Notes: Bowden, Beattie in mix

11/17/2005
BOSTON -- In their ongoing attempt to find a new general manager, the Red Sox announced Thursday that veteran baseball executives Jim Bowden and Jim Beattie will both be brought back for second interviews.
Bowden, who was raised in Weston, Mass., is currently serving as the general manager of the Washington Nationals. However, with that team in the process of being sold, Bowden has been issued permission to pursue what he has continually referred to as a dream job.
Red Sox president/CEO Larry Lucchino and chairman Tom Werner met with Bowden last week at the general managers meetings in Indian Wells, Calif.
Beattie, who teamed with Mike Flanagan to head the Orioles' front office the last three seasons, was recently dismissed by Baltimore. He previously worked as the general manager for the Expos. In fact, it was Beattie that traded Pedro Martinez to the Red Sox for Carl Pavano some eight years ago. Beattie interviewed with the Red Sox at Fenway Park last Friday.
"Obviously I'm very, very interested and excited about having the opportunity," said Beattie. "I'm not sure what the round of interviews holds. Hopefully I get to meet more people -- hopefully get a chance to meet [owners] John Henry, Tom Werner. I'm very happy to have gotten to this point and we'll see what it holds. It's just a good feeling to be given the opportunity to spend some time with the people who are there -- [team president] Larry Lucchino, [special advisor/baseball operations] Bill Lajoie -- I enjoyed it very much."
The Red Sox didn't announce the dates for the interviews, but added that there will be additional first interviews with some yet-to-be-named candidates.
The one aspect that both Bowden and Beattie both offer is experience.
"Naturally, people with experience are usually ahead of the game," said Lajoie. "By that, I mean they know how to handle a lot of situations. Things come up in your everyday job, you have to weigh each one and put them in order of importance and the know how to do that."
While the Red Sox are the only current team in the Major Leagues to have a general manager vacancy, Lajoie backed Lucchino's choice not to rush into the matter.
"This isn't unusual. It took seven weeks in '02 to do this," said Lajoie. "It's better to make sure you've got the right guy. I don't know if the right guy has surfaced yet, or if he will in the second interview or what. I'm with Larry in his decision to be thorough and make sure all the facts are on the table."
Lajoie, troops working hard: Since Oct. 31, when Theo Epstein departed, the Boston front office has been working as a committee. Baseball operations employees Jed Hoyer, Ben Cherington, Craig Shipley and Peter Woodfork have all been working hard, and Lajoie, who has been in the game for over a half-century, has been serving as the point man.
"Usually it's Larry or myself," said Lajoie. "And then we assign things for each guy to do. It's impossible with all these phone calls and the people you have to contact for one man to do it. Like, Ben takes certain players and agents and Jed does most of that type of work, and they just all chip in. Shipley talks to a few clubs about possible trades. We've all been assigned something to do, and we meet every day and go over what happened in the last 12 to 15 hours."
Lajoie and his group are taking great pride in making sure things are in perfect working order for the next GM.
"It's all polled together, and when the [GM] comes in, he will have everything on his desk right up to the minute. He'll have all the clubs we've contacted about possible moves, the free agents who have been contacted," said Lajoie. "He'll be able to just take off from there. It will be all right there for him."
As for Thursday's report that the Red Sox had presented free agent center fielder Johnny Damon with an offer, Lajoie chose to follow a pattern set by Epstein the last three years and not divulge the details of contract negotiations.
"I can say that there are ongoing negotiations," Lajoie said.
And Bill Mueller, who is also a free agent?
"His agent has been contacted," said Lajoie.
Medical restructuring: The Red Sox formally announced the restructuring of their training staff on Thursday. Paul Lessard will leave his post as head trainer of the Diamondbacks to serve as head athletic trainer in Boston.
Jim Rowe, the team's head trainer the last 11 years, is expected to serve as a coordinator of medicine throughout the organization, and Scott Waugh will return as rehab coordinator.
Many of the players were upset to see assistant trainer Chris Correnti let go as part of the restructuring.
"I certainly appreciate all the hard work that Chris did for our organization throughout the years," said Red Sox medical director Thomas Gill. "There's a lot that goes into a training staff. We definitely value the players' input. They know that my door is always open, the vast majority of them take advantage of that and we talk about issues all the time. With Chris, it was just a question of doing some restructuring and trying to think of the best way to put together the best staff, and that's why we went in this direction."
Much of the restructuring was set in motion because of some new guidelines set up by Major League Baseball.
"Probably the thing that precipitated it the most was the new mandate this year by Major League Baseball that announced that all clubs had to have a certified strength and conditioning coach on the staff that would travel with the team that would be in charge of strength and conditioning for the Major League team," said Gill. "In addition, they said that this person could not be a trainer -- it had to be a separate position."
While Schilling was very upset about the decision not to bring back Correnti, he was pleased with the club's decision to bring in Lessard, who he knows from the Diamondbacks.
"I actually talked to Curt about it [Wednesday] night," said Gill. "This was actually the first time that he had heard about it, and he was actually thrilled. One of the things about Paul, and I think the direct quote [from Curt] is, 'There's nobody that doesn't like and respect Paul Lessard.' Paul Lessard has got an impeccable reputation as the head trainer for the Arizona Diamondbacks."
Schilling, Foulke progressing: Right-handers Schilling and Keith Foulke, both of whom were knocked back significantly by injuries in 2005, seem to be progressing nicely, according to Gill.
"We're in very close touch with Keith," said Gill. "He's been doing his rehab. He took a little time off at the end of the season. He's already started his offseason program. His trainer out West has reported that he's progressing very well. Scott Waugh is probably in contact with him every other day or so, certainly every week."
And Schilling?
"He seems to feel in great shape, and he's really eager to attack his offseason program," said Gill. "As he said, he has one goal: To be as healthy as possible and try to win the world championship."

Source: http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/