Craig and Chris were upset when Kevin Towers was dismissed last weekend, while John Conniff from MadFriars.com explained the wisdom of the move in a guest column. John joins the 619 Sports team to debate the decision:
BONUS: Baseball Prospectus senior writer Joe Sheehan offers his thoughts on KT:
John Conniff from MadFriars.com has a different take on the Kevin Towers firing. He will join us later to discuss the story:
The firing of popular Padres General Manager Kevin Towers produced an outcry from the local and national media with the consensus that new owner Jeff Moorad erred in firing the long time general manager in favor of installing his “own guy”.
However, after the knee-jerk responses fade, Moorad, who made a fortune running a sports agency, may have more valid reasons for the change than ego.
In the process of taking control of the team from John Moores, he is not a Daddy Warbucks style owner in the same vein of Detroit’s Mike Illitch, but the leader of a consortium with a finite budget that is expected provide a return on investment.
Towers was not evaluated as a general manager, but rather as the head of baseball operations, Sandy Alderson’s old job, which these days is considerably more than the running a team, but involves, which has been the popular buzzword the past few days, a “strategic vision.”
Talent was not the deciding factor in this game. It seemed as if Northern Colorado wanted to win more than we did. That might be most evidenced in the fact that they showered their coach with a cooler full of Gatorade after the game. The New York Giants started the postgame tradition by dousing head coach Bill Parcells after winning a Super Bowl, and Northern Colorado emulated this celebration after defeating us.