August 09, 2008
Reds Hire Bill Bavasi
He's only an assistant, but I can't see how this is a good move for the Reds.
Posted by David Pinto at
12:40 PM
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Management
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Dusty Baker + Bill Bavasi + Lots of Young Talent = Great Chance of Spectacular Failure
The Anthony Young of GM's
As a Red fan I can only invoke Pogo
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Bavasi does have his talents. In both LA and Seattle, he built/maintained a productive farm system. It's just that he has no idea how to build a winning major-league team. No one should EVER hire him as GM again, but that doesn't mean he can't be a productive member of an organization. After all, the Red Sox hired Allard Baird, and ain't nobody got a worse track record as a GM than Baird.
Well, okay, Dave Littlefield.
To echo jvwalt, Bavasi actually does have some real skills. He is, by all reports, a great guy with good relations with baseball people and is good at building and maintaining a farm system. He's just awful at major-league level talent evaluation. So keep him away from that and plunk him in the minor league office and you probably get some value there.
To add on to that, the guys over at USS Mariner, who take second place to nobody in criticizing Bavasi's tenure as GM in Seattle, were very clear that they though he was a great guy on a personal level, great to his players and subordinates, and had nothing but praise for the way this guy, who's job leaves him basically no free time, would make time to attend USSM meets in Seattle and answer questions. Including, I'm given to understand, some very pointed questions that he, once he established that it was off the record, answered with surprising candor. That's pretty cool.