the dump's sportslog - baseball analysis |
|
|
Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.
syndicate us (XML)
the other site thedump.org baseball resources aaron's baseball blog at home plate bambino's curse baseball america baseball blogs baseball interactive baseball junkie baseball musings baseball news blog baseball primer baseball prospectus baseball-reference batter's box bronx banter clark & addison clutch hits cub reporter dan lewis dick allen's dodger thoughts doug pappas blog dugout dollars elephants in oakland espn.com - mlb for rich or sporer futility infielder game chatter hardball times humbug indians report jeremy heit's julien's mike's baseball rants mlb center my d-rays blog newberg report no pepper only baseball matters replacement level rich's baseball beat rob neyer seth speaks some calzone the prospect report the raindrops the transaction guy transaction oracle twins geek universal blog uss mariner wait til next year will carroll's offseason GM recaps Baird(KC) Bavasi(SEA) Beane(OAK) Beattie(BAL) Beinfest(FLA) Cashman(NYY) scoreboards espn.com mlb.com talk to us matt barnard dan stein write to us matt barnard dan stein general feedback buy these books book of bball lineups moneyball nbjhba win shares blogroll us Archives 
|
3.29.2004
Ol' Chuck LaMar extended
As you may well be aware by now, Chuck LaMar's contract with the Devil Rays has been extended through 2006. His contract would have expired at the end of the 2004 season, and the organization would have finally been free of LaMar, without any financial entanglements that would've come with firing him, for the first time in the history of the franchise. There's simply no explanation for this. Take a look at any of the articles announcing the extension (here's one from espn.com)...there's no coherent reasoning from anyone involved. What has LaMar's career as a general manager brought every single season? Failure. Wild, spectacular failure. The team has never won as many as 70 games in a season. Did LaMar save owner Vince Naimoli's life at some point? There's no reason he shouldn't have been fired years ago. For those of you who own Baseball Prospectus 2004, go back and reread the Devil Rays chapter essay, if it's not still fresh in your mind. I was cracking up through much of it, because it lays out just what the franchise has been since its founding - an incredibly unsuccessful (and often hilarious) joke. I feel terrible for Tampa fans, as they clearly don't deserve this kind of treatment. Is Naimoli intentionally sabotaging the franchise? Logically, I would think there's no chance of that - he's got a lot of money invested - but what other conclusion could one possibly reach by looking at this move? The Devil Rays talk about getting better, and they may be marginally so this year. They've got some intriguing young players coming through their system to join the talented youngsters already at the major league level. But the franchise is going into its seventh year and has not yet reached seventy wins, let alone a .500 record. Making matters worse is how misguided many of the moves LaMar have looked even as he's made them - there's just no reason to believe that he's a good GM or is ever going to somehow blossom into one. Extending his contract is insanity. - |