Kevin Whited and I have been shaking our heads this week over the barbs that have been being flying to and from the Stros’ front office. The Stros’ front office hasn’t been involved in this kind of flame war since the days when the late Stros owner John McMullen teed off on former Stros general manager Tal Smith and Mr. Smith responded with a defamation lawsuit against Mr. McMullen.
This all started when former Stros General Manager Gerry Hunsicker was passed over earlier this week for the Philadelphia Phillies general manager position. Mr. Hunsicker grew up in the Philadelphia area and his tenure with the Stros coincided with the club becoming one of the most successful teams in Major League Baseball over the past decade, so he was thought to be the favorite for the Phillie job. Thus, it definitely raised some eyebrows that he was passed over for the job, particularly in favor of a 68 year old.

Well, it didn’t take long for the salvos to blast forth from the Stros’ front office after the Phillies’ announcement. As noted in this earlier post, the Chronicle’s Stros beat reporter — Jose de Jesus Ortiz — wrote this article entitled “Hunsicker Must Prove That He’s Trustworthy” in which he relates how Stros owner Drayton McLane and current Stros GM Tim Purpura became disenchanted with Hunsicker’s alleged behind-the-scenes backstabbing and self-promotion in the media.
It didn’t take long after that for Mr. Hunsicker to fire back with his own salvo. In this blog post, Chronicle sportswriter Richard Justice — who has long been one of Hunsicker’s media conduits and, not coincidentally, a frequent harsh critic of Stros owner McLane — criticized the Stros’ front office for its handling of the firing of a longtime Stros scout and later, in response to a reader’s question, relates how Hunsicker was furious that then Director of Player Personnel Purpura misevaluated the Stros Chris Burke as having the potential to play shortstop at the Major League level. That latter barb — as well as the bombs tossed in Mr. de Jesus Ortiz’s piece on Mr. Hunsicker — are all the more surprising because Hunsicker was supposed to have been Purpura’s mentor during Mr. Hunsicker’s tenure as Stros GM.
Finally, the public sniping concluded — at least for the time being — with Hunsicker leaving town with his tail between his legs by accepting the no. 2 position behind 28 year old Andrew Friedman in the notoriously poor Tampa Bay Devils organization, a substantial step down for a baseball executive with as successful a track record as Hunsicker. His professional demise was accentuated by the fact that he took the Devil Rays job at a time when several much more appealing general manager positions — the Red Sox and the Dodgers, just to name two — remain unfilled.
So, what to make of all this? Well, for one thing, despite his squeaky-clean public persona, McLane is certainly capable of getting down and dirty with the best of them when he believes that his reputation is being sullied. It also appears reasonably certain that Hunsicker did not leave with many friends in the Stros front office and that his reputation for self-promotion may have cost him dearly in terms of snaring one of the better GM positions in Major League Baseball. If that is true, then hopefully Hunsicker can dispense with that attribute and become an effective mentor to Mr. Friedman in Tampa Bay. Although Hunsicker reportedly was Purpura’s mentor with the Stros, it’s worth noting that Purpura was one of the least-known, up-and-coming front office executives in Major League Baseball before McLane selected him to replace Hunsicker as Stros GM. Unless Hunsicker’s mentoring relationship with Friedman turns out better than his similar relationship with Purpura did, then a very talented baseball executive may soon find himself without a Major League job.