azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Jack Magruder, Tribune
While youth was served with the Diamondbacks last season, it was all too often aced.
The 100-year-flood of injuries and misfortune that created opportunities for young players also conspired to create a 111-loss season in which attendance and concession revenues also sank to franchise-record lows.
Although the common perception was that the D-Backs would continue to skew young and less expensive this season, only the latter principle guided them through an offseason that by the end seemed almost Colangeloesque in its reach.
"We built everything around a budget and fit our players into that budget,’’ D-Backs managing partner Ken Kendrick said.
They built what they believe is a contender, adding eight quality veterans, while toeing the bottom line.
The D-Backs’ payroll will be about $60 million this season, 25 percent lower than last year and about half of what it was when they won the 2001 World Series.
"We knew what the budget numbers were,’’ D-Backs general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. said. "Then, it was a matter of making deals that would fit within those parameters. While I’m not saying that they were completely inflexible numbers, they were certainly hard numbers that we were going to meet, not just this year but out into the future.
"The challenge was to accomplish the maximum while staying within those numbers.’’
Meet max — starting position players Troy Glaus, Shawn Green, Craig Counsell, Royce Clayton and Jose Cruz Jr. and starting pitchers Javier Vazquez, Russ Ortiz and Shawn Estes.
The key to the ability to meet budget with such proven talent was a change in tactics.
In the old days, the D-Backs seemed to have an open-checkbook policy.
This time, Garagiola so deftly handled the Randy Johnson deal that not only did the New York Yankees kick in $9 million along with principal component Vazquez, the Los Angeles Dodgers also included $10 million when they completed the de facto three-way deal by sending Green to the D-Backs.
The D-Backs got a premium starting pitcher, a 40-home run right fielder and $19 million for Johnson. As part of the Cruz deal with Tampa Bay, the D-Backs also received $500,000.
The selection process no longer seems grab and go.
It has been redefined as grab and squeeze.
"We’ve started a pattern here,’’ said Kendrick, referring to the cash the D-Backs were able to recoup in their trades.
"I don’t think you can always expect that to happen, but in our case we bargained hard on some of these deals to make the economics really work. We get our eye on a guy, but we get our eye on the budget at the same time.
"We just make it really clear that in order for us to be able to do a deal, this is what we have to have.’’
And if it does not work, as in the case of Richie Sexson, the D-Backs move on to Plan B.
Kendrick said the D-Backs tried their best to keep Sexson, the slugging first baseman whose season-ending May shoulder injury was a harbinger of things to come in 2004.
"The economics, coupled with his injury and his unwillingness to share any kind of risk at all with us, dictated that he wasn’t going to be here," Kendrick said.
"Once we realized his story would end, that changed our dynamics. Then we were able to look at some more high-end free agents than we would have.’’
Read Glaus. And Ortiz. And others you will not read about.
"The ones you hear about are the ones that worked. We’ve had people say ‘Are you kidding? No way, Jose,’ ’’ Kendrick said of some of the trade discussions the D-Backs had in the offseason.
"We’ve worked hard to keep the budget. We’ve done it. Obviously, the most important thing is putting a team out there that can do us all proud. And we think we have a chance that this team will do that.’’
The D-Backs are a mid-market team — Phoenix ranked No. 17 among major league TV markets last season and will be No. 18 when Washington, D.C., replaces Montreal this season — and will from this point forward behave accordingly, Kendrick said.
"Logic would say you would match up your cost of payroll against the size of market that you are. That would be the logical thing one would do,’’ Kendrick said.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=36313
While youth was served with the Diamondbacks last season, it was all too often aced.
The 100-year-flood of injuries and misfortune that created opportunities for young players also conspired to create a 111-loss season in which attendance and concession revenues also sank to franchise-record lows.
Although the common perception was that the D-Backs would continue to skew young and less expensive this season, only the latter principle guided them through an offseason that by the end seemed almost Colangeloesque in its reach.
"We built everything around a budget and fit our players into that budget,’’ D-Backs managing partner Ken Kendrick said.
They built what they believe is a contender, adding eight quality veterans, while toeing the bottom line.
The D-Backs’ payroll will be about $60 million this season, 25 percent lower than last year and about half of what it was when they won the 2001 World Series.
"We knew what the budget numbers were,’’ D-Backs general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. said. "Then, it was a matter of making deals that would fit within those parameters. While I’m not saying that they were completely inflexible numbers, they were certainly hard numbers that we were going to meet, not just this year but out into the future.
"The challenge was to accomplish the maximum while staying within those numbers.’’
Meet max — starting position players Troy Glaus, Shawn Green, Craig Counsell, Royce Clayton and Jose Cruz Jr. and starting pitchers Javier Vazquez, Russ Ortiz and Shawn Estes.
The key to the ability to meet budget with such proven talent was a change in tactics.
In the old days, the D-Backs seemed to have an open-checkbook policy.
This time, Garagiola so deftly handled the Randy Johnson deal that not only did the New York Yankees kick in $9 million along with principal component Vazquez, the Los Angeles Dodgers also included $10 million when they completed the de facto three-way deal by sending Green to the D-Backs.
The D-Backs got a premium starting pitcher, a 40-home run right fielder and $19 million for Johnson. As part of the Cruz deal with Tampa Bay, the D-Backs also received $500,000.
The selection process no longer seems grab and go.
It has been redefined as grab and squeeze.
"We’ve started a pattern here,’’ said Kendrick, referring to the cash the D-Backs were able to recoup in their trades.
"I don’t think you can always expect that to happen, but in our case we bargained hard on some of these deals to make the economics really work. We get our eye on a guy, but we get our eye on the budget at the same time.
"We just make it really clear that in order for us to be able to do a deal, this is what we have to have.’’
And if it does not work, as in the case of Richie Sexson, the D-Backs move on to Plan B.
Kendrick said the D-Backs tried their best to keep Sexson, the slugging first baseman whose season-ending May shoulder injury was a harbinger of things to come in 2004.
"The economics, coupled with his injury and his unwillingness to share any kind of risk at all with us, dictated that he wasn’t going to be here," Kendrick said.
"Once we realized his story would end, that changed our dynamics. Then we were able to look at some more high-end free agents than we would have.’’
Read Glaus. And Ortiz. And others you will not read about.
"The ones you hear about are the ones that worked. We’ve had people say ‘Are you kidding? No way, Jose,’ ’’ Kendrick said of some of the trade discussions the D-Backs had in the offseason.
"We’ve worked hard to keep the budget. We’ve done it. Obviously, the most important thing is putting a team out there that can do us all proud. And we think we have a chance that this team will do that.’’
The D-Backs are a mid-market team — Phoenix ranked No. 17 among major league TV markets last season and will be No. 18 when Washington, D.C., replaces Montreal this season — and will from this point forward behave accordingly, Kendrick said.
"Logic would say you would match up your cost of payroll against the size of market that you are. That would be the logical thing one would do,’’ Kendrick said.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=36313
