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| A Chip Hale card from his days as a Triple A player in the Twins system. |
Hale spent 10 seasons as a player in the Twins organization, 1987-96, then had a year apiece with the Dodgers and the Cardinals. His major league employment record since is scattered; he's had stints as a minor league manager, including winning the Pacific Coast League title one year with the Diamondbacks' Triple A affiliate.
There is some disputation in the on-line world as to whether Hale counts as an "outside" candidate. I figure there's got to be some sort of statute of limitations. Yes, Hale spent most of his playing career with the Twins; he hasn't drawn a check from them since.
Managers Hale played for in the majors:
Minnesota, 1989-90, 1993-96: Tom Kelly
Los Angeles, 1997: Bill Russell
Managers Hale has coached under in the majors:
Arizona, 2006: Bob Melvin
New York Mets, 2009: Jerry Manuel
Oakland, 2011-present: Melvin again
Possibly notable names Hale had as minor league managers:
Phil Roof, Scott Ullger, Russ Nixon. (Roof was a long time Triple A manager for the Twins and still helps with the minor league catchers in spring training; Ullger, of course, has been on the Twins major league staff for years; and Nixon managed without success in the mjaors for two full seasons and parts of three others.)
Kelly probably has competition from Melvin for the "title" of most influential figure on Hale as a potential manager.
If you were conducting the interviews, what would you be asking about? Would you run particular game scenarios past the candidates and ask for strategy choices? Would you watch a game together and seek responses and reactions to the strategy of the managers? I remember Bill James arguing that potential managers should play a 1000 games of strat-o-matic as a teaching tool. I always loved that idea.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what they glean from inside candidates that the GM does not already know? Maybe some outside candidates too, baseball is not such a large fraternity.
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