Phillies Scouting Director Johnny Almaraz Steps Down

fish 2019-09-16 03:06:23 UTC #41

What are the odds that Boston sacked Dombrowski to get a jump on hiring Bloom? Sure seems likely to me. Whatever the Phils do, I hope it’s decisive and immediate no later than the immediate moments after the last pitch is thrown...which means it has to be take out of Klentak’s hands assuming he doesn’t get fired.

zambonir 2019-09-16 03:27:59 UTC #42

I think you'll be sorely disappointed by this off-season.

I also think Bloom is too smart to work for Boston. He's #1 in Tampa now. One of the stories last week pointed out that most of the best GM candidates are younger, and have young children, and taking the Boston job means they know their kids will need to move in 2-3 years. Dombrowski got fired because of his own limitations, but also John Henry's limitation. Henry wasn't playing chess though.

Philsmania 2019-09-16 14:54:23 UTC #43

In many ways, the Red Sox are beginning to look like what the Yankees were under George Steinbrenner's first rein as Yankee president (the one before his exile imposed by Fay VIncent).

BostonRoss 2019-09-16 16:22:10 UTC #44

The Red Sox seem to go in cycles. They still have a lot of home grown players, and in that way the 2018 team was similar to the Yankees of the late 1990s. Their homegrown players provided a strong core and they hadn't gotten expensive yet. But they always seem to eventually succumb to the temptation to buy their way into greatness, and they have been saddled with bad contracts (Price and Sale, for example). The Yankees of the early 2000s stopped winning once they started bringing in the guys with the huge contracts (Giambi, Mussina, A-Rod, etc.).

zambonir, what do you mean buy the kids will have to move? Are you thinking that a Boston GM won't last? Aside from Theo's 9 year tenure, that has been true, but a GM coming in would have to feel that he would not be able to succeed long term if they went in thinking they wouldn't last in their job.

bkox 2019-09-16 16:26:46 UTC #45

Unsure what reports are out yet, but hearing from multiple people that there is a lot of turnover coming in terms of #Phillies developmental coaches, including manager positions. #MiLB
— Jay Floyd ( @PhoulBallz ) September 16, 2019

andyb 2019-09-16 16:30:49 UTC #46

The Athletic had a few this morning. Lakewood manager seems the biggest move after one year (and young players struggling there).

"Among the player development moves: Baserunning/bunting coordinator Rob Ducey, Triple-A pitching coach Steven Schrenk, Low-A Lakewood manager Mike Micucci and rookie-ball coach Charlie Hayes have been let go, according to two sources."

zambonir 2019-09-16 17:26:47 UTC #47

Well of course someone is going to take the Red Sox job and will expect to succeed, but the combination of what they are inheriting and the dysfunction from above also means they probably won't. I can't find the story quickly, maybe it was Rosenthal, but the Athletic has done several stories on how messy it's been. It wasn't that someone wouldn't take the job but that all the best candidates who might normally leave for more money/prestige already have good jobs and wouldn't risk it.

Don't forget that even Theo didn't actually have a nine-year tenure - he quit once for a while!

Lawman 2019-09-16 17:52:43 UTC #48

Will Rob Ducey be let go and replaced by Rob Ducey?

Philsmania 2019-09-16 17:59:06 UTC #49

zambonir 2019-09-16 18:22:18 UTC #50

haha. Guess they could bring Charlie Hayes back in a few years too.

zambonir 2019-09-16 18:51:21 UTC #51

Here was the Sox story @BostonRoss , just Rosenthal speculating

Steve Buckley’s column in The Athletic on Tuesday – it’s going to end badly – perfectly summarized the concerns of all those executives who might want to replace Dombrowski. Many have school-age children or younger, and recent history indicates that if they took the job, it would be only a matter of time before they needed to uproot their family again.

Philsmania 2019-09-16 19:02:00 UTC #52

The counterpoint to that was the 2009 Yankees who seemingly bought the WC that year after signing Sabathia, Texeira, and Burnett to big free agent contracts, adding them to a team that already had quite a few big contract free agents such as ARod (post opt-out), Damon, Matsui and, technically, Pettite who came back as a free agent after three years in Houston. Granted, the Yankees did have home-grown guys like Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Cano but there were quite a few free agents on that team.

zambonir 2019-09-16 19:05:22 UTC #53

And the 2013 Sox were kind of like those Yankees. But that Series did hurt the Yankees down the line.

The 2013 Phillies could have been like one of those teams if they'd been willing to spend. Would we be any worse off now?

fish 2019-09-16 19:12:58 UTC #54

zambonir:

Here was the Sox story @BostonRoss , just Rosenthal speculating

Steve Buckley’s column in The Athletic on Tuesday – it’s going to end badly – perfectly summarized the concerns of all those executives who might want to replace Dombrowski. Many have school-age children or younger, and recent history indicates that if they took the job, it would be only a matter of time before they needed to uproot their family again.
theathletic.com
Rosenthal: As the season winds down, jobs around the majors...

For at least seven teams, the status of their manager and/or front office personnel may change.

I'm not going to say that sentiment doesn't make sense, but it's kind of counter to the very notion that's inherent to baseball- nobody stays in the same organization forever, and if you want a chance at one of 32 GM jobs, you go where you need to go. If you're good at your job they'll keep you around for a while, and if you're not then they they may not.

zambonir 2019-09-16 19:57:35 UTC #55

For sure. The argument is just that the Sox are unusually unreliable at the top, and someone who might already have one of the other 31 jobs, or is good enough to be considered for several openings, might not rush to do it. Dombrowski wasn't exactly a prize hair at the time (much like MacPhail).

BostonRoss 2019-09-16 22:33:20 UTC #56

As zambonir pointed out, the Yankees then went into their worst period in 20 years with Teixeira and CC. Look at them now, with young talent like Judge, Torres, and Sanchez. They aren’t winning this year because of Stanton.

BostonRoss 2019-09-16 22:37:48 UTC #57

Did you mean the 2018 Red Sox? They brought in Sale, Price, and Kimbrel, but they also had young homegrown talent. The 2004 Red Sox would not be a bad analogy either.

The 2013 Sox had just shed a bunch of big salaries (Gonzalez, Crawford, Beckett) and declined to pay Lester. They brought in mostly low/mid level guys who didn’t command big salaries (Victorino, Napoli, Uehara, Gomes) to replace them.

(Thanks for the Athletic link.)

Philsmania 2019-09-16 22:51:37 UTC #58

I've said for some time that the 2013 Red Sox were analogous to the 1993 Phillies in terms of a patchwork team that was filled with a lot of high-motor, hard-playing veterans who managed to stay healthy and play to their potential but, unlike the '93 Phillies, managed to grab the ultimate brass ring. Like the '93 Phillies, that team was a one and done championship contender. Finished last the season before in 2012 (and that was preceded by two disappointing winning seasons) and the two seasons thereafter. Perhaps the current team could have built for longer and more success but they seemed to go for broke in 2018. It worked but at a long-term cost.

BostonRoss 2019-09-17 00:39:44 UTC #59

That is an apt comparison. Both were older teams with several players who had career years. The Red Sox did have three future stars who came up late in 2013 that were part of the 2018 champions (Bogaerts, Holt Workman). I think Schilling was the only 1993 Phillie still with the team five years later (most of them were gone much sooner).

zambonir 2019-09-17 02:22:47 UTC #60

Yeah I guess the 2013 Sox were not as pricey as I thought, but they were full of short-term moves. Vic was too expensive for us! I guess it was Cherington's next round of moves that killed them.