Who's on first? Who's in the box? & Padres win!

I was listening to Colin Cowherd’s “The Herd” on ESPNradio this morning (AM 800 in San Diego). Colin was arguing a point that I have championed for years. Colin said that General Mangers, even more than players or coaches (or in baseball, the manager), are more to credit or blame for teams’ successes and failures. I couldn’t agree more!

If only I had Colin’s forum…

That is why Oakland has been good for a long time; Billy Beane, their GM, has continuously made the correct decision regarding player personnel (well, not every time, but nearly so).

One point Colin elaborated on was that teams built themselves cheaply through the their league’s draft (he was not only talking about Theo and MLB, but also the NFL and NBA).

Major League Baseball’s draft is set up such that when a team signs a free agent (it’s more complex than this, but I’m not going to get into that much detail) they’ll forfeit a top-3 round draft pick to the team that lost a free agent. While signing two free agents, Theo lost picks #28 and 78. But he has also acquired picks #23, 26, 42, 45, 47, and 59. It’s likely that Boston will spend $5mil on those 6 picks. It’s even more likely that at least two of those picks will become solid Major League players. That’s money well invested.

Furthermore, Theo is not sandbagging when he claims he cannot compete with the Yankees on the free agent market. But nor does he cry poor; he knows he has arguably the second best revenue in baseball.

So as George goes after seemingly every high-dollar free agent on the market, Theo goes after a select few. Then he collects extra picks with which he can trade emerging talent for proven talent and promotes select top prospects as he sees fit.

Colin went on to talk about Boston and how Theo Epstein was simply better than his competition and that Theo was the reason Boston will compete for another World Series this year and will continue to be a top-echelon team as long as Theo is in charge in Bean-town.

I was beginning to think Colin had a man-crush.

My personal top 6 GMs in the business (listed alphabetically):

Billy Beane
Brian Cashman
Paul DePodesta
Theo Epstein
Walt Jockerty
John Schuerholz

I’ll comment briefly on each.

Billy Beane (Oakland) – Billy isn’t the father of the statistical-oriented managerial style, he’s just the best at it and one who’s most public in its execution. If I did rank the GMs, he’d be at the top.

Brian Cashman (New York) – You could argue that with King George’s money any GM could be good. And you’d be right; except that other GMs before Cashman weren’t successful with King George’s money. Cashman is in the un-enviable position where if he signs or acquires a particular player George gets the credit and if a trade/signing flops, he gets the blame. Brian has talked George out of several moves that would have hurt the Yankees. I think George’s penchant for change will cost Brian his job. Brian’s departure will cost George some wins.

Paul DePodesta (Los Angeles Dodgers) – Someone I’m accused of having a man-crush for. Lots of “statheads” claim that, “Clutch hitting doesn’t exist.” What statistics have told us is that statistics can’t find evidence of its existence. DePodesta’s Harvard degree is in Industrial Psychology. I almost expect that DePodesta has found the evidence and he isn’t telling anyone. If he hasn’t, Paul’s Harvard degree probably argues in favor of a psychological predisposition for ‘coming through in the clutch.’ Paul’s tutelage under Beane and the Dodgers’ NL West Championship in his first year at the helm earn this ranking.

Theo Epstein (Boston) – The “Boy Wonder” built the team that ended “The Curse.” Theo ignored statheads who said trading Nomar for Cabera was foolhardy. He definitely takes a statistical-oriented approach, but he also incorporates a lot of traditional scouting into his decision-making.

Walt Jockerty (St. Louis) – One of two GMs on my list who rely almost solely on traditional scouting. Walt (and John) just does it better.

John Schuerholz (Atlanta) – As a reformed Braves fan (or is it just that I’ve lived in San Diego too long) I still struggle with nearly every decision John makes, but with the Braves run of 13 straight and my contention (and Colin’s) that GMs earn the lion’s share of the credit and blame, I must give credit where credit is due.

How does our own GM, Kevin Towers, stack up? I don’t think he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with the above – though Colin did bring him up when he talked about some of the smarter GMs in baseball. But I would “guestimate” that he’s near the middle but in my top half.

Looking back at Towers’ successes and failures… KT lucked into Loretta. He oversaw quite a few lackluster drafts. He signed two post-30 1B/LF/DH-types to contracts with “no-trade” clauses. And he’s traded away quite a bit of talent…

On the other hand, he and his staff had the foresight to go after Khalil Greene, he bottom-fed for Phil Nevin, Jason Bay, Dennis Tankersley, Brad Baker, and others. He traded for Finley, Camineti, an in-his-prime Kevin Brown, Trevor Hoffman, Adam Eaton, and Ryan Klesko.

Kevin Towers’ track record is certainly a mixed bag. I’m thrilled that the man (Sandy Alderson) who taught Billy “the way” is now KT’s boss.

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Baseball is funny.

Eaton’s line from Thursday night:

5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR, 104 pitches

Not a dominant outing… But we’ll take the win. Eaton now has a 2.91 ERA. Lots of people argue that, “As Klesko and Eaton go, so go the Padres.” On that note, Eaton’s ERA will come up some, and he hasn’t looked that sharp, but it is encouraging none-the-less.

What’s more encouraging is the big four’s (Loretta, Giles, Nevin and Klesko) combined 7-for-14 with 2 BB.

A split with the Dodgers isn’t what I had mind either. But let’s look at this another way. Would you be satisfied with a 51-30 home win-loss record? Me too. Right now the Padres are 5-3 at home. And they just completed a 3-1 home stand.

Yeah, I feel better now too.

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One last note: this blog may be moving soon. Or I may be writing somewhere else in addition to this blog. I’ve been approached to contribute to another site. We’ll see. I’d love feedback on the subject.

Ugh, it’s late – goodnight.