GM candidate: Rick Hahn

DMZ · September 30, 2008 at 8:30 am · Filed Under Mariners 

Current job: Assistant GM, White Sox (VP,AGM)
Job history from Baseball America
Puff bio from the MLB site:

Hahn’s primary responsibilities include assisting Senior Vice President/General Manager Ken Williams with all player acquisitions, evaluations and contract negotiations, as well as with overseeing all elements of the club’s baseball operations, including the scouting and player development departments. Williams credits Hahn with negotiating multiyear contracts with several current White Sox players, including 2006 All-Stars Mark Buehrle, Jose Contreras, Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski.

(shudder) Sorry. Make of that list what you will.

Former agent.

Other GM job news:
Previously interviewed for the Cardinals job along with Antonetti and Peter Woodfork, who you’ll also see on our leaderboard. The Cardinals hired their interim GM.

Declined to interview for the Pirates job, as did Antonetti. LaCava, who you’ll see on our leaderboard, did.

Background scoring:
Contracts and player negotiation: strong
Player scouting and development: ?
Modern baseball analysis: ?

Relevant articles… ummm…. if you find anything good, please drop them into the contents. I didn’t turn anything up except this radio interview: Hahn discusses offseason needs, 11/30/2007

Comments

16 Responses to “GM candidate: Rick Hahn”

  1. msb on September 30th, 2008 9:06 am

    boy, not much out there.

    from Phil Rogers back in June: “Don’t be surprised if White Sox assistant general manager Rick Hahn surfaces as a serious candidate for the GM opening in Seattle. He pulled his name out of the search in St. Louis last year, preferring to raise his family in Chicago, but the Mariners job could be more attractive.”

    brief note from Stone on Hahn

  2. Brian on September 30th, 2008 9:43 am

    It’s not much but it is something…

    The World Series champion Chicago White Sox use a different popular method to assess their expected victories. Rick Hahn, their assistant general manager, tracks the number of runs his lineup should score and his pitching staff should allow. Several studies have shown that any 10-run swing in that differential equates to about one victory.

    “When we got Jim Thome from the Phillies, we figured he was worth about 20 runs more than the combination of Carl Everett and Frank Thomas,” Hahn said, referring to the 2005 club’s designated hitters. Hahn estimated that giving up center fielder Aaron Rowand in the trade cost about five runs. “That gave us a total improvement of about 15 runs. We feel we improved by about one and a half wins in the exchange, which is pretty good.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/sports/baseball/11score.html

  3. Dave on September 30th, 2008 9:52 am

    Hey, win values! I like Hahn more already.

  4. Steve T on September 30th, 2008 10:07 am

    Yeah, that’s good. How does he figure his runs and wins, though? Bavasi used to say stuff like that too, only it was more like “Well, Everett looks like he’s worth about ten wins right there”.

    Hahn does sound better than that.

    But what is going to happen when he says stuff like that in his interview with Lincoln and Armstrong? I can hear them now: “You don’t play this game with a calculator, son”.

  5. msb on September 30th, 2008 10:15 am

    from an article by Danielle Sessa:

    “Hahn, 34, the assistant general manager in Chicago, joined the White Sox without any training on how to identify flaws in a pitcher’s motion or a hitter’s batting stance. General Manager Kenny Williams had Hahn shadow the club’s director of scouting, Duane Shaffer, to learn about judging talent.

    “I had more familiarity with the objective and statistical side of the evaluation,” Hahn says. “The void I had was on the scouting side. I got a crash course on that side of the business.” “

  6. msb on September 30th, 2008 10:21 am

    if you can access the NY Times, there is an article on just what is an ‘average” player, quoting Hahn among others.

  7. Brian on September 30th, 2008 10:46 am

    Peter Gammons talking about who the Red Sox may hire to replace Epstein after his unexpected departure a few years back:

    Towers has worked for Lucchino. Hunsicker is one of the game’s best general managers. So is Milwaukee’s Melvin, who worked for Lucchino in Baltimore. If the Red Sox decide they want a pure talent man — and with the Yankees adding the revenue from their new ballpark, talent evaluation is the way the Red Sox have to beat the Yankees in the future — the name of LaCava (Toronto’s director of player development) will be at the forefront. And if they want an organizational baseball mind with a huge reputation in the business, they will interview White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn.

    http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/gammons/story?id=2210636

  8. gwangung on September 30th, 2008 10:48 am

    Hm. Not so bad, at first glance.

  9. The Cheat on September 30th, 2008 12:39 pm

    Hahn is very careful about what he says in the press, so it’s understandable that you’re unable to come up with much on his, let’s call it a, saber profile. He’s the oft-ignored, but highly respected, saber-influence inside the White Sox front office.

    I’d imagine that his willingness to interview and accept a job outside the organization will have a lot to do with the rumored extension of on Kenny Williams, whose own current contract is something of a mystery. If Hahn is out-and-out promised the GM job when the current Sox FO disappears — slated for 2012 when Reinsdorf steps down to relinquish control to his son — he might be a tough get.

  10. PositivePaul on September 30th, 2008 12:49 pm

    Williams credits Hahn with negotiating multiyear contracts with several current White Sox players, including 2006 All-Stars Mark Buehrle, Jose Contreras, Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski.

    So is this like Armstrong “crediting” Olkin with signing Silva and trading for Bedard, then?

  11. Conor on September 30th, 2008 1:00 pm
  12. VictorB on September 30th, 2008 1:26 pm

    Prospectus had him on their “Next 10” list but you need be a subscriber to see the content.

  13. joser on September 30th, 2008 1:45 pm

    I’d imagine that his willingness to interview and accept a job outside the organization will have a lot to do with the rumored extension of on Kenny Williams, whose own current contract is something of a mystery. If Hahn is out-and-out promised the GM job when the current Sox FO disappears — slated for 2012 when Reinsdorf steps down to relinquish control to his son — he might be a tough get.

    On the other hand, he has been interviewing outside the Sox organization already. Is Chicago his dream job, or is GM his dream job and being one in Chicago would just be gravy? Is Chicago in a few years better than elsewhere today? After all, 2012 is still four years away. While being inside the org might give him the inside track to succeed Williams, there’s something to be said for getting experience at the GM level elsewhere, too. He could still be in the running to go back to Chicago in 2012, especially if “turned around Mariners org and took it from last to first in the AL West” is on his resumé that point. (Of course in that case we could hope the joy of running a winning franchise in the beautiful pacific northwest overcomes the whatever allure returning Chicago still holds on him.)

  14. Breadbaker on September 30th, 2008 3:30 pm

    For some, getting away from Kenny and Ozzie all by themselves might be a plus.

  15. The Cheat on September 30th, 2008 3:42 pm

    The Sox are looking at an unspoken regime chance — to use a bushism (I feel dirty) — in 2012 when JR steps down. One would assume that would include Williams (contract unknown) and Guillen (set to expire in ’12).

  16. Conor on September 30th, 2008 6:44 pm

    Prospectus had him on their “Next 10″ list but you need be a subscriber to see the content.

    I don’t think it is. Here’s a link…
    http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7683

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.