Hargrove extension rumors
Geoff Baker writes in the Times blog:
I actually did hear the other night, from an assistant in another team’s front office, that Hargrove had quietly been given an extension for 2008 behind the scenes. Such an extension, I’m told — and nothing has been confirmed to me — would not preclude him from being fired this year. In other words, the team would eat the money. Again, just to repeat, this is just the word going around. Do not treat it as gospel. The point of me bringing it up now, rather than before, is that even if true, it would not impact the tenuous state of Hargrove’s job security.
With nothing announced, I’m inclined to think it’s close but in-progress instead of a done deal: if the team’s going to spend money like that, they’re likely going to do it in public because they think it’ll help answer questions about his job security – paying $250k or $500k or whatever it turns out to be to try and stop the speculation.
But, as Baker notes, that extension’s not going to end the speculation. They gave Melvin an extension and fired him under similar circumstances, as we all know.
Or, to recap:
1) Melvin’s been put on the hot seat by comments from ownership attempting to
2) Seeing continued speculation that Melvin is on the hotseat, the team attempts to end speculation by giving him an extension
3) Extension fails to end speculation
They might as well just put money in a big pile and set it on fire. It’d be prettier to watch than this last week’s games.
#49, it isn’t the starting pitching. It’s the fact that they came out FLAT. Offensively, defensively, and pitching. Those guys are waaaay to loose to be in those games. They begin to hit in the 8th and 9th innings… they aren’t ready to play from the first pitch. That’s managing. I know they are professionals. But look at how the team looks when Felix is on the mound. They look sharp. Because they are being LED. They got no leader in the manager’s chair. That’s the problem, that’s the root of the issues.
Players play when they are challenged, when they know that it matters. How is White pitching? Well…because he knows he’s got to motivate himself. Otherwise, he’ll be pitching in AAA for the rest of his life. The others, that have been up for a while, can’t seem to get motivated. That’s the manager’s job. Get your guys to perform. Light it up…shake it up…FIRE it up. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t think he’s on the hot seat.
sigh.
I just can’t take it no more. I can’t bare to watch these guys anymore. It hurts. It really hurts. It’s painful.
The analog in English soccer is the “vote of confidence from the board of directors. The board usually issues this in support of a flailing manager of a sinking team 48 hours to a week before they sack him.
It does no more to allay speculation than offering Hargrove an extension would do. However, doing so does not cost them $500,000.
more from Baker this morning
Is there any point to responding to a pure religious belief in the power of passion? Probably not.
The Mariners aren’t losing because Hargrove isn’t throwing chairs, and they wouldn’t win if he did. Did Larry Bowa win when he blew up at his bad team? The Mariners are bad. Maybe Billy Martin could have done something about that — not because he was a hothead, but because he was a smart hothead.
I don’t believe the Mariners don’t care about winning. I think they probably know they aren’t going anywhere, though, and that certainty can look a lot like not caring.
If they want to pay a manager gobs of money to run the team poorly I am available.
The analog in English soccer is the “vote of confidence from the board of directors. The board usually issues this in support of a flailing manager of a sinking team 48 hours to a week before they sack him.
Didn’t West Ham do that with Pardew this season? I remember this sudden string of “we have the fullest confidence” articles for a week or two before they sacked him after that Man U debacle. And then Pardew runs his mouth off to just about every paper about how shocked he was they canned him.
We were so close to Hargrove being canned last summer. So close. I’m almost rooting for them not to win at all this week.
47,48,50,51,52,54:
A lot of good all that yelling by Lou did in Tampa Bay, and is doing in Chicago right now.
I always wonder why people confuse not yelling with not caring. When was the last time you saw Joe Torre rip someone’s head off? It’s just a silly assertion that only means we fans take comfort in someone showing us they care — whether it’s accurate or not.
It’s like the basketball coach who gets fired because he’s not marching up and down the sidelines screaming at his players during a game. John Wooden NEVER yelled at his players during a game — he felt like he had done his coaching during practice and now it was time for his players to execute. If they didn’t, well, let’s get the problem solved in an environment where the players might actually learn.
Sigh … If only Wooden had cared enough to yell and scream at his players and the officials. He might have won 20 or 25 championships instead of just 10.
Relax. If you would have read my posts you’d have seen that I said the problem is that the players come out flat and no one seems to get the players ready to play. Fact is… they have the deer in the headlights look most of the time. If you don’t see that… The only time they look completely focused is when Felix is pitching. I’m not saying they are tanking it, all I am saying is it doesn’t seem that they care very much when they are playing…as a team. They don’t come out with fire. It’s not just rah rah, or throwing chairs. What I mean is they’re out there playing but there doesn’t seem to be a chemistry or a focus when Felix isn’t pitching. I don’t think that these players are all bad players. I think we have a pretty decent assortment of talent. They just seem to have no leaders on the team or managing the team it seems to me. You can’t compare this team with Tampa Bay’s either. Let’s revisit Chicago at the end of the season and see where they’re at then.
The word “fact” doesn’t mean what you think it means.
You are seeing what you want to see, to give your anger a moral rationale (i.e., “they don’t just suck, they don’t even care”).