Peter Gammons @pgammo 5m5 minutes agoBrookhaven, GA
One of the highest-ranking Red Sox officials says "Mike Hazen is Theo. He could be a CEO in any business."
Ken Rosenthal @Ken_Rosenthal 42s43 seconds ago
Bottom line: Hazen is highly respected, and consensus is that #DBacks did well to hire him. La Russa likely to remain in another capacity.
If Hazel had a problem with the new role that La Russa is going to have he wouldn't of taken the job.Feel bad that Hazen still has the La Russa in the organization. Was hoping they'd clean house.
Why should Hazen even have to consider anything that Tony La Russa says. His only proven skill was as a Field Manager. I can think of no good that Tony's staying would provide. Just stepping on others' toes.I don't think there is any way that Hazen would have taken the job if he didn't have final say. My guess is that La Russa will be available as an advisor at most but won't be able to veto anything that Hazen wants to do.
Why should Hazen even have to consider anything that Tony La Russa says. His only proven skill was as a Field Manager. I can think of no good that Tony's staying would provide. Just stepping on others' toes.
And after dumping the key people under him, it will remain a partially dysfunctional situation until he moves on. Or back. It will be dysfunctional enough with Ken Kendrick remaining as Managing General Partner.
FOX Sports Arizona @FOXSPORTSAZ 26m26 minutes ago
You can watch today's @Dbacks press conference announcing Mike Hazen as their new GM today at 11:00 am on the FOX Sports GO app
http://m.dbacks.mlb.com/news/article/206355484/d-backs-introduce-general-manager-mike-hazen/'Perfect fit:' Hazen introduced as D-backs GM
On paper I'm sure this looks like a good hire and baseball analysts are applauding the D'Backs but I am skeptical about BOS GM's not named Theo Epstein (see Josh Byrnes). He was the GM in BOS but like our situation here everything ran through President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowksi so not sure what moves if any Hazen should get credit with.
If Rizzo wasn't a real option then fine whatever, will take a wait and see approach before getting my hopes up.
Hazen's biggest obstacle is how to improve this team (pitching staff notably) with little to no options on going about it. ARZ obviously does not have John W Henry money so he won't be able to go and buy what he needs (ironically pitching FA market is lacking this year). The farm has very little in terms of MLB ready talent so trading for immediate help will be a big challenge. He is going to have to KNOCK IT OUT THE PARK with the draft the next couple of years. But I don't see this team winning more than 80 games next year and that would be an 11 game improvement so if they don't improve this team we could possibly see another sub 70 win season.
That's key moving ahead. Look at what SF has "home grown". We need to develop the talent, not trade it away, the way we've been doing. There is no other way. The Miller trade put this franchise back 2 yrs. perhaps.I like this hire. He was the director of development for the sox and then became the vice president of player development and amateur scouting. The Red Sox have one of the best farm systems in MLB. They have made big signings but also hit on home grown talent like Mookie Betts, Xander Boegarts, and jackie bradley jr. I hope it is true that Kendrick and Hall have given this guy personell control.