57.12- Swimming Analogy

[chicoruiz]

I am not a good swimmer.

I’m not really afraid of the water or anything; it’s just the moving forward part of it that I’ve never mastered. I kick my feet like I’m supposed to, and have what I consider to be fine arm motion. In my mind I’m looking like Michael freaking Phelps. Then I look up and see that in the 30 seconds I’ve been swimming I’ve moved about two feet forward.

Anyway, that’s how I’m feeling these days as a GM. I feel like I’m getting the hang of running a team, but I’m not seeing the progress I desire. So I’ve committed myself to a philosophy of just trying to make my team one percent better every week- trying to do something, not matter how incremental, to make the Gamblers a bit better off.

Some weeks are harder than others; you’re not going to make a trade or sign a free agent every week (I do have offers in to a few guys, but they’re dragging their feet for some reason). So this week’s improvement was a shuffling of positions in the front office. After losing my assistant GM last week, I looked at available candidates, and was underwhelmed by all of them. But in casting a wider net, I found Haden Cruz. Haden is a pretty darn good pitching coach who did some nice work in New Orleans a few years ago, before things eventually came apart for him. So I ponied up the money to bring him on board; I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll bring some results.

The next step was to call current pitching coach Rafael Archuleta into my office. He came in looking downcast, expecting he was there to be fired; Lord knows the results he’d been getting would point that way.

Instead, I said, “Raffy, you’ve worked hard for the organization for a number of years now. We’ve just had an opening come up as an assistant general manager…would you be interested in the job?”

He accepted before the “b” on the word “job” was out of my mouth. The salary is the same, but he was remaining among the employed, and he wouldn’t be judged on the performance of those pitchers any more.

“Just one thing, Chico”, he said as we parted. “What exactly does an assistant GM do?”

“Honestly, Raffy, I have no g***d*** idea. Just take the job, and make it your own. And don’t get romantically involved with any strippers. And keep your pants on at all times.”

Anyway… The draft is coming up, so I’ll have no problem improving my team by one percent next week. And in the meantime, if you’re at the beach in Atlantic City and see me out in the ocean waving, remember: I’m probably not saying hello, I’m probably drowning…