Friedman Press Conference Highlights

Mar 5, 2014; Port Charlotte, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Rays vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman prior to the game against the New York Yankees at Charlotte Sports Park. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Andrew Friedman was officially announced as the President of Baseball Operations today at Dodger stadium. It was a fairly exciting event only because so many things were hinging on the press conference, considering this is the first time many Dodger fans have seen him. There was talk about a general manager being announced at the press conference before hand, but that never came to fruition. It began with Stan Kasten explaining how this came to fruition.

"In our first two years we’ve had reasonable success on the field.We’re focused long term, big picture."

Kasten continues on with the idea that he wants to build the farm system. I have to imagine that Friedman shares his sentiments and is the reason he is the PoBA (president of baseball operations).

They then turned it over to Andrew Friedman”

"Baseball would not be where it is today without the Dodgers.I pledge to you do my very best. To reward your faith and loyalty by working as hard as I can to get the team to the next level.No team has better fans than the Dodgers."

There were a lot of nice ideas from Friedman regarding the organization initially as he talked about great players from Fernando Valenzuela to Tommy Lasorda (as a player!).

"We will create a culture of trust throughout the organization.Creating the best 25 man roster with guys that complement each other."

As much crap as teams like the Cardinals and Giants get, I’m pretty happy that he said things like this because winning organizations of today have these type of structures.

"Mattingly will definitely be back, we’re aligned on a lot of things philosophically and look forward to building that relationship.I look forward to working with Donnie for a long time."

This will go over well.

But really there was no chance Mattingly was going anywhere anyways. Still trying to figure out if it’s a good thing that Friedman thinks that he and Donnie are aligned on a lot of things philosophically.

He was asked specifically about the OF situation. And given the organization’s stance on youth, Joc is definitely not going anywhere. I’m hoping that this includes Kemp and Puig because he spoke about putting the best 25-man roster on the field next season. So we’ll see. The question included the word “problem” in it.

"If it’s a problem, it’s a tremendous problem to have."

My favorite presser moment was clearly when Dylan Hernandez asked:

“Do you think chemistry matters?”

Then in a very drab tone Friedman answered with a

"I think winning matters."

Which pretty much sums up all of my feelings on chemistry. Winning for the most part creates it, and if Friedman builds a roster that compliments each other, then things should work themselves out.

Close behind that moment was when Adrian Gonzalez interrupted with a question regarding his own status.

“Are you looking to acquire a younger, faster first baseman.”

Which surprisingly was the only question Friedman did not answer.

Friedman also mentioned depth a lot. In general it was a pretty interesting press conference that unfortunately didn’t end with a new GM (but Josh Byrnes appears to be a frontrunner), but we have more of an idea of what Friedman is all about as he’s going to usher in a new era of Dodger baseball.