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This Success Story Starts At The Top With Friedman

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By JOE HENDERSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 22, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - As he walked down the tunnel toward the dugout on the Sunday morning after the best night (so far) in Rays history, Manager Joe Maddon quipped, "Advil and a couple of hours sleep works wonders."

Yes, the Rays were back at it about 18 hours after securing a berth in the playoffs by beating Minnesota. The kind of sweet relief this season has brought to loss-numbed baseball fans in these parts can't be understated, and there have been a lot of wonder-workers along the way.

But one of the biggest wonders in this success story hasn't played in a game since he was an outfielder at Tulane. Andrew Friedman, the Rays executive vice president of baseball operations, came up with the game plan and put together the parts that turned this into a summer like none other.

He is just 31 years old - younger than some of the players he assembled - and he lives with a phone in his ear. His background is in finance and he never had worked for a baseball team until owner Stu Sternberg chose him to overhaul the on-field part of the franchise in November 2005.

Sternberg, obviously, chose wisely. Friedman is smart, aggressive, relentless. He is a lock for major-league executive of the year. He is a consensus-builder with his staff, yet he challenges conventional thinking. He is, in his words, "focused on the minutiae." It works.

One Of The Brightest

That attention to minutiae brought the likes of Carlos Pena and Eric Hinske here as non-roster invitees. It led to drafting Evan Longoria, David Price and other similar talents that have made the Rays' farm system the best in baseball. It provided the background for the bold trade last winter that brought Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett here, transforming a team that was short on pitching and defense.

"I've learned a lot from him," said vice president Gerry Hunsicker, a former general manager himself.

Added Maddon, "He's one of the brightest people I've ever met at any age. Period."

Baseball's upper levels can be a closed shop, particularly if you're a young whippersnapper who looks like he just stepped out of prep school. Friedman had a plan, though, and he has stuck to it.

"We look at things in much more, um, granular ways," he said.

Translation: You don't build a baseball team like you would a fantasy draft. Any successful organization needs players who fit what it wants to accomplish. Friedman's system focuses on new-fashioned stats and old-fashioned scouting.

"People always want to evaluate him on the fact he's not 50 years old," Maddon said, "but he is such a tremendous student of the game, and he's an excellent scout.

"He is very strongly opinionated because it's always built on facts and knowledge. He's really well thought-out and he's in advance of most other people."

Didn't Play Safe

Sternberg could have gone the "safe" route when picking an architect to rebuild his club. He might have lured a baseball-lifer, someone with a record of success. But Sternberg didn't get rich by being afraid to take chances and the Rays weren't going to get to this position by being afraid, either.

"I think we did a good job of identifying the weaknesses from the '07 team and we aggressively targeted ways to improve them," Friedman said.

"One big area for us was run prevention. We felt like we were going to make a sizeable dent in our runs-allowed from last year."

How's this for a dent? The Rays allowed 944 runs last season, worst in the American League by, like, a lot. Out of the minutiae a plan was hatched to acquire Bartlett at shortstop (even if it meant trading Delmon Young, the runner-up for rookie of the year) and Gabe Gross to help in right field. And then they moved Akinori Iwamura to second base so Longoria could take over third, all in the name of run prevention.

The result has been stunning. After Sunday's 4-1 loss to Minnesota, the Rays have allowed 632 runs - more than 300 fewer than last year, with just a week remaining in the regular season. They've won 92 games so far compared with 66 last year.

"Being a smaller revenue team, playing in the division we play in, we can't be afraid to take risks," he said. "We're not afraid to make mistakes; they're inevitable. What's important is that we learn from them, and that's where you get back to the process."

Those weren't the kind of moves that generated headlines, like spending $100 million on a free agent might have. But it put the Rays into the playoffs and brought the kind of relief you can't find in a bottle, but is a wonder nonetheless.

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