Caffeinated Confines

The M’s Make the Move

By Brian Waterman | June 16th, 2008

RADIO REACT: GILLICK'S TIME IN PHILLY TELLING OF BAVASI'S MISTAKES

"The Pitch" evaluates Seattle's choice to not only hire Bill Bavasi to replace Pat Gillick, but also to fire him

So Bavasi is gone… Although I have been calling for the move for quite awhile, I am rather surprised the M’s pulled the trigger mid-season, especially without dumping McLaren first. I have to applaud Howard Lincoln for this–it shows that he is not looking for a scapegoat here. As I have previously said, McLaren has made some mistakes with this team–some of them quite serious, but the main issue is the personnel itself. Too many overpayments for underperforming players, too many ill-conceived trades, too many players acquired without a role. These are problems Bob Melvin struggled with, Mike Hargrove struggled with, and now John McLaren is struggling with.

So now, the interim GM is Lee Pelekoudas. He is a 29-year organization man, most recently in charge of player contracts. Not the guy I want up top if he’s the one who negotiated the overpayments to some of our guys, though I’m sure he was not alone on those deals. Either way, right now, the M’s need to do some serious rebuilding, and in doing so, I would like to see a serious change in philosophy. And you don’t change philosophy by installing a 29-year organization man.

So who would my choice be? Probably Paul dePodesta. He didn’t do a heck of a lot for the Dodgers, but that was his first shot, he wasn’t there long, and he had a bit of a strong-arm owner hanging over him. He’s been in the front office of a couple great success stories, the late 90’s Indians, the current Padres, and most notably, the Moneyball A’s as the assistant to Billy Beane. He is a master sabermetrician, which the M’s desperately need in their front office (anyone there now know the value of a walk?) and also has a good feel about how minor league stats translate to the majors. This is especially important for a team that has a bad habit of (1) overpaying for a declining veteran when there is a prospect on the way, or (2) trading away or banishing a prospect after a brief major league failure.

Anyway, the sooner we can get him or someone else who knows how to acquire/deal with prospects the better. The trading deadline is right around the corner, we are out of contention, and we’ve got a lot of trade bait. A $117 million payroll can be cut down pretty quickly if we play our cards right, and I believe dePodesta is the one who can play them.

Note: After writing this article, I found this excellent 2007 article on “The Hardball Times.”

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