The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Bruce Bochy has reached an agreement with the San Francisco Giants to replace Felipe Alou as manager. (Thanks to Brian Wilmer in the comments for the heads-up.) Everyone is issuing denials for now, as Bochy prepares to lead a team of MLB all stars to Japan on Monday. The San Francisco Chronicle has picked up on the story as well, so it sounds legit. Word is the deal is at least 3 years at $2M per year. The Giants are expected to announce Bochy’s hiring in a Friday news conference.
Love him or hate him, with Bochy moving on, this represents a huge change for the Padres. He’s the only person connected to all five playoff teams this organization has seen. And, of course, the Pads will have to begin their own search for Bochy’s replacement as manager.
I’m sorry to see Bochy go. His in-game decisions will drive you crazy sometimes, but he represents an important thread in the club’s fabric. And that’s not the sort of thing that’s as easy to replace as you might think.
[Update: Coverage from the North County Times and San Diego Union-Tribune. Angels pitching coach Bud Black (an SDSU alum) and Giants third base coach Ron Wotus are mentioned as possible successors to Bochy.]
Re 50: Oooops! I am still thinking like Boch is leading the club with an unchageable 1-2-3 lineup of relievers. That will likely all change when the new skipper comes in to town.
anyone think Linebrink might be on the Aki Otsuka path? He had a good year and then followed it up with a really unlucky year and, an obviously, worse year.. but trading linebrink in this market also makes sense as long as KT can keep getting servicable cheap relievers.
I noticed another “Jay” on this blog. This is the “real” Jay now. I will change my ID to Jay_SF to avoid confusion. Anyway, it feels kind of weird. As others have said, we lose the stability, player goodwill, generally not over using pitchers but hopefully gain a more risk neutral, and, maybe, imaginative, approach to using players rather than “defensible” formulas. I don’t track managers that well, and I asked SA about it at the Pizza Feed and he mentioned Francona in Boston as an example of a stats aware manager.
On a personal note, I really hate the Giants and respect Bochy, so I am conflicted. I really had nothing against Alou, but if he chose to sign with Satan, that we his choice and not going to interfere with my disgust of the franchise (actually don’t have issue with any of the players except Bonds; Durham and Vizquel annoy me too, but I digress). But now I have Bochy in there; kind of messes up the pureness of my vitriol.
If the list of finalists includes Howe, Bowa or Baker, I will swear off the Padres for 1 year. When I assembled that list, I realized that both Bowa and Howe had managed the Padres.
I hope this does not change Balsley’s interest in being here. I would argue he is our most important coach we have.
Oops, forgot to change my ID.
This is so weird. He’s been a frickin’ Padre his whole career. This is going to change things; maybe good, maybe bad but I feel it will change things.
I’ve been thinking about starting up a sports blog of my own for a while, and my friends and I actually did a week or ago. But I think this is about as good as time as any to tell people about it.
http://titanbowl.blogspot.com/
I don’t know if it really can be considered a bad thing. Maybe it’s what the Padres need is someone new in charge. It’s great that the players love playing for the guy…but he’s not winning anything for us, and it’s time to look for someone new..
re: 53
Howe has not managed the Padres.
Why would any of those three be considered, especially Baker and Bowa? They have proven to be idiots.
42 – strategy is long term; tactical is short term – those are the definitions I use anyway