Ned Colletti’s finishing his seventh season as Assistant General Manager of the San Francisco Giants. A former sportswriter who got his start in baseball in the Cubs public relations department, Colletti cut his teeth under Dallas Green and Jim Frey in Chicago and Bob Quinn and Brian Sabean in San Francisco. One of the most prolific contract negotiators in the game, he’s completed about 350 player contracts worth $750 million during his career, including the last two Barry Bonds contracts for the Giants. Colletti and GM Brian Sabean have presided over a Giants team that’s been eliminated from playoff contention for a total of 11 days over the last seven years, on track for a fourth playoff appearance this season. He recently chatted with BP about the role of an assistant GM, the Sidney Ponson trade, and why the Giants sign and trade for the players they do.
Everyone who knows me–or reads this column regularly–knows that I love Vegas, and think that Major League Baseball could flourish there. Well, apparently I’m not the only one, as Steve Stone has been secretly heading a group trying to buy the Expos and move them out west. As a Cubs fan, I’ve always enjoyed Steve’s work, especially when it comes to explaining the mental processes of pitching. I didn’t know it before meeting him on the field at Wrigley, but Stone is a close friend of Bud Selig–a fact that can’t hurt his chances of landing the team. Can Stone come up with the cash and a stadium? All reports have Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman on board, and that means things in town are a go. While I don’t like the implication of a winter where the two main stories will be the reinstatement of Pete Rose and a team moving to Vegas, I think one will definitely happen, and the other’s a coin flip.
Powered by Vince Vaughn’s performance in the movie Swingers, on to the injuries…
Dusty Baker thinks it’s better to burn out than it is to rust. Mark Prior is inclined to agree. Marquis Grissom believes Barry Bonds is the best. (We’re inclined to agree.) Delmon Young believes he can bring a championship to Tampa Bay before the decade is out. And Bud Selig is pleased with the way San Juan has worked for the Expos. All this and many more notable quotables from around the league in your Monday edition of The Week In Quotes.
The Astros enter the final two weeks of the season up two games in the NL Central. The Athletics’ outfield has tanked, but Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez have helped pick up the slack. Francisco Cordero good, Michael Young bad, Ryan Drese ugly in the Rangers’ second half. These and other news and notes out of Houston, Oakland, and Texas in today’s Prospectus Triple Play.
Just before 1:00, I checked the program schedule and just about collapsed from the shock: no Game of the Week. Are you kidding me? Two weeks to go in the season, half the teams in baseball still chasing playoff spots, terrific matchups like White Sox/Red Sox and Braves/Marlins on the schedule, a nation of couch potatoes sitting in front of their televisions, and MLB takes this opportunity to fold its tent? I know it was likely Fox’s decision, predicated on not wanting to compete with either broadcast college football or its own Fox Sports Net package of gridiron games. So what? It’s MLB’s job to choose a broadcast partner that will help it promote the game, and that means more than setting up stupid gimmicks for the All-Star Game. Abandoning the national stage at a time when its product should be at its most attractive isn’t just stupid, it’s corporate malfeasance. This can’t be good for postseason ratings, either. What baseball should be doing is creating interest in the teams and players who will be taking the field beginning September 30. You want people getting excited about Barry Bonds and Mark Prior and Nomar Garciaparra now, so that when you stick their games in prime time next month, you have a greater chance of drawing an audience. If I’m understanding the schedule properly, there are no more over-the-air baseball games until the Division Series, which is one of the most bizarre, counterproductive, self-mutilating decisions I have ever seen.