Currently viewing the tag: "Tony La Russa"
There was once a time when the hiring of Tony La Russa to oversee the Diamondbacks’ baseball functions seemed like a major victory. Oh my, does that seem like a long time ago. After Kevin Towers’ blunders, largely being hell-bent on acquiring certain player types that didn’t seem to fit the club’s home park and prioritized offense over defense, just …
Continue Reading →GM Dave Stewart and Manager Chip Hale were fired today, about two weeks after cutting ties with Senior VP De Jon Watson. As of this writing, Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa‘s role was still up in the air, but as expected, the D-backs have made a loud statement about moving in a different direction. The team finished …
Continue Reading →This is a weird post to write. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want acknowledge something that hasn’t been confirmed and is mostly all speculation. That is not what we do here. There’s another part of me that’s so annoyed by the situation that’s arisen that I can’t help but sound off. In the middle, somewhere, is a responsible …
Continue Reading →Fun facts are a bit of a misnomer. For anyone who listens to the Effectively Wild podcast produced by Baseball Prospectus – really, you all should – this claim isn’t anything new. At their core, fun facts massage and knead history until some nugget is left that usually tricks the masses into thinking they’ve seen something special.
To start, an …
Continue Reading →Dear Commissioner Manfred,
Right off the bat: I’m not asking for you to act with respect to the Diamondbacks’ trade of Touki Toussaint with Bronson Arroyo to the Braves for Philip Gosselin. I understand that your office has already approved it, and its impact is not great. Nonetheless, it’s not often that we perform the exercise of asking whether …
Continue Reading →The Opening Day 25-man is now set, and it’s how it was set that should catch your eye. Yasmany Tomas struggled, and was sent to Triple-A Reno for work. Jake Lamb and Nick Ahmed looked great, and earned starting roles to begin the season. Archie Bradley looked somewhere between “dominant” and “ready,” pushing Trevor Cahill halfway across the country. Pitchers …
Continue Reading →An offseason of unusual activity in the sport has been fueled by a significant number of teams that had a regime change in the front office, and the D-backs are no exception. What originally looked like an offseason of tweaks now looks like something quite different — but what is it, really? Remember, Chief Baseball Officer expressed confidence exactly one …
Continue Reading →It’s been a very eventful last few days, with news of the hirings of Dave Stewart and De Jon Watson leaking Thursday, their first press conference Friday, Kirk Gibson getting fired shortly before that press conference, the Diamondbacks locking up next year’s #1 overall pick… and despite the playoffs, plenty of people were paying attention to Arizona.
But first, a …
Continue Reading →With the hirings of Dave Stewart as Vice President and General Manager and De Jon Watson as Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations, the Arizona Diamondbacks haven’t just replaced Kevin Towers. Instead, if the new front office by committee approach ultimately works, they may have just created an alternative to the traditional front office set-up. Owner Ken Kendrick installed Tony …
Continue Reading →Last Wednesday, Nick Piecoro posted an excellent, excellent piece on where the D-backs are headed in terms of incorporating analytics into their baseball operations department. And as much as we’d like to reserve judgment on where the club is headed in building its new front office, it may be that the writing is already on the wall.
From Piecoro’s piece:…
Continue Reading →It’s finally happened: Nick Piecoro has reported that Diamondbacks General Manager Kevin Towers is General Manager no more. While the move could usher in a better future for the organization, its next moves will be even more critical than the firing itself.
It wasn’t all bad with Towers; his front office made a number of excellent minor moves, like the …
Continue Reading →It’s no secret, Tony La Russa came into a unique situation when he joined the Diamondbacks in May. Brought in to oversee several elements of the organization, including the alignment of the minor leagues, approving major league deals and presumably evaluating the job done by General Manager Kevin Towers and Manager Kirk Gibson. That’s a pretty tall order considering …
Continue Reading →Scour the listing of D-backs front office personnel, and you’ll find exactly 90 people listed under “baseball operations.” That’s not counting GM Kevin Towers or new Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa — and that’s a lot of guys (very few of whom work out of the D-backs’ main offices). Many of those guys are employed by the D-backs in …
Continue Reading →What is a Chief Baseball Officer? We’re due to find out, after the D-backs hired Tony La Russa to fill that newly-created role with the team. In a site editorial, we noted that while the hiring comes as a welcome change, there are still many questions about La Russa’s actual role.
La Russa will report to CEO Derrick Hall and …
Continue Reading →@ryanpmorrison
Congrats to @OutfieldGrass24 on a beautiful life, wedding and wife. He deserves all of it (they both do). And I cou… https://t.co/JzJtQ7TgdJ, - Best part of Peralta’s 108 mph fliner over the fence, IMHO: that he got that much leverage despite scooping it out… https://t.co/ivBrl76adF,
RT @OutfieldGrass24: If you're bored of watching Patrick Corbin get dudes out, you can check out my latest for @TheAthleticAZ. https://t.co/k1DymgY7zO, - Of course, they may have overtaken the league lead for outs on the bases just now, also...
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RT @KyleAGlaser: With the amount of money being spent in free agency, I can't help but think back to claims of "biblical losses" las… https://t.co/1sIZIwmblw, - "Corey, what did you see in the Rangers that made you want to play there?"
"Gobs of money and no real taxes, Bob.",
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