Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick and president Derrick Hall held court on several topics with the press yesterday. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported on the session; we’ll cover a few salient points here.
Kendrick had lofty praise for recently extended GM Mike Hazen, saying the top baseball ops decisionmaker has “done a remarkable job of transitioning from what he inherited to what we now have,” referring to the strides made in building out the farm system and compiling a competitive and cost-efficient MLB roster.
We’re accustomed to the notion of ownership setting payrolls that are never quite as robust as a baseball operations department might prefer. But Hazen has actually counseled against certain added cash outlays, Kendrick relays. “I’ve had a willingness to personally commit more money than [the front office] feels is the smart thing for us to do,” he says.
In the long run, Kendrick says, he anticipates that payroll will continue to rise along with the team’s revenue streams. It wasn’t quite clear whether he meant to suggest that his organization anticipates gaining ground relative to the rest of the league, though that’s certainly possible.
The D-Backs are, after all, still working on ways to make more cash from their stadium situation. Hall says the organization is focused at present on maximizing the opportunities at Chase Field, which the team gained added control over after sorting out some elements of a dispute regarding maintenance with municipal authorities.
With positive initial returns on efforts to take care of the facility and put it to non-baseball uses, Hall says “there’s not such an urgency to figure out that next step.” Indeed, things went so well last year that the organization sees some spillover onto the baseball side. “It does provide us with new resources from a revenue standpoint that we can invest back into the team,” Hall explains.
It does seem there’s still an inclination to pursue a new ballpark — or, perhaps, a major revamp of the existing facility. Kendrick posited a rather confusing analogy of Chase Field to a “classic automobile;” in both, he says, one might like some of what’s outwardly visible but might also “find things sometimes you wouldn’t wish to find.” Kendrick seemingly suggested that maintaining the facility might ultimately not be feasible, thus requiring a new one altogether. It seems odd that a ballpark that opened in 1998 would have been constructed in such a manner. While it’s understandable enough that the team is desirous of maximizing its earning opportunities — particularly after seeing a few peer organizations pull off fancy multi-use, publicly-funded projects to replace perfectly useful existing structures — building new ballparks every quarter-century really isn’t a reasonable overall strategy.
Building new ballparks every two decades is a perfectly reasonable strategy when someone else is paying most or all of the bill. One suspects that Kendrick definitely has a “someone else” in mind.
Why do people just complain about random nonsense. The Diamondbacks play in the same park since their 1998 inauguration season.
Ironman, Mike is just projecting his bad attitude about his team’s GM and ownership onto the Dback’s owner, KK. He assumes all owners are cheapskate billionaires who insist on fans and local officials to build stadiums for them to get richer and pocket more money. Refreshing to have KK as owner and Magician Mike as GM.
I have nothing against the team or front office at all. The original ballpark was built with a heavy infusion of taxpayer money, funded by a sales tax increase. That was my point.
What are you smoking? Have you not been paying attention to this team the last 12 years? KK/Hall can be directly attributed to every dumb move this team has made in his time as principle partner. KK’s cheapness was the reason Touki was traded to dump the Arroyo contract. It was KK’s idea to bring on some “real baseball guys” when he hired TLR and Stewart. He then magnanimously approved the money for Greinke while freezing payroll at $100M and simultaneously requiring those same two ill-equipped baseball guys to add another pitcher, which is the exact reason for the Shelby Miller debacle. It is SO Ken Kendrick to brag about the money that he was willing to, but didn’t have to spend. The only smart thing he’s ever done was realize his and Hall’s glaring inadequacies and bring on Hazen. So far, he’s managed to do something he’s yet to do under his tenure, stay the hell out of his GM’s way. As a D-backs fan from day-1, I hope beyond hope that continues.
don’t forget drafting Swanson over Bregman, trading Max and even Bauer
Maybe Ricketts would be in better financial shape if he had blown up Wrigley & started over with a new park as opposed to the hundreds of millions he’s had to sink into an iconic, yet decrepit old ball yard.
Completely agree. It’s a miserable place to attend games. Then again, it’s the Ricketts and the Cubs.
