Jim Tracy Gone (and Jim Tracy Back Again!)

[metirish]

Paul DePodesta has four finalists that will interview for the Dodger job

]DePodesta Identifies Four Candidates for Manager Collins, Royster, Trammell and Lovullo will interview for Dodger job. An unidentified fifth person is in the mix. By Steve Henson, Times Staff Writer Four of the five managerial candidates to be interviewed by the Dodgers next week will be Terry Collins, Jerry Royster, Alan Trammell and Torey Lovullo, General Manager Paul DePodesta said Wednesday. DePodesta would not divulge the fifth candidate because he has been unable to reach him. The person is employed by another team not in the playoffs. Collins and Royster work in the Dodger farm system, Trammell was fired last week as manager of the Detroit Tigers and Lovullo was manager of the Cleveland Indians' double-A affiliate in Akron. DePodesta said he has a secondary list of candidates and that additional interviews might be conducted before a decision is reached. The Dodgers would like to hire a manager before organizational meetings are held during the World Series. Jim Tracy, the manager the last five years, left the Dodgers by mutual agreement Monday, one day after the team finished with a 71-91 record. Tracy, considered the front-runner for the Pittsburgh opening, had a lengthy telephone conversation with Pirate General Manager Dave Littlefield on Wednesday, but now might have competition from Ken Macha, who could not reach an agreement to return to the Oakland Athletics. Macha, who lives near Pittsburgh, was a finalist along with Tracy in 2000 when Lloyd McClendon was hired as Pirate manager. DePodesta has scheduled one interview each day from Tuesday through Saturday. Collins, 56, the Dodger director of player development, managed the Houston Astros from 1994 to 1996 and the Angels from 1997 until he was fired late in the 1999 season. Royster, 52, is manager of the Dodgers' triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas. He managed the Milwaukee Brewers in 2002. "[Terry] is very familiar with our personnel," DePodesta said. "Jerry made sense for a lot of the same reasons." Trammell, 47, posted a record of 186-300 in three seasons with the Tigers, one of the worst teams in baseball for many years. He was 43-119 his first year, and the team showed dramatic improvement in 2004, finishing 72-90. "He had a phenomenal career as a player and has a sterling reputation in the game as a person and as a baseball man," DePodesta said. "When he was let go, we spent a lot of time on his name." Lovullo, 40, led Akron to an 84-58 record and the Eastern League title. He has won championships in each of his four seasons as a minor league manager. "He's a guy I've been interested in sitting down with for a while," DePodesta said. "We considered him for farm director position last year and he is a potential rising star in the game." Lovullo is the only one of the four who has not been a major league manager. "It helps that somebody has been through the rigors before and understands everything that comes with being a manager," DePodesta said. "But it won't be a hard requirement." He said there are internal candidates beyond Collins and Royster on the secondary list. Jim Fregosi is hoping he is on that list. Although he hasn't managed since 2000 and is a special advisor to the Atlanta Braves, Fregosi has a strong interest in the Dodger opening. "He's looking to change the culture and improve the franchise and get it back to the respectability it had," said Alan Meersand, Fregosi's agent.

No Bobby V?, his team is in the Playoffs in Japan.

[Frayed Knot]

]Speculation has Mike Flanagan being bumped to a different job within the org and Jim Beattie being just plain bumped.

And speculation was dead on in this case: Flanagan kicked upstairs, Beattie out.
Supposedly this also that means Perlozzo's job as field manager is safe.
No word on whether (or who) someone gets the GM job to presumably work under Flanagan.

[DocTee]

Specualtion in the Bay Area is that A's third-base coach Ron Washington is secret fifth candidate-- makes sense since DePodesta was an assistant to Billy Beane and knows RW from their days together in Oakland. Washington certainly fits the profile of "employed by team not in playoffs" and should he be passed over (again) in Oakland, he may want to bolt.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The O's are to GM-types as the Yankees are to lefthanded hitting designated hitter-types. There's always room for one more in the organization.

[Valadius]

The secret fifth person has been identified as Ron Wotus, the Giants' bench coach.

[Valadius]

And Ken Macha has been rehired after all in Oakland.

[Guest sharpie]

Valadius, tell your dad to tell his friends to give us back Kazmir.

[Valadius]

Tampa Bay's front office is pretty much shut down right now. Sternberg fired Chuck LaMar and his two assistants. They have to hire their replacements before serious baseball moves will be made.

I can tell you this:

The payroll will increase by about 10 million at least.
All of their young guys will be brought up quickly.
They WILL be open to trades.

[Guest SwitchHitter]

Leave Kazmir there. He's a local boy and all, but I don't want my team facing him if there's an option to face someone crappy instead.

[Guest sharpie]

Marlins are announcing tonight that Joe Girardi is their new manager.

Being the Marlins manager has got to be the shortest term job anywhere.

[metirish]

It's amazing, Girardi is in coaching a year and gets a job, WWSB was coaching more that a dozen years before landing a gig...

[MFS62]

sharpie wrote: Marlins are announcing tonight that Joe Girardi is their new manager. Being the Marlins manager has got to be the shortest term job anywhere.

What about someone with the DTs who works in a nitro glycerine plant?

Yesterday, I heard on sportstalk radio (forget which station) that Joe may receive offers from two teams (one being Florida). The host mentioned that this is rare for someone with no prior managing experience to receive two offers the first time they went after a managerial spot.

