Brian Sabean’s comment at the end of our telephone conversation last Thursday was a first in my experience. It had to be a first. I’m certain it was a first.

I always thank the person I have interviewed, thanked him for returning my call and his time. It’s the polite thing to do. But after I thanked Sabean, he said, “Thanks for writing the story.”

In no way is that a routine response from a baseball executive to a reporter. But I had told Sabean I was writing about Hensley Meulens and how he has been ignored as a candidate for a managing job with a major league club, and Sabean was appreciative that somebody was recognizing that Meulens deserved to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word manager.

Not only that, but Sabean took advantage of the interview to mention other members of Bruce Bochy’s coaching staff who have been ignored.

In spite of their and the San Francisco Giants’ success in this decade, the World Series championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014, three in five years. That doesn’t happen every day.

Coaches on one World Series-winning team, let alone three, are often considered for …

Keep reading...

Remember the name Vince Gennaro. Actually, it’s an easy name to remember if you’re a fan of the Bruce Willis “Die Hard” series of films because Holly Gennaro is the Willis character’s ex-wife. The name came readily to mind the other day.

Vince Gennaro is not related to Holly or Bruce Willis. Actually, I didn’t ask Vince if he is related to Willis, but that really doesn’t matter. What matters is the breakthrough Vince Gennaro made in my metrics thinking.

As anybody who reads this column knows, I am not a fan of the new-fangled metrics that have infested baseball. “It’s well documented, Murray. That’s well documented,” Gennaro said when we spoke on the telephone last Thursday.

Gennaro was the third official of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) whom I tried to contact last week when I set out to write this column about pitching victories and runs batted in. Both traditional statistics have been downgraded in the statistical community, and I wanted to find out why.

In the course of my quest, I found Gennaro, SABR’s president, who is …

Keep reading...

If someone, anyone, can explain the Arizona Diamondbacks to me, I would welcome it and appreciate it. To me, the Diamondbacks are inexplicable.

Let’s go back to 2011 to try to understand how the Diamondbacks have functioned. That year, with Kirk Gibson and Kevin Towers in their first full seasons as manager and general manager, respectively, the team won the National League West championship and lost the division series of the playoffs to Milwaukee in the 10th inning of Game 5.

Two consecutive .500 seasons and a 64-98 season followed, and Gibson and Towers were gone. In their places for the 2015 season were Chip Hale as manager and Dave Stewart as general manager. But the Diamondbacks also had made a significant addition.

Tony La Russa, a Hall of Fame manager with no front-office experience, was brought in as …

Keep reading...