Reds hire Walt Jocketty

[oldschooler]

[quote][size=5][b]Reds hire Jocketty[/b][/size]
BY JOHN FAY | JFAY@ENQUIRER.COM


The Cincinnati Reds on Friday hired Walt Jocketty as special advisor to Bob Castellini, the team’s president and chief executive officer.

Jockey was the former general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. According to a Reds release, he will assist Castellini “in every facet of baseball operations, including matters related to the front office.”

Wayne Krivsky, the Reds current general manager, will stay in his current position.

Jocketty was the Cardinals’ general manager from 1994 until October of this year.

He helped build the Cardinals 2006 team, which won the World Series.

In October, the Cardinals said Jocketty’s leaving was a mutual decision.

Owner Bill DeWitt Jr. said Jocketty would “be remembered as the Cardinals’ GM during one of the most successful and memorable periods in team history.”

Jocketty has been in baseball for 33 years and his Cardinals teams went to the playoffs seven times. They won the National League Central Division six times.

On Friday, Castellini said the Reds are fortunate to be adding Jocketty.

“He is a proven winner and his experience will be invaluable to me and to our entire organization,” Castellini said.

Enquirer.com will update this story as more information becomes available.[/quote]



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[oldschooler]

[quote][size=5][b]Reds hire Jocketty [/b][/size]

The Reds have hired Walt Jocketty as a special advisor to President and CEO Bob Castellini. Wayne Krivsky stays as GM.

Krivsky and Jocketty will be on conference call at 3:30 p.m. More details then.

Here's the release from the Reds:

The Cincinnati Reds today announced that Walt Jocketty, former Senior Vice President and General Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, has joined the organization as Special Advisor to President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Castellini.

Jocketty will advise and assist Castellini in every facet of baseball operations, including matters related to the front office, Major League field and support personnel, scouting and minor league and international operations along with training and medical services.

"We are fortunate to be able to add to our baseball department someone who has had as much success in the game as Walt. Clearly, he is a proven winner and his experience will be invaluable to me and to our entire organization," Castellini said. "He wants to keep his hand in baseball this season. When you have the chance to hire someone with his credentials, you have to take advantage of that opportunity. We're doing everything we can to improve our franchise."

A 33-year veteran of professional baseball, including the last 13 with St. Louis as general manager, Jocketty's Cardinals teams went to the playoffs seven times. He won the National League Central Division six times and the 2001 NL Wild Card while earning two National League championships and the 2006 World Series title. The Cardinals have produced winning seasons in seven of the last eight years.

While general manager in St. Louis, Jocketty was named Major League Baseball's Executive of the Year by The Sporting News in 2000 and 2004 and by Baseball America in 2000. In 2004, he also received the Rube Foster Legacy Award from the Negro Hall of Fame as National League Executive of the Year.

Jocketty said, "I look forward to the challenge of helping Bob and the entire Reds organization continue to develop a plan to build a consistent and winning baseball team in Cincinnati."

posted by John Fay at 3:05 PM[/quote]




[url="http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/redsinsider/2008/01/reds-hire-jocketty.asp"]http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/redsi...re-jocketty.asp[/url]

[oldschooler]

[url="http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080111&content_id=2343896&vkey=news_cin&fext=.jsp&c_id=cin"]http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/articl...sp&c_id=cin[/url]

[Bengals1181]

interesting, well that certainly can't hurt. I'm guessing Krivsky will stay on as GM, or they would have given the position to Jocketty.

[|BengalsFREAK|]

I think this is great news!

[ChicagoBengal]

Good hiring...I have a feeling that he'll be the Reds equivalent of "Defensive Consultant" or whatever Bres' title was before Frazier was canned. That's if the Reds don't greatly improve this year.

[bengalrick]

prepping him for the GM job... it'll be his by next year imo...

[Jamie_B]

Waiting on thruman to come bitch...

[-GoBengals-]

[quote name='Jamie_B' post='621666' date='Jan 11 2008, 06:26 PM']Waiting on thruman to come bitch...[/quote]

thats gonna be a long wait.

[oldschooler]

[quote][size=5][b]Hal McCoy: Jocketty hire puts heat on Reds' Krivsky[/b][/size]

By Hal McCoy

Staff Writer

Saturday, January 12, 2008

In late October, a few days before the Cincinnati Reds named Dusty Baker to lead them out of the baseball wilderness, I wrote a story saying former St. Louis Cardinals General Manager Walt Jocketty would join the Reds in some capacity.

On Oct. 30, the day of Baker's press conference, Reds CEO/owner Bob Castellini approached me and said, "Interesting what you wrote about Jocketty. Not true, but interesting. What do you think about it?"

Told I thought it would be a strong move, Castellini said with a smile and a glint, "Me, too."

Now it's true — nearly 2½ months later. The Reds announced Friday that Jocketty is a special adviser to the CEO (Castellini).

What does that mean?

It means that Punxsutawney Phil isn't the only one who should watch for shadows, because Jocketty's will loom large over the personage of General Manager Wayne Krivsky.

During a conference call Friday, everybody said the politically correct thing — that nobody should fear anybody else.

Said Krivsky (several times): "We're just adding another quality baseball guy. Our careers are parallel, although he has been a GM longer than me (13 years for Jocketty, two for Krivsky). He is somebody outside from another organization to give us another set of eyes and ears, a guy who has been successful. It will only make us better."

