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RAYS COLUMN

Sternberg Needs To Bring Maddon Back

By JOE HENDERSON

Published: Aug 20, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Joe Maddon might be the most relentlessly upbeat person we've ever had around here. He has the perfect blend of smarts mixed with a pinch of goofy, and if you invite him to dinner he will no doubt know exactly which wine to order with the main course.

All of this makes him a fine guy to hang out with.

But does that make him a good major-league manager?

Well, your Tampa Bay Devil Rays are making a run at 100 losses for the second consecutive season under Maddon, so on that basis you'd say no. There's much more to it than that, though. At least there is with this team.

A random check of local fan message boards or a flip to your local radio talk show is likely to turn up strong anti-Maddon sentiment on a regular basis. Even owner Stu Sternberg on Friday offered a tepid response when asked whether he will pick up Maddon's contract option for next season.

"There's nothing that's imperative or needs to be done right now, so when it has to be done it'll be done," Sternberg said. "Joe is our manager and I don't make any decisions before I have to."

As endorsements go, that loosely translates to, "Whatever."

Sternberg is an options trader in the real world and people in that line of work don't like to lock in to things too soon - even when we're just six weeks from the end of Maddon's second season here. I'm not sure what else there is to learn about this guy or what would have been so hard for Sternberg to say, "Sure, Joe's back … next question."

But he didn't. That's his prerogative.

Followed The Plan

A lot of managers might be upset by this, but Joe Maddon - as we have seen - is not like most managers. And that's not just because he'd rather celebrate a win in his office with a fine, unpretentious glass of Shiraz instead of twisting the cap off a bottle of beer.

"Stu and I have talked and I feel very confident about being back here next year. This is the only place I want to be," he said. "I feel like I did when I first took this job - I feel this is the right place for me and I'm the right guy for this job. I feel very confident about being here a long time."

To those who are spitting up their Grape-Nuts right now at the thought of another season of Maddonisms - a personal favorite: "We might be one of the best six-inning teams in baseball" - I'd advise you to remember how he got here.

The Rays had Lou Piniella, one of the best managers in baseball, when Sternberg took over two years ago. Can you imagine Sweet Lou having the belly for the laborious (but necessary) player development that has gone on here since then?

Maddon was hired to execute a plan and not necessarily win a lot of games, not at first anyway. That's why he gave Edwin Jackson so many chances. The game plan now doesn't call for giving up on 23-year-old pitchers who throw 96 miles an hour, even when he looked so inept so often. Because of their patience, now there is hope the Rays might have something special.

"If you go out on the free-agent market or this year's draft and you saw him, you'd pay several million bucks to get this guy in your organization - a 23-year-old coming out of North Carolina with that kind of arm. He would have been the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in the country this year, there's no doubt. We have him now," Maddon said.

Must Improve

That's nice and all, but everyone is getting awfully tired of those 100-loss seasons. They're tired of the promise of a tomorrow that never comes. They need results. They need wins.

Is Maddon the guy to get those results?

"Honest evaluation, I believe next year, 2008, is a year where we should be able to get close to .500 - play right around that level. In 2009, the way I look at it, we should be able to make some noise," he said. "I think I'm able to see things before they happen sometimes. I'm actually able see what a finished product is going to look like in advance of it being a finished product.

"So when I look at a situation like this, to me I can't understand how people don't see it - how they don't see the potential within this group and entire organization. It's very obvious to me where this is going."

That's just the attitude Sternberg wanted when he hired Maddon. He was handed a team of kids and castoffs and told to find the keepers and hold the fort until reinforcements arrived. And to keep it positive.

He did all that. He did what he was told to do.

So make the call: is he coming back?

The answer seems clear to me.