Stability

For most of this season, as the Wayne Krivsky debate (mildy) rages on, my thoughts have been conflicting.  On one hand, I don’t care for the majority of the moves Krivsky’s made.  He’s been fairly good excellent at low-cost, high-risk, high-reward moves, like Brandon Phillips and Josh Hamilton.  But he’s been utterly miserable at assembling a bullpen, has signed several marginal-to-worse players to contract extensions, and has the personality of a tasseled loafer.

So why haven’t I joined (at least permanently joined) the ranks of the “Fire Krivsky!” mob?  This passage from John Perrotto’s weekly column at Prospectus explains it better than I can: 

Colorado Rockies owners Charlie and Dick Monfort took their share of heat from the fans on Opening Day when they announced two-year contract extensions for General Manager Dan O’Dowd and manager Clint Hurdle.

…

Charlie Monfort, the Rockies’ chief executive officer, said there was a reason for their decision to extend O’Dowd and Hurdle–stability. “It reached farther than the manager and general manager,” Monfort told the Rocky Mountain News. “The farm system was good, the scouting was good, and we knew Clint could bring them together at the big-league level. This is gratifying not for ownership but to know that after the slings and arrows that everyone in our organization took maybe we did know what we were doing.

“You have to realize that when you get rid of one person in baseball you get rid of the organization. Dan O’Dowd is also (scouting director) Bill Schmidt and (VP of baseball operations) Bill Geivett and (player development director) Mark Gustafson. Consistency is what you need. You want people to feel they can do their job and not look over their shoulder after every loss. Consistency is what you need and we’ve had a system in place for eight years. The players understand who they are going to play for. They know Clint is in charge. They know Dan is in charge. Stability in any business is good.”

I’m not agreeing that stability and consistency are per se good – every business needs shaken up from time to time.  But in the Reds case, after Bowden/O’Brien/Boone/Miley/Narron, there’s been enough upheaval.  Whatever plan Wayne Krivsky has – and I hope to God he has one – I’d vote to let him have one more season (or at least half a season) to see how it plays out.