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Reed Stevenson Hired as GM for the San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Chronicle
1-1-2009
Reed Stevenson has been announced as the new General Manager of the San Francisco Giants. This did seem like the right choice to me though I thought Sally Storms had a decent chance, with her expertise in all things statistical and quantitative. I didn't have much time to prepare this before it went off to morning print as I interviewed the new GM at 12:01 in the morning. Here are some excerpts from the interview.
Dick Fieldman "Congratulations. You must be pretty excited."
Reed Stevenson "You can't even believe. This is a dream come true. A stressful dream, that may not include much sleep, but a dream nonetheless."
DF "I have some questions I prepared. I also encouraged fans to contact me with any questions, but none have yet to..."
RS "Well, your inability to collect questions reflects on you, not the interest in me or the fan base."
DF "...OK. Well, it's late, or early, and I'm sure you want to get to work. Very little information was released as to why Brian Sabean was terminated. Do you have any more information on that?"
RS "I do. Neukom was not happy with Sabean driving the budget past the approved amount. That's pretty much the bottom line. It is tough as I now inherit a team that is over budget, and Neukom has been very clear that I am to go no where near the free agent market."
DF "So, it is safe to say Manny Ramirez won't be on the teams radar?"
RS "He is on our radar. We are going to be forced to watch him sign with the Dodgers. But not only no Manny no anybody. Unless we move some contracts, the only new acquisitions will be trades or minor league free agents. I wish I had the information in front of me as to how much over we are, but it is 11 or 12M I believe."
DF "So, how do you see the club moving forward?"
RS "Like many in parallel universes, the trend is to get younger and cheaper. Brian Sabean took a long time to recognize that. Teams that are successful have large contributions from home grown talent. We are a big market team, and if we can lower our salary we can be players in the free agent market again. But this needs to complement our home grown talent, not be the source of our talent. Theo Epstein has been model for how to accomplish this balance.
I should add that Sabean and the Giants have done a good job over the last couple years for getting talent in to the organization. We hope to keep a strong push in the international market, and get more guys like Villalona. Another nice signing was Rafael Rodriguez, but unfortunately he was caught using a banned substance, and as MLB becomes more strict on amateurs, he has been banned from the sport. A bit harsh for a 16 year old, but I understand trying to set an example. I just wish the example came from another organization.
Connecting this idea of international players, and being over budget. I convinced Neukom that we should shift to rebuilding. It is tricky because we don't have great trade chips as our core is a mix of young talent I don't anticipate trading, or older, overpriced talent that I don't anticipate being able to trade. I tried to convince Neukom that we need to invest heavily into scouting, well over the 2.3M league average. His reply was no more than 1.5M until you get us at or under budget. I'm just not sure if this is possible. So scouting may have to be on the back burner until we can get the budget under control."
DF "So I'm assuming your first moves will be cost cutting moves"
RS "Not necessarily, and my first move in fact is going to cost us money. I have already notified Bochy that we are moving in another direction. He was signed through 2009, so that cost us 2M. I am hoping to find a cheaper replacement, who will be better suited working with our young players as they continue to come up through the organization."
DF "Can you provide an insight on who you hope to move, or how you envision your starting lineup?
RS "I'm not prepared to discuss personnel at this point. I have not talked to the coaches or looked over reports as thoroughly as I would like at this point. We can talk about this during our next interview January 12th I believe. I will also be on KNBR with Ralph and Tom every Thursday starting January 15th, so that will be another source of information.
Thanks for taking the time, and again, I am very excited to be leading the Giants. Now if you'll excuse me I have some work to do."
There you have it. The new GM. A team without a manager. I had no idea the Giants were already over budget. I will try to get the exact number for you. Sounds like it is gong to be an exciting ride, but with a fair amount of challenges. It seems like the contracts of Zito and Rowand are posing real financial problems, and handicapping the Giants. Oh, and is Roberts still getting overpaid? I think so. Hopefully they will be able to increase the scouting budget before the season starts. The editor is breathing down my neck. That's all for today.
Dick Fieldman
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