GM Search Down to Final Four
by Dustin Shires ~ October 16th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
The Mariners have finally crunched the number of potential GMs to four: Kim Ng, Tony LaCava, Jerry DiPoto, and Jack Zduriencik, who is a new name to the list. These four candidates are being brought back for a second round of interviews.
The reason we haven’t heard about Zduriencik is that he received his first interview this past Monday. The reason it was so postponed was that his Milwaukee Brewers were only recently eliminated from playoff contention, which saddened me.
A little bit about Zduriencik: He’s been around. This is his 25th year in professional baseball, and he’s spent that time with four different clubs. With the Pirates, he spent as the director of scouting. With the New York Mets he did a ton of scouting work, which eventually led to him being named special assistant to the GM in 1998. With the Los Angeles Dodgers, he served as director of international scouting and a special assistant to the GM for Player Personnel. And finally, with the Brewers, he’s served as Vice President and Special Assistant to the GM.
Geoff Baker, this morning, was the place that I found the information. He wrote a good article on Zduriencik, and I hope that he isn’t handicapped because of the fact that his first interview was only a couple of days ago. Here is Geoff’s article, which goes on to say that Zduriencik is:
a very serious candidate who was named Baseball America Executive of the Year last season when he was the team’s scouting director. He’s the first non-general manager to ever receive the award since it was instituted in 1998.
Doug Melvin has also given him credit for his efforts in the rebuilding of the Brewers. His draft efforts include Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun, Corey Hart and J.J. Hardy.
Hopefully age doesn’t hurt his chances, since he is 57. That makes him 10 years older than LaCava, second oldest at 47.
Hopefully with in the next week or two the Mariners have made up their mind on who they want to as our GM for 2009 and beyond. We have our Final Four, now it’s up to the organization to select the best one for the job!
UPDATE:
I totally forgot to check the following link, and when I did, I found out that Baseball Prospectus ranked Jack Zduriencik #2 on their next best GM list.
11 Responses to GM Search Down to Final Four
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Rob T.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
1. LaCava
2. Dipoto
3. Zduriencik
4. Ng
Thats my order.
Dustin Shires
October 16th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Until I learn more about Zduriencik, I have the exact same order.
Mariner Melee
October 16th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
1.) Ng
2.) LaCava
3.) DiPito
4.) Zduri…Wow
Zduriencik would be higher on my list, but I don’t think he understands defense. Weeks, Braun and Fielder are anything but good defenders.
Dustin Shires
October 16th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
While Braun and Fielder may not be Gold Glove caliber players, they are also two of the best hitters at their respected positions. Defense means something, but their offensive output is matched by only a select few…
Mariner Melee
October 16th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Dustin,
This is absolutely true. He is a complete stud when it comes to picking out sluggers, and that is important. But as you can see in the case of Raul Ibanez, that could cost the team as many runs as they create.
He is a good candidate. But he is still 4 out of 4.
Dustin Shires
October 16th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Find me the stat that shows that Raul costs the team as much as he creates…
Jon Shields
October 17th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Thanks for keeping up on this Dustin.. I’m in Florida getting away from the cold!
Jon Shields
October 17th, 2008 at 7:39 am
LaCava
DiPotto
Ng
Zduriencik
..I think. I wouldn’t mind any of them, really though. It’s still an encouraging final four, even without Woodfork.
Mariner Melee
October 17th, 2008 at 9:48 am
>>Find me the stat that shows that Raul costs the team as much as he creates…>>
…You know I don’t mean it like that.
Raul Ibanez created 108 runs for the Mariners, even the worst defender ever couldn’t cause that many runs through his defense.
I’m not really the right person to ask about defensive metrics but if you took a look at how many cause Raul Ibanez single handily won, and how many games he cause us to lose through defense, you might be surprised.
Maybe not, maybe I would be surprised. Its not really the point. The point is, big bats are great, they are awesome. But defense is very, very important. I don’t want a team full of defensive handicaps with big bats.
Jon Shields
October 17th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I think the point is that any knucklehead can draft a one dimensional slugger with one of their early picks, but it takes a better eye to come up with a 5-tool player.
Fielder, Braun and Weeks were first round picks and Hardy was a second rounder, and all notably lack defensive skills. Hart was the only real treasure of those mentioned in the post as he was taken in the 11th round.
Slurve
October 18th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
5-tool players are pretty hard to come by or sometimes hidden in the draft. From what I heard Michael Saunders in our system is our 5-tool guy his power isn’t quite there yet though.