Could the Sox be looking at a front office change?

[southsider2k5]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...-office-shakeup

 

One of baseball's best and brightest will be able to interview for the vacant Chicago Cubs' general manager's post if called upon.

 

White Sox vice president and assistant general manager Rick Hahn has a clause in his contract that allows him to interview with a handful of major league teams for a GM position, and the Cubs are on that list, according to a major league source.

 

Hahn previously has interviewed for the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets jobs. The Winnetka native pulled himself out of contention for the Cardinals job after two interviews. In 2010, he finished runner-up to Sandy Alderson for the Mets job.

 

What may be the most interesting element to any pursuit of Hahn may be the way Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf approaches Hahn's position. Hahn, GM Kenny Williams and Reinsdorf make up the brain trust for all White Sox baseball decisions. Hahn is the highest paid assistant GM in baseball, according to industry sources. And he's considered one of the top GM prospects.

 

Knowing the Cubs may be seriously interested in Hahn, Reinsdorf may decide to promote Williams to a position with a greater title such as team president and move Hahn into the general manager post. This would be similar to the move Reinsdorf made with the Chicago Bulls, where former GM John Paxson was promoted to VP position above general manager Gar Forman.

 

Hahn is considered the No. 1 candidate in baseball who is not a GM. SI and Baseball America have named Hahn as the top of the line in the next wave of GM stars.

 

Hahn would have a tough choice to make if the Cubs do call and Reinsdorf does change the structure of his front office in order to retain what he may consider an irreplaceable employee.

[caulfield12]

Good material for Chicago talk radio.

 

The lifelong pull of the Cubs versus allegiance/loyalty to JR, who gave him his first big break in the game.

 

Quite the drama.

[fathom]

I truly don't think there's a chance the Cubs will go cheap and hire Hahn. Ricketts is going to try and bring in a big name GM.

[witesoxfan]

I truly don't think there's a chance the Cubs will go cheap and hire Hahn. Ricketts is going to try and bring in a big name GM.

 

Given the state of the Cubs, it would not be a good first job for Hahn to take either because he'd probably never get another chance again.

[Soxbadger]

I actually feel the opposite of fathom.

 

Given the fact that Rickets havent been inclined to spend and dont have the type of cash other richer owners have, I expect them to be bargain hunting for their GM. Since 2006 Ricketts has lost over half his total nw (2.6 bil in 2006, around 1 bil in 2009). I cant find further figures, but Ive always believed that selling to the Rickets was to ensure that the Cubs did not have a huge spending owner.

[caulfield12]

But if you want to ensure future Cubs' "fan faith" (and they definitely showed up in droves at Wrigley this past week...and 132,000 in DET).....then you need a big-name manager and GM for that job.

 

 

[Soxbadger]

Not necessarily, I live within walking distance of Wrigley Field, very little has to do with the actual team. All they have to do is get some ex-Cubbies and the fans will go insane "Sandberg" as Manager and "Ghost of Ran Santo" as GM would be good enough.

 

Its got a great location.

[Balta1701]

Not necessarily, I live within walking distance of Wrigley Field, very little has to do with the actual team. All they have to do is get some ex-Cubbies and the fans will go insane "Sandberg" as Manager and "Ghost of Ran Santo" as GM would be good enough.

 

Its got a great location.

3 years ago everyone would have agreed.

 

Now it actually seems different. Now that they have big underperforming contracts, had a few winning but disappointing years, they're actually seeing attendance erode, there's really a malaise about them.

[Soxbadger]

The attendance is more to do with the fact the Cubs owners are gauging them on prices and putting out a crappy product. You cant be bad and raise prices. If cubs attendance really was a problem all theyd have to do is lower the prices slightly and itd fill up again.

 

http://archive.chicagobreakingsports.com/2...s-for-2010.html

 

This article states as of last year the Cubs had 120k waiting list for season tickets and that they were increasing prices because so many scalpers were selling 2x the value. Its pretty easy to reign back the pricing.