Said Jocketty, "I'll work with Wayne in every aspect of the baseball operations. Wayne has done an outstanding job in his two years, acquiring players and bringing in Dusty Baker. This is bringing in my experience. Adding people from a successful background is important."

Krivsky was hired by Castellini, but before that, Castellini was a minority owner of the Cardinals and was witness to what Jocketty did in his 13 years as GM — since Jocketty's second season (1996), the Cardinals made seven postseason appearances to the Reds' none.

Krivsky said it will be great to leave his office and walk down the hall to talk things over with Jocketty and said he believes they'll work well together.

"We are from similar backgrounds, emphasizing scouting and player development — the same background and baseball schooling," said Krivsky. "We'll agree on most things."

Krivsky did say he will run all his ideas past Jocketty before they hit Castellini with it, "And we'll agree on most things. I'm sure there'll be a few things we differ on and we'll take them to Bob and get his input."

Krivsky said there is no change in his position, that everybody who reported to him before still reports to him and that he still reports to Castellini. Jocketty is a middle man with a head full of baseball knowledge.

Jocketty will occupy an office in Great American Ball Park, but will maintain his home in St. Louis with frequent commutes.

He said he had several other offers, but they were all as special adviser to general managers, not to the CEO/owner.

And he made it evident he wants to keep all fingers in a baseball pie.

"I thought it was important to get back in the game quickly (he left the Cardinals in October)," he said. "The longer you are away, the harder it is to get back in. And I knew I'd get antsy when spring training arrived."

Maybe this just is what they say it is — more eyes, more ears, more brains. But it definitely has to catch Krivsky's attention with the message being: show some results, fast.

"The ultimate goal is to get the Cincinnati Reds into the World Series," said Jocketty. With what Wayne has done in two years, we're close to contending and being a factor for years."

It's a quality move, if it doesn't evolve into a macho power struggle.[/quote]

[oldschooler]

[quote][size=5][b]Odd alliance could bring big dividends[/b][/size]


Last Updated: 7:22 am | Saturday, January 12, 2008
Paul Daugherty

Here's hoping the "special adviser to Bob Castellini" won't cause a major-league crick in Wayne Krivsky's neck, from all the looking over his shoulder Krivsky will have to do. Here's a wish that Krivsky, the current Reds general manager, doesn't go Nixon-ian over Castellini's hiring of Walt Jocketty on Friday.

Because it could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

That's the Reds' spin, and we're sticking to it. It's an awkward arrangement. Almost always, when a club has an executive between the owner and the GM, it's a business guy, not a baseball guy. Jocketty is most definitely a baseball guy. He made it clear during a conference call Friday he'd had lots of opportunities since leaving the St. Louis Cardinals with a year left on his contract.


They were all jobs, he said, that would have required he report to the GM. With this job, Jocketty answers only to Castellini.

"I will be involved in working with Wayne on every aspect of the baseball operation," Jocketty announced. Good soldier Wayne agreed.

"I see Walt and I agreeing on the vast majority of issues," Krivsky said.

Jocketty's track record speaks loads. As the GM in St. Louis, he helped the Cardinals to two World Series and a world title in 13 years. He had more money to spend there than here, and his minor-league acumen wasn't especially noteworthy. But he knows major-league talent.

Which prompts a question:

What if an agent calls Walt about a player, and Walt isn't interested? Will the agent then call Wayne? What if Dusty Baker needs a player, and Wayne says, "Sorry, Skip, no can do." Does Baker stride down the hall?

You see where this is going? It's like a kid wanting something from Mom or Dad.

On the positive side, there is absolutely nothing wrong with adding bright people to your business. If the Bengals did this, we'd be doing cartwheels on Fountain Square. After we awakened from passing out.

It's really all about how secure Krivsky is in himself and his ability. And how willing Jocketty is to shelve his ego and work for the common good, even if his ideas aren't always accepted.

As Krivsky said: "Nobody has all the answers. I still report directly to Bob. I'll be talking to Walt a lot, I'm sure. We'll work through it."

Of course, Krivsky also said this: "Walt's an adviser. I'm a general manager. I'm going to keep him abreast of everything that's going on." And Walt will do likewise, Wayne, we're sure.

The move says a couple things about Life With Bob:

Castellini is friends with Jocketty and trusts his expertise;

He isn't shy about making moves that keep people on their toes;

He wants to win and is smart and ego-less enough to let others show him how.

All of which is good. Again: How would you feel if Mike Brown were that way?

The phrase of the day was "comfort level." Castellini had a good one with Jocketty, Krivsky believes he'll be swell with Jocketty. And so on. If Krivsky were jolted by the news - and you had to believe anyone would be - he didn't come off that way during the conference call.

As for how it all pans out, who knows? Krivsky has this year left on his contract. If the Reds don't do well, he might have lost his job whether Jocketty were brought in or not.

As it is, if the two work well together, there's a better chance the team wins and Wayne keeps his job. So in a weird way, Castellini's hire improves Krivsky's chances.

Regardless, it might not yet be playoff time on the river. But it won't be dull.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com[/quote]



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[The Scales]

Oh! I li kic.