Tony La Russa equals Phil Jackson: A spectacularly successful manager/coach who just has too much lingering desire/energy to either retire or take a supplementary role.
Both have hooked on to questionable ownerships to try to run something at roughly the same advanced professional age — La Russa is 69 or 11 months older than Jackson. Do they have the vigor and skill sets to succeed in these new roles?
La Russa was named Arizona’s chief baseball officer last weekend at what one AL executive described as “a pivotal summer in the history of the Diamondbacks. They are not drawing, where are they going?”
Arizona began Wednesday at 18-39 and arguably the biggest disappointment in the sport. Team president Derrick Hall told me, in an email: “We are in such a tough place and needed strong and successful guidance for change and direction. After meeting with Tony the first time, I knew he was the perfect person — smart, successful, driven. Leadership, etc.” La Russa told me in a text he feels he has been well trained for this moment and “is fired up to have at it.”
But, like Jackson with the Knicks, La Russa is dealing with inconsistent ownership. Ken Kendrick does not have James Dolan’s public reputation, but within the game he is known for impetuously changing plans and having a volatility that has led to him being publicly critical of players and management.
And, like Jackson with the Knicks, La Russa must prove talents that made him excel as a coach/manager can translate to picking players. La Russa’s managerial greatness was defined in many ways by his game-by-game intensity. Running baseball operations (or basketball operations) demands a larger scope from men who have spent long, successful careers entrenched in the smaller picture. Do men in their late 60s have the ability to adapt plus have the patience and endurance to excel in these new roles the way they did in their previous jobs?
La Russa is going to have a quick opportunity to impact Arizona long-term. He was hired early enough to get a read on players for the July/August trade market. It seems clear Diamondbacks upper management did not want to let a GM (Kevin Towers) who it felt contributed to a mess and may be fired because of it make trades for the future.
Arizona went pretty much all-in for this season, dealing well-regarded prospects Matt Davidson, Adam Eaton and Tyler Skaggs plus signing Bronson Arroyo late in the offseason to go to a team-record $112 million payroll.
Now, Arizona will definitely be open for trade-deadline business with players such as Arroyo, Miguel Montero, Aaron Hill, Martin Prado, Eric Chavez, and Cody Ross — among others — as potential trade pieces.
However, one AL official cautioned, “La Russa will know his own team, but how will he know who he is getting in return? Does he let Kevin or the scouting department make those choices or does he start calling friends like Jim Leyland and say, ‘Hey, what do you got on this prospect?’ That is a dangerous game if done that way. And I would keep this in mind: on-field personnel [managers and coaches] are notoriously bad evaluators, so Tony is going to have to show he does not fall into that category.”
As with Jackson trying to revive the Knicks, this should be fascinating.
Yankees prospect proving A-Rod right
There is so much wrong with Alex Rodriguez and I can pile on here. But let me go the other way. I do think A-Rod is a baseball gym rat and it is where — I believe, anyway — we connected. I really enjoyed talking baseball with A-Rod.
So last year when I was with him during his rehab at Triple-A, I asked him if during his minor league games any player had stood out.
He mentioned one player he had seen at Low-A Charleston — “Pete O’Brien has real power,” Rodriguez said. I wondered at the time if this was a Miami thing (O’Brien is from there) and A-Rod tends to favor the city. But seven weeks into this season, O’Brien has hit 17 homers between Single-A (10) and Double-A (seven in just 11 games). Only Rangers power prospect Joey Gallo (18) has more in the minors.
Scouts concur O’Brien’s righty might is legit with one saying, “He doesn’t even seem as if he swings hard and he has enormous power. Enormous.” But a few scouts spoken to believe he has big holes in his swing — one likened him to J.P. Arencibia in that he will hit for some power, but with prodigious strikeouts and low batting average, a portfolio that has led to Arencibia winding up back in the minors. Plus, scouts think O’Brien will not catch in the majors and lacks the athleticism to play first or right field.
Yankee officials — of course — disagree. They also don’t project him as a catcher, in part because they have Brian McCann, John Ryan Murphy and Gary Sanchez to cover the position into the future. But they believe he has the athleticism to play first or a corner outfield adequately and can be a 30-plus-homer righty bat, which is a rare commodity (eight managed it last year compared to 19 a decade earlier).
Yes, he will strike out a lot and not hit better than .250 in all likelihood, though the Yankees are hopeful the strikeouts will drop some with experience. For now, he projects somewhat to a Mark Reynolds type.
Betances has become Lethal Weapon
Dellin Betances struck out three of the five batters he faced Wednesday. That means he has now whiffed 45 of the 99 batters he has faced this year — or 45.5 percent. Consider that in baseball history, a pitcher (minimum 25 innings) has exceeded that total just once — Atlanta’s Craig Kimbrel struck out a stunning 50.2 percent of the hitters he faced in 2012.
Though he has worked only in relief, Betances nevertheless is 26th in the AL in strikeouts (he has two more strikeouts than Hiroki Kuroda, for example).
But more encouraging than the strikeouts for Betances might be his walks — or the absence of them. He has just nine on the season and is trending in the right direction. He has appeared in eight May games and issued walks in just one, yielding two walks this month in 12 ²/₃ innings compared to 22 strikeouts and eight hits.
He is a weapon.