A baseball club, that is. If you want to manage a Yoshinoya, you need real qualifications.
Colletti said his roster of preferred managers holds up to eight names. And while he declined to make public their identities, it is believed that Jim Fregosi, who managed four major league teams, including the Angels from 1978 to ’81 and the Philadelphia Phillies to the 1993 National League pennant, is chief among them.
Colletti and Fregosi (above) have a close relationship, formed in part during their time in the front office of the San Francisco Giants, where Colletti was assistant general manager and, for two years, Fregosi was a special assistant to General Manager Brian Sabean.
It is unknown if Colletti has sought permission to speak to Fregosi from the Atlanta Braves, for whom Fregosi is employed as a special assistant to General Manager John Schuerholz. Schuerholz did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday night, though consent, should Colletti call, is expected to be a formality. Fregosi, 63, has one year left on his contract with the Braves.
“I’m definitely interested,” Fregosi said Wednesday. “I like Ned a lot. I thought he was well qualified for that job. And he did a hell of job in San Francisco.”
Indeed, no one in baseball, save for Brian Sabean, can take as much credit for assembling a very old team that finished 12 games under .500 last year.
The Giants finally had there starting line-up in position and healthy two weeks before the season ended. The team would have been much more competative if health had not been a factor.
David,
the Giants’ health and the age of the players seems to go hand in hand. Who put a gun to Sabean and Colletti’s heads and told them to put together a starting outfield with a combined age of 120? Who chose to sign 90 year old Moises Alou, who missed 29 games?
The players who missed the most time for SF weren’t merely injured….they were older than dirt and injured. Alou, Grissom, Alfonso….and, of course, boorish old Barry.
all of that said, losing Benitez for the better part of the year really hurt, and that wasn’t a free-agent signing most people thought to be questionable.