Ricketts has doen wonders for the hood. Who doesn’t love Naperville in the heart of Wrigleyville?
Completely disagree. Wrigley Field is a wonderful place to go to a game!
As for classical older stadiums.. I always thought old Tiger stadium was equally as nice, if not as unique in as many ways as Wrigley with the over hanging boxes in RF over the field of play, then the flag pole in CF the same.
Think that stadium would have lasted longer had the city of Detroit not been in such serious distress and Tigers wanting to move out of the heart of the city. It was a really quirky park.. Nice for lefties with that overhang in RF to “catch” balls not hit as well as some thought and it’s own death valley in dead CF.
Believe it ended life as a police training ground before final destruction. Once of my favorite parks and it never had safety nets strung about to catch falling bricks from person(s) below it.
Hazen has made some good moves and these guys look like they have a bright future. The Gallen pickup was cool, surprised it didn’t get too much press.
Gallen is an absolute stud. as nice a prospect as Chisholm is, he was and will be well worth it.
no relation between Darick and Derrick Hall?
I have been quite amused with the D-Backs the last few years. They are making moves without destroying their farm system. I think both Marte deals will work out better than what some people think or believe. I think they are ace or two from knocking Dodgers off the division. I also believe they will have a remarkable season and wouldn’t be surprised if they hit the 100 win column this year.
Yeah, I’d say Mike Hazen has been a vast improvement over Dave Stewart. Definitely one of the smarter GMs in the game.
If the D-Backs FO isn’t the best in MLB right now, they’re in the discussion. As for the money/stadium situation, that’s ownership stuff. But given what it’s relatively easy to project in terms of payroll availability, Hazen seems to butt up right against it without going over. And he’s putting a pretty decent team out there. And he has a manager (much under-rated, IMHO) who knows what to do with it.
Hey, they’re up against the Dodgers. That just means LOTS of stuff has to go right for them, while at the same time some things have to go wrong for LA. But they’re legit Wild Card contenders, which given their situation, is about the best you can hope for.
Notice the difference between Dbacks fans posts and those from fans of other teams about their FO? Hazen is a magician and Kendrick is willing to spend more, but his staff says “not yet”. By contrast, fans of other teams think their GM is a bum and their owners are cheapskates. Love being an AZ fan right now!
I am not a D-Backs fan by any imagination. I have stated on this thread that D-Backs have done well the last few years in making deals. Both Marte’s deals haven’t hurt the D-Backs too much. It’s only a legit Ace or two that hold the D-Backs from a divisional crown. But I’d be just as happy if my team made the playoffs or has potential to do so for the next few years. D-Backs have chemistry without having to sign outsiders to boost the club and ruining the chemistry amongst each other. Just one bad outsider like a Puig could disrupt a clubhouse atmosphere. D-backs are in a good place and enjoy watching them play. Probably first time since Randy Johnson pitched for the D-Backs that I enjoyed watching them. Better than watching my Pirates lately lol
Dbacks have 2 more Aces on their staff already! Gallen is projected to perform like Flaherty did last year in his breakout season for St. Louis, and Weaver showed his potential the last two injury shortened seasons. Although Bumgarner is the No. 1 starter and regarded as the veteran, Ace of the staff, the actual order of top pitchers on the staff is:
1. Gallen
2. Weaver
3. Bumgarner
4. Ray
5. Kelly
6. Leake
7. Duplantier
8. Young
It would be great if one of those revenue streams didn’t entail claiming Salt Lake as a market (despite it being a 10 hour drive and the Rockies already claiming it) and then not offering their channel and blacking games out on MLBTV here if the team is playing the Snakes.
Evil work…Snakes. Evil.
Interesting. I couldn’t watch Astros or Royals games from Oklahoma last summer. I think they claim whole states. Wonder if other dudes have that problem.
That must really suck. My complaint is that I pay for MLBTV and I am willing to (and do) pay for any sports tier on my Comcast but they don’t offer Snakes games as cable doesn’t carry Fox Sports SW and I’d have to get Direct TV. Seems excessive to black out games that the biggest cable provider doesn’t provide on MLBTV. If they did provide it…I’d understand.