Backman fired
Dave · November 5, 2004 at 10:50 am · Filed Under Mariners
Well, that didn’t take long. Bob Melvin is expected to be named the new manager of the Diamondbacks. Say what you will about Bob, but he’s clearly a better choice than Wally Backman. With any luck, this will cause Backman to rethink some of his life choices, and hopefully make some changes.
The interesting thing to watch will now be if Melvin will request permission to talk to Bryan Price about the Arizona pitching coach position. I’d imagine he won’t, considering they’ve already officially named Price as the M’s pitching coach, but it is a longshot possibility that he won’t be with the organization come next spring.
Comments
52 Responses to “Backman fired”
For what it is worth I actually am an attorney, and though it has been a long time since law school, I don’t think there is any way BoMel will be able to get a double windfall by managing the Dbacks and being paid for not managing the Mariners. Any clause in a contract that negated the duty to mitigate would almost assuredly be sticken because of the public policy considerations behind the duty to mitigate. It would be a little hazy to figure out just how cheap the Dbacks could be in paying BoMel in 2005 but I would assume any court would look at the lowest paid mlb manager for guidance.
Yeah, Slaton’s got a great reputation for being able to turn any pitcher with a decent arm and a good attitude into a useful part of a team. I have a lot of respect for Slaton, and hope he gets the chance at a major league job eventually.