being that cashman currently lives in greenwich and valentine’s a stamford guy, these two already have a friendly relationship outside of baseball. regardless of what happens to cashman though seattle could be a great place for valentine to make his US return- ichiro, great ballpark, great fan base (when they’re winning) and nice city.

OR

watch BV finish his contract in Japan next season, collect the $4 million and wait for the yankees job to open. although bobby was on the list last year cashman had already decided on girardi. but if girardi doesn’t do better next season he’s a goner and the steinbrenners are bobby v fans….

I doubt that there’ll be years of bad teams.
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Don’t agree with you there. The team will compound the mistakes of the recent past with a reactionary course of action that will include overbidding on one or all of Sabathia, Sheets, Teixeira, and Burnett. That’ll only prolong the misery of having an expensive, inflexible team of potential injury cases and slightly overrated players.

In short, the path to salvation lies in astute management of the minor league system and this winter will be the total antithesis of that principle. It’s going to suck for us for a while, just like it did in the late 80′s/early 90′s.

Raf,
I fear that we will turn into the Orioles and Dodgers of the 90′s. Teams that spent lots of money foolishly because wealthy ownership thought it knew how to assess baseball talent and spent on high-priced free agents who didn’t fit and underperformed.

And when I say ‘bad teams’ I’m not talking about KC or Pittsburgh. But we could have teams that are somewhat competitive but not playing well, if at all, in October.

Save this post and bring it back in a couple of years: if Cashman leaves then we are looking at years of bad teams and a highly dysfunctional front office.
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I doubt that there’ll be years of bad teams.

Before throwing Cashman overboard, realize that his greatest talent has been dealing with the Steinbrenners (first George, and now the baby Steins) and handling the media.

It will be hard to replace him with a quality GM who is willing to work in such a difficult job environment, for so many reasons.

Save this post and bring it back in a couple of years: if Cashman leaves then we are looking at years of bad teams and a highly dysfunctional front office.

Beane is, IIRC, a part owner of the A’s.

the M’s were old, they didn’t hit, and they had lousy defense.

Sounds kinda like another team I know. Maybe if Cashman sticks around he can throw piles of money at a couple of free agents and trade his best CF prospect for a grumpy fringe ace pitcher.

That should read before the season started…

It seems like McLaren didn’t have the team ready to compete this year despite having the horses.
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He didn’t have the horses. At the beginning of the year, the M’s were old, they didn’t hit, and they had lousy defense. Even if both Bedard and Hernandez had Cy Young caliber seasons, the M’s weren’t going anywhere.

Oppenheimer might get the job in the Bronx. I don’t think that Cashman is tortured by leaving BUT he will have less than half the resources and almost no pressure to produce a winner. He might play it safe and go to Philly where they might go to the playoffs again. But once again he has very little money to play around with .

I think Bobby V would be the logical choice for the Ms. It seems like McLaren didn’t have the team ready to compete this year despite having the horses. Bobby V might be the right guy to revivify this franchise.