us. The players aren't very good." Of course, Purpura had at least some responsibility for that. But, an American League front-office man countered, "That's where you want to be, in the National League Central right now. You don't have to do too much." Considering McLane's heavy-handed nature, one assistant GM said, the job might be less suited for some of the younger candidates – Antonetti or Forst, say – than for those who've been through it before: Jocketty, Evans, former Philadelphia GM Ed Wade, even Newman, who has not been a GM in title but has experienced his share of intrusive ownership. "I think it's going to be more of an established guy," he said. Yahoo Sports MLB Blog
Probably someone just throwing names out there. Towers had an option for 2008 that was picked up last year.
id like the dodger's guy logan white. dodgers have a great system and are very good with scouting players.
the goal shouldn't be to field a team than can win 80-85 games; i think that kind of perspective somewhat influenced their thinking last winter. but this is not, on paper, a bad division. puljos is among the 2 or 3 very best hitters in baseball; milwaukee fields 2 or 3 extremely good young players and a very good rotation; chicago is built around 2 of the league's better hitters and are willing to spend money and the reds are like 15 games over .500 since they made a managerial change. i'm not sure 83 wins is any guarantee in this division moving forward. i mean, it's not like its stuck in perpetual mediocrity - do you people forget it was home to 2 perrenial 90-win teams just 2-3 years ago? this notion that mclane is meddlesome is gaining A LOT of traction. i don't necessarily dimiss it, but i do see it being repeated over and over and over again, which makes me think its being reported by the starks of the world and the run as the gospel by all the beat writers who read stark. i mean, do ALL these people have this degree of access to the astros' inner workings? seems a little too pervasive.
bottom line is that until these potential candidates meet with Drayton and get the real sccop, we wont know. A lot of people said Jerry Jones and Tuna could never co exist either. Drayton may be a dope when it comes to baseball...but he wants to win. Get an experienced non dope who wants to win and lets get this party started.
