Assistant General Manager and VP or Pitching/Position Player Consultation

There is a change in the way Major League Baseball organizations are structuring their front offices.  They are expanding and roles are being redefined and even defined in the case of newly found positions.  

There are three teams who come to mind when I think about the new structures.  The first is the Cubs and how Theo Epstein is now the President of Baseball Operations.  He has the final say on every matter but it is still Jed Hoyer’s job as general manager to assemble the 25-man roster and 40-man roster along with other various aspects. 

The second team I thought about was the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Never in baseball has a person had the position “CBO” or Chief Baseball Officer.  What is that?  I don’t think anybody can clearly define it so why not give the position to Tony LaRussa who is a very respected baseball guy with an intelligent baseball mind.  From the sounds of it, he is in a similar position to Epstein and has final say on all baseball matters.  So after months of observation he fired Kevin “ The Gunslinger” Towers and restructured the organization.  Dave Stewart (player turned pitching coach turned assistant GM turned agent) is now the GM and he is in charge of constructing the major league roster. 

Arizona also hired De Jon Watson as senior vice president of baseball operations.  In an interview during a D-backs game this season he’s basically there to fill in the gaps of where the organization might be lacking.  Remember the game has changed a lot since Stewart was last in a front office so Watson’s experience will come in handy helping him right a very wrong ship in the desert.

The third front office with a new structure is something that doesn’t have to be described much as it has been well documented in the past and that is the Houston Astros.  They created a position called Director of Decision Sciences for Sig Mejdal.  GM Jeff Luhnow is an extremely intelligent baseball man so I’m not going to question him and I don’t think I could do the position any justice by trying to explain it.  

So the five paragraph introduction is basically is to say that I think something interesting could be done in a front office to help a GM with difficult decisions.  Two men would be responsible for filling the positions of “Assistant GM and VP of Pitching Consultation” and “Assistant GM and VP of Position Player Consultation.”

Don’t those just roll of the tongue?

The Dodgers of the East: the New York Yankees

The Dodgers of the East: the New York Yankees

For those who are friends with Yankee fans, as I am, to you I wish my deepest apologies.  It’s difficult to win an argument with a person when they drop the famous line, “THEY’VE WON THE MOST WORLD SERIES EVER!”

Then the conversation takes a turn and the issue of money comes up, something the Yankees teams of the past had no problem spending.  

Well, now the spending has gone west.  The Dodgers have taken on every bad Red Sox contract and have signed the top free agent starting pitcher in Zach Greinke for nearly $150 million.  The Angels meanwhile have signed Albert Pujols, CJ Wilson, and Josh Hamilton in the past two off seasons

The Yankee fans who so proudly fought for their team now are saying the team is not exactly a high spender because they are trying to go under $189 million for their payroll so they can avoid the luxury tax.

Here is an conversation I had with a friend (and Yankee fan) on Twitter.

“Friend”: For everyone that says the Yankees “buy” the World Series, look at what’s going on in Los Angeles

Me: Angels still below luxury tax limit.  Yankees not quite so.  Dodgers are crazy

Me: Yankees hit with $18.9 million luxury tax, 10th straight year they’ll pay a penalty for spending...

“Friend”: I don’t care they are still gonna be better than your Twins and Dbacks

Me: That’s not the point.  Talking about what’s going on with the Angels is a Yankee move

“Friend”: You need to settle down Peter Gammons it’s A Rods fault

Me: Or Yankee management for giving into him? Nah, it’s A-Rod’s fault

*End of Conversation*

This conversation led me to do a quick, simple study about the Yankees payroll.

The first simple study is the team’s payroll and where it ranks compared to other MLB teams (in parenthesis) and how much they paid per win in the past decade. The payroll data is courtesy of Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

2012: $209, 792, 900 (1); $2, 208, 346.32/win

2011: $207, 047, 964 (1); $2, 134, 515.09/win

2010: $213, 359, 389 (1); $2, 245, 888.31/win

2009: $201, 449, 189 (1); $1, 955, 817.37/win

2008: $209, 081, 577 (1); $2, 349, 231.20/win

2007: $189, 639, 045 (1); $2, 017, 436.65/win

2006: $194, 663, 045 (1); $2, 006, 835.52/win

2005: $208, 306, 817 (1); $2, 192, 703.34/win

2004: $184, 193, 950 (1); $1, 823, 702.48/win

2003: $152, 749, 814 (1); $1, 512, 374.40/win

2002: $125, 928, 583 (1); $1, 222, 607.60/win

That’s a lot per win when teams like the Rays have recently shown that being in the playoffs is possible on a much smaller budget.

The second study is a look at the richest contracts in baseball history.  Taking the top 50 contracts let’s see how many of them have been paid at some point by the Bronx Bombers.

1. Alex Rodriguez: $275, 000, 000

2. Alex Rodriguez: $252, 000, 000

6. Derek Jeter: $189, 000, 000

8. Mark Teixeira: $180, 000, 000

9. CC Sabathia: $161, 000, 000

28. CC Sabathia: $122, 000, 000

30. Jason Giambi: 121, 000, 000

42. Ichiro Suzuki: $90, 000, 000 (mostly paid by Mariners)

If there is one thing we can learn from this, the Yankees have no problem spending money.  With them deciding to cut down payroll though, could this mean the Steinbrenner family is ready to sell the team?  

Only time will tell.