Random Praise For Trent Baalke, Who Was The Answer All Along
by James Brady on Feb 14, 2012 2:00 PM PST
in 49ers Front Office
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PrintThe majority of us are pretty big fans of general manager Trent Baalke right now, no? He's thrown together a couple impressive drafts, did not impede the signing of Jim Harbaugh and his excellent underlings and brought in some very key free agents this past offseason. This isn't some term to boost the impact he actually had, the free agents that were brought in under him legitimately were key to our success in 2012.
One of them broke multiple records, one of them provided some much-needed stability, two of them had career years and there were some other contributors. David Akers, Jonathan Goodwin, Carlos Rogers and Donte Whitner are the players I'm referencing in that order, if you didn't get that. I suppose it's debatable that Whitner had a career year, but the guy definitely looked like a completely different player in comparison to year's past.
Anyway, the recent contract extension got me thinking back to this past offseason, when everyone was going crazy about Harbaugh and Michael Lombardi and who was going to be doing what. There were initial reports that Harbaugh would only come to San Francisco if there was an established general manager in place, and that was followed by word that it simply needed to be someone that Harbaugh could work with.
Of course, there was then all the drama that Lombardi said about the job always belonging to Baalke and flashing his jealousy, but that's a story for another time. Going back and reading over the thousands upon thousands of posts during that time, I'm pretty happy to see the early support for Baalke, even with the doubts that he might not be able to land Harbaugh. Even the people that said they'd only support Baalke if he brought in Harbaugh had a lot of confidence in Baalke to do so.
Even if our organization makes some mistakes, I like to think we're pretty level-headed with what we got. Some of us (myself included) had the wool pulled over our eyes when Mike Singletary took charge, but I strangely feel like ten times better about Baalke now because of how much support he had here even in such an uncertain time. So I guess what I'm saying is ... go Trent Baalke?
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Lets paste Balkes 2010 & 2011 draft right here and...
and the give a grade to each player and then an overall total draft grade combining 2010-2011 draft.
I think we still are in the discover stage of really knowing if we have something here with Balke as GM.
Im most interested to see how he drafts this 2012 as this will be the forst time in many years (drafts) that Balke will be picking players at the very bottom of each round versus having been picking at the top of each round.
Clearly your job is a bit easier picking every year at the top of each draft round.
This year he picks at the bottom, can he do just as well….stay tuned!
By the way Balke WAS in our scouting dept when we had some disappointing player picks….such as Taylor Mays, (possibly Crabtree if he dont take a step towards improvement….I mean this guy was picked way to earlier in the 1st round) etc…
no first round pick this year
You could look at it as drafting at the bottom, but really you’re drafting at the top of each round with no first round draft pick. I prefer to think of it like that.
Baalke found late first round talent in the third round with Navarrow Bowman, just hope he can have that kind of success again.
Be realistic.... he found Bowman at the TOP of the 3rd round
Bowman would not have lasted till the Bottom of the 3rd round.
Thus my realistic point….. when you draft at the Bottom, you job is harder, so lets see if Balke has this skill to puck players at the bottom each round.
Bowman was drafted 91st overall - that's the bottom of the third
and one spot below our third round pick this year
correction
three spots above, we have the 94th pick. Still, point made.
You are really hung up on this drafting at the end of rounds thing and it makes absolutely no sense to me at all, there are 7 rounds in every draft.
Attack this day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. ~ Jack Harbaugh
No it doesn't, and you've posted similar things before
Every GM has to get their guys at various points and make numerous decisions on the draft. Baalke has shown he is at the very least, adept at doing that. After the top 15-20 picks it doesn’t make a bit of difference whether you are at the top or bottom of a given round, you have to get talent and value out of your picks, he’s done that.
Bowman isn’t a very good example and actually works against your point, I think; one, because it wasn’t the top of the round it was the bottom and two, he had a 1st round grade, but teams stayed away for off-field issues (a fight and marijuana if I remember correctly). He was touted as the best 4-3 outside LB in the draft by most. So IMO, this was a great pick fora few reasons. Even if Bowman didn’t turn out to be what he was this season, you get a possible 1st round talent with some issues late in the 3rd. If he stays out of trouble and develops (as he has probably exceeded most expectations) great, if he stays in trouble and has more issues it’s another 3rd round miss which sucks, but happens. Low to Medium risk-High reward if you will.
Attack this day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. ~ Jack Harbaugh
Baalke has had two awesome drafts, he must be doing something right
2011
7 Aldon Smith, Missouri
36 Colin Kaepernick, Nevada
80 Chris Culliver, South Carolina
115 Kendall Hunter, Oklahoma State
163 Daniel Kilgore, Appalachian State
182 Ronald Johnson, USC 190 Colin Jones, TCU
211 Bruce Miller, UCF
239 Mike Person, Montana State
250 Curtis Holcomb, Florida A&M (on IR, may come back next year)
2010
11 Anthony Davis, Rutgers
17 Mike Iupati, Idaho
49 Taylor Mays, USC
91 Navorro Bowman, Penn State
173 Anthony Dixon, Mississippi State
182 Nate Byham, Pittsburgh (on IR, may come back)
206 Kyle Williams, Arizona State
224 Phillip Adams, South Carolina State (couldn’t come back from injury)
only one conclusion from this
balke can’t draft fwith the 182’nd pick
I'd say you simply got hit on your picks rounds 1 to 4.....
if you blow either a 1-2-3-4th round pick….you fail!
Now rounds 5 through 7 is more of a crab shoot so hopefully you do well there, but it could be a 50/50 shot.
Good G.M,s should be able to draft solid to great players in rounds 1 through 5
Great G.M’s should be able to do well not only in rounds 1 to 4 but do well in "almost "every round 5 -7 maybe with a miss here or there in those late rounds
What don't you understand about the 2010 draft board already being set , that was Scotty's board ...!!
I'm your " Huckelberry "...it's just my game ..( .AleX ) was asked , what do you think about all the game manager talk ... AleX i guess i just managed myself a VIctory ... Extend the Man ...!!
Of course, there was then all the drama that Lombardi said about the job always belonging to Baalke
At the time, it seemed like the interview process was a sham. I didn’t have a problem with them hiring Trent Baalke, but why bring in other candidates if Jed York had already made up his mind? I actually don’t think Lombardi was out of line with that if he honestly believed that he didn’t have a fair interview.
interview
I suppose on the off-chance somebody else absolutely blew him away in the interview.
by David Fucillo on Feb 14, 2012 7:59 PM PST up reply actions
Maybe if someone else said it, I’d buy it. Lombardi is a smart guy with smart views but he loves himself more than I love myself, and that’s saying something.
And then God created Saturn ... and he liked it, so he put a ring on it. ... Always a ninja
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