| Alex Noshirvan. 19th October, 2005 - 11:54 pm
 Somebody must like the Devil Rays up there. Why, you ask? Because finally...
Vince Naimoli and Chuck Lamar are through running baseball operations for Tampa Bay. Naimoli will stay on as COO, and Lamar was let go outright. Devil Rays fans, you can come out now, rejoice, because we are finally free. Looking at the past 8 years, not all was bad for Lamar. He did leave the franchise in good shape, with talent throughout all levels of the system, from Single-A all the way up to MLB. But a GM is viewed now a days, in a what have you done for me lately type way, and well, honestly it was time for a major shakeup.
So who do you ask is going to right this wayward ship? Mr. Stuart Sternberg. ?Mr. Sternberg, 46, of Rye, N.Y., is a former Wall Street broker who heads a group that purchased 48 percent of the team for $65 million in 2004. Sternberg, whose group purchased an interest in the team on May of 2004, was an executive with the options trading firm Spear, Leeds and Kellogg (SLK) when that firm was acquired by the international investment banking firm Goldman Sachs in 2000 for $6.5 billion. In 2001, Sternberg was named co-head of SLK-Hull Derivatives, a New York-based options trading company that was part of Goldman Sachs. His group bought the shares of five general partners who were part of the team's original ownership group -- Bill Griffin, Dan Doyle, Robert Basham, Mark Bostick and Chris Sullivan.
He had kept a low profile until last week, and was not supposed to take over operations until 2006, but it is speculated that Naimoli was asked to step down early. All Vince got for that was an extra 26 million in the bank. Not bad for a going away gift I?d say.
Sternberg has promised to raise payroll more than the notoriously tight fisted Naimoli, and as a fan of the devil rays I hope this is true, but I also hope that is money spent wisely. I don?t think any of us true D-Rays fans can forget about the Hit Show, featuring Greg Vaughn, Jose Canseco, Vinny Castilla, and Fred McGriff. What a waste of money that was. Vaughn couldn?t hit over .200, and had no power numbers either, Castilla played like he had just been awaken and stuck on the field, Canseco had one good half of a season, but then his Juice ran out figuratively, and literally. Fred ?Crime Dawg? McGriff was the only one who actually held his weight and played like he cared.
So what do we as Devil Rays fans have to look forward to? Well at this time the Rays are just trying to find a manager. Lou Piniella was let go from his contract, and the Rays have brought in a host of different candidates for the job. The most likely canidates seems to be Joe Giradi, the ex-Yankee catcher, and current bench coach for Joe Torre, and Ron Washington, the Oakland A?s third base coach. Giradi seems to be the front runner, as he has been brought in for a second interview, and having recently retired, would be a great leader for a young up-and-coming team.
The GM position is looking like a committee approach right now headed by Andrew Friedman, 28, director of baseball operations, is expected to have a prominent position in the Rays' restructured front office. Possible candidates include former Astros GM Gerry Hunsicker, former Dodgers GM Dan Evans, Nationals GM Jim Bowden, and former Rangers GM John Hart. Somehow they will have something in place, in the coming weeks.
So all in all, we are Finally looking like we are headed in the right direction, it only took 8 years of losing baseball to figure out we were headed the wrong way. Hopefully Mr. Sternberg will lead this team for a long while, and finally bring some October baseball to Tampa. |
