Baseball
For my first entry, I wanted to comment on great management in sports. For most sports teams, the head of a team is the General Manager (GM) who oversees roster depth, transactions, payroll, and staff. The GM is almost always the one held responsible if a team performs poorly, but hardly ever recognized if the team does great. While the sports world is filled with great and not so great GM's, one GM stands out this season, Joe Girardi of the Florida Marlins (MLB).
Currently, the Marlins have a record of 74-75. Because they play in the not as competitive National League, they are currently only 4 games back in the wild card race. With almost three weeks left in the season, they have the opportunity to play better baseball, and grab a wild card spot. Amazingly, the Marlins were 11-31 at some point in this season, and have become the first Major League team to come back from 20 games below .500 to achieve a .500 record (although currently they are one game under .500).
While the Marlins may be deep in play contention, there is one facet that makes them truly a different team: the lowest payroll in the MLB. As listed on espn.com, the core of the Florida Marlins' team makes a little over 14 million dollars. The second lowest payroll is over $35 million, which belongs to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Alex Rodriguez, a Third Baseman for the New York Yankees, makes over $25 million alone. In a league were some teams pay their players on average over $5 million per season, only 2 Marlins players make over $1 million.
The great thing about the job done by the Marlins' GM is the position the Marlins are currently in while having such limited resources. Joe Girardi has had to put more effort into building this team than most GM's have because of the payroll situation. Florida has lost many all-star caliber players, and even a World Series MVP because of their limited resources, but Joe Girardi has still been able to put together a good team.
The job done by Joe Girardi shows that sometimes the lack of resources can be overcome by good management. By hiring the best employees available, and putting together a great staff, Joe Girardi has been able to be more successful than other General Managers who have had more resources to work with.
Comments
Posted by: Matt
Posted on: September 17, 2006 06:22 PM
Joe Girardi is not the GM of the Marlins. He is the manager...in charge of on-field operations. The General Manager of the Marlins is Larry Beinfest. Joe Girardi is a first-year manager who actually has had, so far, very little to do with player-based decisions. In fact, within two weeks after he took the job as manager, the Marlins got rid of three more high-priced starts in return for many of the young players who are now helping the Marlins be the league's biggest overachiever. Do not think that Girardi had anything to do with these decisions...when asked about them, he expressed surprise and even disappointment that they happened, and insinuated that he had been lied to about the roster and the payroll figures during his interview process.
Don't get me wrong...Girardi has done an outstanding job as manager. I'm just saying that he has very little to do with what players are on the Marlins' roster. Also, recent rumor has it that he won't be around next year, as the owner of the Marlins does not really get along with him.
Posted by: Scott
Posted on: September 17, 2006 06:46 PM
Thanks Matt for the correction. It seems that most of the credit should then go to Larry Beinfest. Either way, what's important in this situation is the lack of resources the Florida Marlins have worked with this season, and how much they have achieved. That credit goes to the front office as much as it does to the manager, as each has taken care of their part of the business. And as Matt pointed out, it seems Girardi won't be around next year because of poor chemistry with the owner, which is really suprising because poor chemistry can really dismantle a team. Luckily for the Marlins, they have been able to put that behind them, for now.
Posted by: Meredith
Posted on: September 23, 2006 04:25 PM
Hi, Scott,
I enjoyed reading your first post; I especially enjoyed your enthusiasm for the topic at hand and your link to management.
In the future, be sure to date and tag all of your MGMT250 blog posts as MGMT250 (no spaces, no quotes), so that your work can be counted towards your blogging grade.
Let me know if you have any questions,
Meredith
ps: you are receiving .5pts of 1 possible point for the first component of the blogging assignment. you have received credit for making a post, but have lost points for grammatical errors. for more insight and feedback into the first round of grading, please see my blog post:
http://blog.case.edu/myers/mt-tb.cgi/9857
Posted by: hbtjkca yjvsotb
Posted on: January 18, 2007 12:58 PM
cprtz tgckpomil madnrj metxwujl iemw kfxdmiwp scgkezfw