JOHN SICKELS: Hi Mike, I know you are really busy, so I want to start with a
general philosophy question then ask about some specific players.
About 15 years ago, it was commonly said that the worst nightmare of the
smaller-revenue clubs was for a larger-revenue club to devote massive
resources to improving the farm system, rather than just spending money on
free agents as was more traditional in the 70's and 80s. Over the last few
years, it seems the Red Sox are very much taking this approach, investing
loads of money in the draft and the farm system. This way you have plenty of
fodder for necessary trades for established talent, but can also promote from
within when needed. Was this a deliberate strategy in the sense of sitting
down and saying "this is what we are going to do," taking advantage of
financial leverage by going over slot in the draft, for example, or was it
something that just kind of happened?
MIKE HAZEN: It's definitely deliberate. I wasn't here in the beginning, but
this is definitely something we are doing consciously. When Theo (Epstein,
Boston GM) took over the team, back in his initial press conference on Day
One, Theo said that building a player development machine was his main
vision, for the reasons you said. It would be inefficient and inappropriate
for us NOT to do this, and this is the vision we strive for on a daily basis.
Every team faces the same challenges in player development, but it would be
inapporpriate for us NOT to use every resource we have, financial but more
than that too.
The first task of everyone in the farm system, from front office to the
coaches and managers and scouts, is to draft, sign, and develop impact
talent. We focus a lot on domestic sources in the draft, but we also put a
lot into the international market, Latin America, Asia too. It isn't just
signing players either, we also invest resources in the player once they
sign. Our goal is to have a winning ball club every year, to compete for the
World Series every year, to win it every year. You can't control everything,
but we have to do everything we can to impact the club from within in order
to reach that goal. It is inefficient not to.
JOHN: Okay, well a good example of that is Ryan Westmoreland, rated as the
top prospect in the system by Baseball America and also number one on the my
own Red Sox prospect list. He seems to me, as an outside observer, like a
great example of what you're trying to do in the system, both in the way you
acquired him and in terms of what kind of player he is. He was an over-slot
guy, you spent $2 million to buy him out of Vanderbilt, over-slot for the
fifth round. He's also a local Northeast guy from Rhode Island. He's a great
athlete with tools, but he also has well-developed skills for his age.
MIKE: Ryan is exactly the kind of player we are trying to sign and develop.
Our scouts got a good read on his signability and we were able to put the
resources needed into getting him. He's a marvelous athlete, but he is also
very refined for his age. He's a phenomenal talent, has plus speed, good raw
power, and a very advanced approach.
JOHN: Where does he start in 2010? How aggressive will you be in promoting
him?
MIKE: I can't answer that yet. We will use spring training to figure that
out. I can say that Ryan is in tremendous physical condition right now, the
broken clavicle is healing just fine and he don't expect any delays from
that. But we have to see how he looks in spring training before deciding on
an assignment for him. He has a very advanced approach to managing his
at-bats and that could give him a leg up, but it is too early to know. We
have to figure out at what level he'll be challenged. Ryan only has a
half-year under his belt, and we have to see how he will respond to the
challenge.
JOHN: But how do you determine what level a player will be challenged at?
Isn't it a fine line? Some teams seem to push guys too quickly, but others
seem to maybe not push fast enough. How do you find the balance? Is this
something you have an organizational approach on?
MIKE: Yes, it is a balance. Every team has a different idea on how to do
this, some are more aggressive, some less, but for us we try to look at it
player-by-player. A lot of things get taken into consideration. We try to
figure out what is the comfort zone of the player. Lots of people help with
this decision, we take input from the coaches and managers, and all the
people in the front office. We talk to the player to help assess his comfort
zone. It is a collective decision. We don't want to overwhelm a guy, but we
have to challenge the player too. If someone is going 3-for-4 every day he
may not be learning a lot. A lot of times, they learn from adversity, and if
they don't face that in the minors and learn how to cope, they will certainly
face it in the majors. Sometimes, players can learn more about themselves
when they struggle. It can be hard to watch a guy struggle and fail, but when
they rebound that's great to see. Ryan Kalish had a rough time for two months
in Double-A, but he took that and learned from it and rebounded, and we hope
that will help him when he reaches the majors.
JOHN: Okay, Kalish was one of the guys I wanted to ask you about, so let's
switch over to specific players. Like Westmoreland, Kalish is a guy who has
both tools and skills.
MIKE: Yes, and that's something that Ryan really became more aware of last
year, improving his approach and focusing on his skills. When he first got to
Double-A he struggled with that. It isn't fun when a guy struggles, it isn't
fun for us to watch it and it isn't fun for the player, but by focusing on
improving his skills he got himself out of the hole and back on track. The
next time he struggles, either in the minors or majors, he can take that
experience and know that he has the ability to overcome problems, adjust and
improve, right the ship.
JOHN: How do you help a guy who is struggling?
MIKE: Well we do everything we can to help them focus on a specific problem,
like if there is trouble with the swing, but what we really look for in terms
of development is how the player is feeling. What is he thinking about? How
is he handling the emotions that come with struggling? That can be the big
separator in the majors, the guys who can do that, keep themselves focused
when they are having problems.
JOHN: One player who really had some problems last year was Lars Anderson. I
was really high on him after what he did in Double-A in '08, but '09 was a
lot different.
MIKE: Lars had streaks where he was very good and streaks where he wasn't. We
are still very optimistic about him. He's very talented, the skills and tools
are still there, he controls the strike zone, his swing fundamentals are
fine, he has plus raw power, he works hard at improving. We hope that his
experience last year will actually help him, that in the long run he will
look back on 2009 as a positive experience, as difficult as that can be to
say today. Playing professional ball is very challenging, and people need to
be patient. Very few players have linear development paths. There are very
few Papelbons who just come right out and do well right away. Most guys have
ups and downs.
JOHN: We're short of time, but I have two more guys I want to ask you about.
First, Casey Kelly. He looks great as a pitcher but he's not going to hit. Is
he committed to pitching?
MIKE: He's going to pitch, and he's looking forward to it. We had him
evaluated a little better as a pitcher than as a hitter out of the draft, but
we wanted to be fair, and he wanted to hit, so we decided to see what would
happen. He handled it very well professionally, very maturely. He asked for
objective feedback about which position he was better at, and we gave it to
him. Casey wants to be a major league player. We think he has a chance to be
an impact pitcher.
JOHN: Jose Iglesias, the Cuban shortstop, another example of using your
financial leverage. His glove looks outstanding, but there are concerns about
the bat.
MIKE: It is just too early to judge his offensive potential, but there are
things we like a lot. He has a short, simple, compact swing that doesn't need
adjustment. He needs to improve his approach and we are asking him to know
the strike zone better, but he's very young, has terrific hand-eye
coordination, and has a chance to do this. The glove is excellent.
JOHN: What about the cultural adjustment? I think that's something that
people pay lip-service to, but underestimate how hard it actually is. It's
rough enough on the Dominicans and Venezuelans, but the culture in Cuba is
even more different nowadays and the transition can be hard.
MIKE: Yes, that's true, it can be an overlooked factor. It can be very
challenging to get comfortable. Everything is so different, the language can
be a challenge, they don't know how things work, the food is different,
everything is different. And at the same time they are doing that, they are
asked to go out on the field and perform well too. It is not an easy thing,
but we're really happy with how well Jose has done with that. He's very
intelligent, and is picking up English quickly. He knows that assimilating to
the US can be as important as what he does on the field. He's a very
impressive kid.
JOHN: Mike, I could have asked you a hundred other questions and taken three
hours of your time, but I know you have to go. Thanks for the interview.
MIKE: No problem, John
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