Baseball2001: Rays continue to build with success in mind

Devil Rays general manager Chuck LaMar sat down with a Times reporter recently to discuss the direction of the club, the decisions made in the past year and the level of community support in the Tampa Bay area. Some of LaMar's responses were edited for space reasons.

Q: If you are allowed to pick only one thing about this team that you like, what would that be?

A: Based on what I've seen in spring training, this team is going into a fourth season expecting to win more games -- not hoping to win more games.

Q: You have had eight months to consider last summer's trades. In retrospect, do you like them more or less than at that time?

A: We gave up good players to get good players. We're in a situation right now -- and fans have to realize this -- when we fill a hole, we create a hole. With an organization still trying to get younger, still trying to reduce payroll, trying to build for the future, then you have to do that.

If you look back at the trades -- and I'll go a little before the trade deadline -- some of them are more subtle than others. We trade Marc Valdes, who is in Triple A now with someone, for Russ Johnson, who is a solid major-league baseball player. We traded Tony Graffanino knowing we are getting our hands on Russ Johnson, and we trade him for Tanyon Sturtze, who proved to be a major-league starting pitcher last year and, we are hoping, will prove to be a bullpen guy this year.

(Editor's note: LaMar goes on to point out that trades involving relievers Roberto Hernandez, Jim Mecir, Rick White and Mark Guthrie brought starting pitcher Paul Wilson, rightfielder Ben Grieve, second baseman Brent Abernathy, centerfielder Jason Tyner and pitching prospect Jesus Colome.)

We would make all those trades again. It's just we're going to get second-guessed continually because our bullpen is now the shakiest part of this ballclub and that's what we traded away. People can second-guess all they want to, but all I know is I lowered payroll, which is what was expected of me as general manager, and I got a younger team with a potential to be more talented in the future.

Q: You brought up finances. Are you surprised or disappointed at the level of community support for the franchise?

A: I'm not surprised going into year four, with what our records have been, with where our attendance is now. I talked to everybody who was involved in building expansion clubs in the past, and they told me years three and four were the tough -- I think "ugly" is the word they used -- years. And they were dealing with expansion as you used to. We're closer to building an expansion club like the old days rather than going out and spending hundreds of millions of dollars, as some clubs have tried to, in the new days. But they said you would go through that ugly stage, so right now, today, no, I am not surprised. I still feel like Tampa Bay is an outstanding baseball area.

With that said, I don't think the honeymoon period lasted as long as it should have. I'll never forget my feelings in game two of the franchise history. We sold out game one, major-league baseball finally comes to the Tampa Bay area and we've sold out opening day. I know we didn't play very good that first game, but the electricity that night, it was one of the most exciting days I have ever spent in major-league baseball. But then we have five more games on the homestand and don't sell out any of them. Some might argue that is the shortest honeymoon period in the history of baseball. That, to me, was disappointing because it was before wins and losses should have ever entered into whether fans were coming to the ballpark. Those first and second years, unlike most expansion clubs, we didn't benefit from a honeymoon period.

Q: In the hope of increasing attendance, the team increased the payroll last year. You have characterized that as a mistake. Was it a mistake in concept or in execution?

A: It was not a mistake in concept. And, at the time, not a mistake, in our minds, of execution. There was no question we knew we were getting away from the five-year plan that we had talked about in building through scouting and player development. There was no question we got away from that because we wanted to put more wins on the board and more people in the seats.

At the time, no one knew Wilson Alvarez and Juan Guzman would pitch an inning and two-thirds. No one knew Vinny Castilla, because of injuries and performance, would have the worst year of his career. No one knew Jose Canseco would again be hurt. Some of it was our doing because we did not play very good. Some of it was things out of our control.

So now looking back, you can say that was a mistake. But you say that based on hindsight. At the time, I would not change the concept or the decisions we made. Sure, there are always trades you wish you had made or hadn't made, but that's part of this game. Looking back, it didn't work. I think you have to admit sometimes that it didn't work. But you can't die of the cure, so you have to get back to what you know and what you believe in, and that's what we have tried to do.

Q: So, despite the interruption, it has not detracted from the five-year plan?

A: The only way it has detracted from our plan is because of the finances. In certain cases you get locked into contracts with veterans. There's a young kid who might be ready to play, yet you have a contract you're locked into. And it doesn't enable the general manager to have as much flexibility. If we had some of the payroll back that we spent last year, we would still have to get some veterans because a lot of our young kids are not ready yet. We'd still have to get veterans, but they would be new faces and maybe less expensive, and it'd give us more flexibility payroll-wise to change the club. But that's the only area it's effected.

Q: You say you are completely satisfied you made the right decision in bringing manager Larry Rothschild back for the final year of his contract, but was it harder to be so sure of yourself in October after another 90-loss season?

A: A lot of people in this game take the easy way out. I could have taken the popular and easy way out and made a managerial change. And that's what it would have been. It would have been popular not because people don't like Larry Rothschild, it would have been popular just because people want to see change. They're looking for a scapegoat. I've said all along, if there's a scapegoat, make it me. I'm in charge of the manager, the staff, the personnel.

People have forgotten -- and maybe we helped them forget because we went out and signed the veterans and tried to speed up the clock -- but this is a fourth-year expansion organization. And we have not gone out and spent hundreds of millions of dollars. You compare our payroll with the other expansion club, you can't even talk about them in the same breath. We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars less money. So I appreciate the impatience of the media and fans. I expect that. I'd rather have that than apathy. So I understand where they are coming from. But we are still a building organization, and we're going to continue to build. When that time comes where we're putting a competitive club on the field, people are going to appreciate what we went through.

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