Rays Believe Maddon Is Man To Get Results

The venom from the talk shows and message boards thrown at Joe Maddon last year was unlike anything a Rays manager has ever had to deal with. Perhaps in a perverse way it was a compliment -the first tangible evidence that fans cared enough to be angry - but there was no doubt a lot of people had seen enough of his act.

They were so tired of glass-half-full homilies and Maddonisms (such as, "We might be the best six-inning team in baseball") that a change - any change - would have been welcomed by many in Rays Village.

Instead, he was rewarded when the Rays exercised options on Maddon's contract through 2009. It was the clearest statement yet that for two seasons Maddon did what he was hired to do and followed the game plan set by his bosses, a plan tilted heavily toward development and less toward winning games.

With optimism running high now though, it's time to start winning. As Season III of Maddon's reign begins today in Baltimore, the Rays expect to be much better. As much as his bosses believed Maddon was the right man to develop that team, they now believe he is the right choice to lead.

"Looking back over the past two years, obviously the organizational emphasis was on slightly different things as we were getting the infrastructure in place and putting the pieces in place," executive vice president Andrew Friedman said.

"On the development front he lived up to everything that we expected. As the emphasis starts to change, we're extremely confident he's the right guy to push this thing forward. We're always going to have an emphasis on development, even when we are winning 90-plus games. To have that and to have the ability to, at least in our minds, manage a team that's going to play in October is a valuable skill set."

Translation: Joe is their guy. He is likely going to stay their guy for a long time.

The Sky Is Always Blue

You can take the best manager in the game and he still won't win much without good players. The Rays spent three years proving that when the previous ownership regime lavished money on Lou Piniella but neglected to provide him a competitive roster. So how much difference does a manager really make?

It's a legitimate question. At this level, everyone has the skill to fill out a lineup card, set a rotation, and all the other intellectual exercises that go with running a team. A lot of people believe the most important difference a manager makes is with the tone he sets in the clubhouse.

I've yet to hear Maddon bury a player publicly (remember Piniella and Ben Grieve). That seems to bother some fans, who apparently believe such behavior reveals a lack of macho or something. I think it's just who Maddon is and he can't change.

"He's pretty much the same - trying to be as positive as he can all the time, staying upbeat, same ol' Joe," Carl Crawford said.

"I can understand it. You always want to be positive, I guess, so it rubs off on all the players and translates to us playing good and all that stuff. He has his ways of getting it to us. If he wants us to know something, he'll send one of the coaches. He'd probably send hitting coach Steve Henderson or somebody to come talk to me."

Maddon told me once that he'll always give a player a second chance, basically no matter what.

"But," he said, "you don't get a third chance."

Tough Behind The Scenes?

With that in mind, I've always suspected Maddon was behind the scenes pushing for Delmon Young's trade to Minnesota (or at least he didn't mind much). The Rays basically change the subject when that is brought up and Friedman has always maintained it was a pure baseball trade, saying you have to give up talent to get a good return.

But you remember the blowup Young had at the end of the regular season last year and how he showed up his manager - and now Young plays for Minnesota.

Coincidence? Maybe. The point has always been made about Maddon, though, that the face we see in public is not always the face that shows behind closed doors.

"What's important to us is how things are handled, whether publicly or privately," Friedman said. "We feel like Joe and his staff does a great job of that."

Still, you'd think the heat on Maddon to start winning more games will be more intense this year. Perhaps it will be, but I wouldn't count on that just yet. Maybe if they flame out and lose 95 games or something, things could change. Not just yet though.

"We're not as focused on outcome as we are process," Friedman said. "We're confident that if you have the right process it will yield the right outcome. Everyone is on the same page in how to win in the American League East. That's very important."

The first page in the book is Joe Maddon. Whether the subsequent pages in this sequel lead to a surprise ending, we're about to find out.