I've heard Joe when he did some color on tv games. He was not only well spoken, but came across as someone who is always well prepared. I guess the GMs felt the same way.

Later

[Guest sharpie]

Next season will be the 14th Marlins season. Managers:

Rene Lachemann
John Boles
Jim Leyland
John Boles (again)
Tony Perez
Jeff Torborg
Jack McKeon
Joe Girardi

The Marlins came in with the Rockies. Rockies managers:

Don Baylor
Jim Leyland
Buddy Bell
Clint Hurdle

[Guest Edgy DC]

Boom, crash, Theo is [u:972a76b8f6]free-o[/u:972a76b8f6].

[Willets Point]

No more free Red Sox games for Bret.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Holy crap.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

metirish wrote: It's amazing, Girardi is in coaching a year and gets a job, WWSB was coaching more that a dozen years before landing a gig...

I ought to put this in the Sports Radio Host thread, but this really was a cause of some concern among certain hosts coughstevenasmithcough and callers cougheliinwestchestercough who brought up how WWSB was constantly turned down for jobs

Thing is

1) The skinny on Giradi was that he'd be the type who could manage someday, catchers generally are while the only outward thing that made Randolph "managing material" was the fact that he was the Yankee co-captain for a couple of years (he and Guidry were tabbed captians after Nettles was traded)

2) Does it say more about Girardi wanting to jump at the first offer while Randolph was disgusted about the Reds job a couple of years back (Reds gave him a very lowball offer)? The knock also was that Randolph "didn't interview" well. Maybe part of his makeup is he gave off the impression that he didn't want to leave the coccoon of New York

[Guest Spacemans Bong]

Randolph was not interested in managing in the minors.

It is mostly catchers who are called future managing material, but it's more than just them. Orel Hershisher was considered a future manager while a player. Usually really smart players get that accolade - Tony Gwynn too, et al.

[nymr83]

maybe Depodesta and Epstein can switch jobs now?

[metirish]

WOW, that's a shocker for the Sox, I doubt LA would want him, I read today that they are going to interview Pat Gillick and Ed Wade....damn the Sox are imploding, amazing stuff.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Girardi being a catcher makes him better managerial material?

Catchers may (or may not) lead all positions in managers, but I'd happily bet that secondbasemen aren't far behind --- especially if you count washout shortstops who spent the second half of their careers at secondbase, like Valentine.

[smg58]

Epstein might not have been perfect, but I don't see why putting a World Series winner on the field in Boston didn't earn him more respect from his own front office. They offered a lot more money to Beane, who still hasn't produced a team that's won a playoff series. Granted there's a huge payroll difference, but THE RED SOX WON A WORLD SERIES on Epstein's watch. I don't get this one at all.

[Guest Edgy DC]

2005 Mangers by Primary Playing Position

Catcher (9) Bruce Bochy John Gibbons Bob Melvin Jerry Narron Tony Pe�a Mike Scoscia Joe Torre (He wasn't versatile; he was a catcher who fell) Eric Wedge (Mostly a DH in his short career, actually) Ned Yost

Corner Outfielder (8) Dusty Baker Clint Hurdle (Played all over, but in his days as a regular, was a cornerman) Charlie Manuel Lloyd McClendon Dave Miley Lou Pinella Frank Robinson Jim Tracey

Second Base (3) Tony LaRussa Sam Perlozzo Willie Randolph

Shortstop (3) Ron Gardenhire Ozzie Guillen Alan Trammell

Third Base (3) Buddy Bell Bobby Cox Ken Macha

No Playing Career (3) Jack McKeon Bob Schaefer Buck Showalter

Utility Infielder (2) Phil Garner (Actually a starter at second and third, but more games at second) Pete Mackanin

Utility Outfielder (2) Felipe Alou Lee Mazzilli

First Base (2) Terry Francona Mike Hargrove

I learned a lot here. A lot more corner outfielders than I realized are in managing --- many of them people of color, some of whom started their careers under less than ideal circumstances. Even cutting that category in half, as it represents two positions, still makes it the second-largest category.

No centerfielders seem to get the not, though (although you could certainly count Mazzilli). I speculate that they are so oft considered to be fine athletes, that their baseball minds aren't respected, even if they should be.

[metirish]

That is amazing, you never hear about corner outfielders when people talk about this stuff....I guess first basemen are not considered managerial material.

[Guest rpackrat]

Not that it affects your point, but Mike Hargrove played substantially more at 1B (1378 games) than he did in the OF (167 games).

[Guest Edgy DC]

Of course. Don't know why I did that. Allow me to edit.

[Frayed Knot]

Also consider that there are twice as many starting corner OFers as there are catchers (and OFers in general over catchers at about a 5/2 ratio) so that backstops are still the most likely types to jump on the managerial track.

Another thing that helps Girardi's case (and makes this more than a over-simplified case of black vs white) is that he's more educated than most of his peers. Being an engineering major at Northwestern doesn't tend to hurt your resume in too many jobs - even in baseball.

[Guest Edgy DC]

As I wrote:

]Even cutting that category in half, as it represents two positions, still makes it the second-largest category.

And these are guys who never (or almost never) played center. Full time centerfielders and part-time centerfielders are in a different category elsewher on the list. So the typical ratio would be closer to 3:2 than 5:2.

[Guest sharpie]

No pitchers, either.

I guess they think that non-pitchers can understand what pitchers go through but not the other way around.

[Guest Edgy DC]

So, what, you think Epstein is going to Philadelphia?