Ben Cherington
Ben Cherington
Benjamin P. Cheringtonis an American former professional baseball executive and current executive in residence in Columbia University's sports management program...
absolutely either gets labels level lower means minor opportunity people prospect trying understand word
The word prospect means absolutely nothing to us. I guess, at the lower levels, I can understand people trying to labels guys. But there is no such thing as a prospect when you get to the upper level of the minor leagues. You either play well or you don't. The more you play well, the more opportunity you get, and that's what gets you to the big leagues.
adjustment against competition controlled environment gets good hasten looking murphy opportunity pitch specific team
For Murphy and Moss, there is no specific adjustment that we are looking for. More ABs against good competition will hasten their development. For Delgado, this is an opportunity to have him pitch in a more controlled environment than he would with a team in Venezuela, and gets him under our supervision.
county family living stay wants
More than anything, I think he wants to stay in the Northeast, with his family living in Westchester County (N.Y.).
area couple course farm focus gray hard hats short system wearing
Personally, it's been a distraction. It's been an interesting couple months. We've been short staffed, we've all been wearing a lot of different hats and there's a lot of gray area that we've never had in the past. Of course it's hard to focus on our farm system through that.
benefit guys held last team time
Last year's team was a pretty young team. There were guys who got to Double-A for the first time and they held their own. We may feel, by the end of March, they could benefit from a little more time in Double-A.
announced clear early forward looking next opportunity welcome work
The day that Jed and I were announced as co-general managers, I made it clear that I would welcome the opportunity to work with Theo again. That day will come early next week, and I am looking forward to it.
good
It's good for them (young players) to see that.
accomplish believe bright david finish good impression simply strong
David had a strong finish to 2005 and made a good impression in big-league camp. We simply believe that there are still things for him to accomplish at the Double-A level. . . . He's got a very bright future.
balance benefit challenge happy help hurt love move season team today true trying
It's a challenge because we all love winning. We're trying to find the balance between doing something that will make us happy today but could hurt us in the future. It's not necessarily true that making a move to help the team this season won't benefit us later.
good hurt incredible last sure
In the long run, I don't think (being called up last year) will hurt him. Did it have a short-term impact? I'm sure it did to some degree. But he's got incredible makeup, toughness. He's going to be a good major-league pitcher.
believe career cleaned closer dominant harder knee last mental optimistic phoenix physically point remember season string struggled success touch
We believe physically he is doing pretty well. He had his knee cleaned out after the season and he's been in Phoenix rehabbing and working out. We've been in touch with him. The mental part is harder to answer. Obviously, he struggled last year. It's important to remember that he struggled at another point of his career and bounced back and had a string of success and had dominant years as a closer after he struggled. He's done that before and we're optimistic he can do it again.
accept agreed benefit best both build changes clear felt front happen interest knew manager mean office point position red returns strongest successful team time
When Jed and I agreed to accept the position of co-general manager we both made it pretty clear at that time we knew at some point in time more changes could happen and there could be another restructuring in the front office, if we all felt that was in the best interest of the Red Sox. That would mean Theo's return. So we see this as a successful outcome. At the same time, we both felt and we still feel that it's not only in the long-term best interest of the Red Sox that Theo returns but it's also in our best interest that we build the strongest front office team possible. We benefit from that, too.
add arm aware close commitment felt leagues opportunity premium took type
We had an opportunity to add a high-end premium arm to the system. We felt he was close enough to the big leagues to warrant that type of contract. We were well aware of what type of commitment it would take before we took him.
chance high reason school second short stanford whatever
He was a shortstop in high school and for whatever reason got into the lineup at Stanford first as a second baseman. He could always go back there, but we feel he has a chance to play short and he really wanted to do it.