Yanks get Mo's successor

And their current, major-league team suffers. It's not like they weren't contenders with what they had last year.

 

It's how they do business.



http://www.amazon.com/Extra-2-Street-Strategies-Baseball/dp/0345517652
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46657276/THE-EXTRA-2-Sneak-Peek

 

EPL owners also won't be allowed to in a few years (at least in theory), thanks to European confederation rules that will keep them from bankrolling excessive losses.

 

Oh, please.

Most of that roster was drafted by Chuck LaMar.

There's no secret to the Rays' success. If you lose enough and have top draft picks year after year, it's inevitable that you'll be able to compete at some point.

I'll believe they're geniuses if they can do it for a sustained period of time.

As to their management, Stuart is smart and made a lot of money for himself and his firm heading up their operation on the Amex. He's a very bright guy.

Matt has a degree in economics from Harvard and worked for Stuart on Wall Street. He's also smart.

Andrew, is Matt's buddy. He went to Tulane.

I was never impressed with Andrew & believe him to be way over his head.

They're very lucky to have Gerry Hunsicker there to hold Andrew's hand.

 

Tell that to the Pirates, Orioles and Royals. Not shockingly, your theory is far to simplistic

 

Mo's durability has been one of the most extraordinary features of his career. I wonder if Soriano will be able to stay healthy for three years? As a young guy, he threw hard about as easily as any pitcher I've ever seen, so perhaps...

 

Well, if Soriano turns out to be a crap mortgage wrapped up in sweet-smelling blankets into a AAA-rated bond, then I'll believe the Rays are using Wall Street strategies to win.

Come to think of it, they just pulled that move in offloading Carlos Pena (and maybe Matt Garza?) to the Chicago Cubs, baseball's AIG.

 

Baseball wise, the new regime didn't do that much that was different that what they had been doing the previous couple of seasons.

They increased payroll a little, but one of the biggest things they had going for them was that a lot of differed compensation finally came off the books.

LaMar was in a tough position working for Naimoli. He wasn't allowed to draft guys like Teixeira because they would have cost too much to sign.

At least one of their top picks went unsigned. And you can't blame Josh Hamilton's troubles on LaMar.

The Rays would have been just as successful on the field if they had kept Chuck and given him the freedom that they gave Andrew.

Off the field -- completely different story.

The way Stuart & Matt changed things in the front office and in the community is the difference between night and day compared to the previous ownership.

 

Stuart Sternberg had the advantage that if one person in the Tampa Bay area liked him, that was one more person than the number who liked Naimoli.

 

While the usual suspects are whining about buying a championship as opposed to building a team, let's take a look at something:

Big-market Team A signs a player who fills a need for $35 million over three years.
Small-market team B gets Team A's first-round pick and a supplemental pick as compensation.

Team B then signs two first-round picks to multi-million contracts, starts them out in Class A and spends millions more over the next three years, developing them. Both then get to the majors and are total busts.
Would team B not have been better off spending the millions to keep their own established player than on two "prospects" who might never make it to the majors?

 

Team B can spend less money on those prospects. Still millions, but less. If you assume Team B can spend as much as Team A, then your theory makes sense. But they can't, so it doesn't.

 

I don't think you even know how true that statement is.

Naimoli had turned the entire fan base and business community against him. He was mean, arrogant, and acted like they owed him.

He exerted high fees for suites & sponsorships from the business community when the franchise was awarded and then treated those people like shit and never showed any appreciation.

I joined the team just after many of those original, long term, deals expired and no one wanted to re-up.

The funny thing was that in person, he was a little eccentric, but he was a nice guy. (Though it was odd that his employees, grown men, called him "Mr. Naimoli" instead of Vince.) He threw a hell of a Christmas party at his home.

The intro to the book that LJB linked to tells of the "Dillards" story. That was legendary around the office, but there were plenty more like it.

Like the guy from the meat company who came to the ballpark to ensure that his sign was taken down.

The huge Southwest Airlines sign stayed up a full two years after their sponsorship ended because they couldn't sell the space and didn't want to pay the production costs to put up a "Rays" ad or message.

And, if you proposed putting something in a deal for a sponsor that would cost the team a little bit of time or money in return for the corporation's investment, you were looked at like you were crazy.