Assessing the GMs, Part 2

Well now it's time for part 2 of the GM series. You can read Part 1 here if you missed it. I am attempting to draw parallels between actual American league General Managers and the 8 guys that make up my own keeper league. This may not be of a lot of interest to many of you, but I'm sure my league-mates will find it amusing, and over time, I'm sure you'll all get a good feel for each of them. It'll be like a fantasy baseball soap opera, and the first thing we need to do is introduce the characters, starting with:

Matthew Adams - That would be me. As I've mentioned, I won our league last year. Here's a picture of our Stanley Cup-like trophy.

So what, GM do I most correlate to? Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox. Much like Kenny, I had my struggles to start out, missing the playoffs the first 4 seasons of the league before winning it last year. Also like Kenny, I always have a few irons in the fire, and typically they come as a surprise. Looking back I've been in on 15 of 25 trades that have gone down in our league (which is shocking when I actually tally it up). Also like Kenny Williams, when I finally built a winner, it was around dominant pitching (last years starters for me were Johan & Ervin Santana, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, Huston Street, and Bobby Jenks). My offenses are decent but never overpowering (although Kenny has built a powerhouse offense recently, something I hope to duplicate).

Dan Opp - Dan Opp has been the most successful owner in our league. He's taken home the trophy 2 of the 5 years, and lost in the finals to me last year. Dan's closest AL comparable is Mark Shapiro of the Cleveland Indians. Both have teams are built about a powerful offense, Dan Opp somehow he has managed to assemble Travis Hafner, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz on the same team. Where both guys struggles in in the pitching dept. Dan has a few good pitchers, CC Sabathia, Roy Halladay and Bartolo Colon (when healthy), but has a hard time filling in the back half of the rotation and the bullpen.

Chuck Prezzano - Chuck hasn't had any success yet in the league, but its not for lack of effort. Chuck has consciously gone into rebuilding, and he's got the beginnings of a dominant young team (Delmon Young, Francisco Liriano, Mark Texeira, Rich Harden, Justin Verlander, Vernon Wells, Josh Beckett) with a bunch of high draft picks. The GM Chuck is most like is Dave Dombrowski of the Detroit Tigers. Chuck is about one year behind Dombrowski's progress. Both spent a long time down, but are building up around young power pitching. Dombrowski's team come out of nowhere last year, but it was a few years in the building. Likewise, Chuck's been quietly stockpiling young pitching (and that's setting aside his never ending quest to pry Felix Hernandez away from Harold). Both guys are gradually building good bullpens, and their offenses are well balanced.

Greg Palmer - Greg's been competitive the past few years, finishing fourth in last years league (losing the consolation game), and losing in the finals the year before. The past few years Greg has held onto a lot of guys, so he's pretty happy with the roster he has. The GM he is most similar to is JP Ricciardi of the Toronto Blue Jays. Both guys have struggled to get the pitching staff lined up. Greg's early pitching staffs were anchored by Pedro Martinez and Mariano Rivera. He could never seem to get the right parts around them to have a fully successful pitching staff. Pedro is obviously gone, but Mariano is still there. Like JP, Greg has sometimes appeared to overpay for pitching (making a big trade last season to get Joe Crede and Randy Johnson, trading up last year to grab Javier Vazquez) but it hasn't translated yet into a strong pitching staff (although his staff is pretty good). On offense both guys have a few blue chippers, but have a tendency to run out a few stiffs at a couple positions (Greg stuck with Bobby Crosby for an agonizingly long time before finally cutting him lose).

Nick Willnow - Nick was a force in the early seasons of the league. he never won the title, but had a good team. The last few years he's succumbed to rebuilding efforts, although his rebuilding efforts haven't always ended well (Who can forget his fabled 2005 draft, where he had 4 of the top 13 picks, [2, 4, 12, 13] and came away with Randy Johnson, Matt Clement, Aaron Rowand, and Carl Pavano). For all this, sorry Nick but you most resemble Mike Flanagan of the Orioles. Rebuilding efforts have focused on the wrong guys (Clement, Pavano, Sosa, Javy Lopez). Neither guys can build a decent offense around a few stud building blocks (ARod, in Nick's case). Also, both have struggled to put together a good pitching staff, as Nick heads into this season with Papelbon, Garland, Jake Westbrook, Gil Meche, and Carl Pavano as his kept starters, with nary a closer.

Brad DeMay - Brad has had his share of success in our league as well. He won the whole thing in 2004, and finished third this past season. Besides the one year he decided to tear it all down and rebuild (and only kept 3), Brad typically hangs onto a lot of guys, never keeping less than 12. He's got a nice team, with decent balance. Brad's Achille's heel is his bullpen (which for fantasy purposes means closer.). Brad's closers typically implode on him as soon as he gets them (Billy Koch, Jorge Julio, Danny Baez, even Todd Jones is no safe bet going forward). For this reason, Brad is most like Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox. Also much like the Red Sox, Brad goes into the season with the makings of a good offense (Swisher, Vlad, Dye, Matsui, Jeter, Eric Chavez) and a decent rotation, although one with some question marks (Schilling, AJ Burnett, Kelvim Escobar). Brad's infield is also normally in flux, as he has Jeter and Eric Chavez, and a rotating cast of characters at the other 3 spots each year.

Dan Messier - Dan's a fun guy. Not a fungi, a fun guy. He's also the co-commish of this league and the creator of our illustrious trophy. Here's a picture of this year's trophy hand over.

I'm the grinning fat guy in the red shirt, Dan's the fella give me a hearty handshake. Anyway, Dan won the league in its first season. He was also defeated in the finals in 2004, in the consolation game in 2005, and in the first round of the playoffs in 2006, obviously a disturbing trend if you're Dan. Dan's closest comparable is Terry Ryan of the Minnesota Twins. Both are consistently competitive, but haven't gotten over the hump in a while. Both build their teams about young home grown talent (Dan's been waiting for BJ Upton and Zack Greinke to blossom for about 3 years now). Both guys have good bullpens, and good front ends of the starting rotation. The back end of each guy's starting staff can be a problem (Dan's staff drops off quickly: Scott Kazmir, Mike Mussina, Erik Bedard, Mark Buehrle). Both guys have more stability on their team than most. For Dan, he built his nucleus during the 2005 draft, and still has 7 of the 8 guys he kept after that season (with the 8th, Casey Kotchman, being a guy Dan will no doubt draft towards the end of this draft).

Harold Greist - Last, but not least, there's Harold Greist. Well, maybe I could say last and least, but that wouldn't be nice. Harold was the best man at my wedding, but so far hasn't been the best man in this league. Rold has struggled pretty much every year, only making the playoffs once. Harold is most like Bill Stoneman of the Anaheim Angels (or whatever they're called). Both of these two guys have dynamite bullpens. (Rold 's got Joe Nathan and K-Rod, and for a while also had Francisco Cordero). Both guys have the beginnings of good pitching staffs (King Felix, Dan Haren, John Lackey, Barry Zito before he went NL). Much like Stoneman, Harold has a tendency to have one of two stiffs in his lineup every year (he finally gave Garret Anderson the boot), and like Stoneman, has a hard time letting older guys go (Anderson again, Jorge Posada, although to be fair, Posada's still a decent player).

That's it, a round up of all the guys in my keeper league, and how they stack up to the real thing.

The league is starting to crank up, so the drama will be in full swing soon...

Assessing the GMs, Part 1

So I had a fun idea to try to draw a parallel between the real AL and the fantasy AL. At least, my version of the fantasy AL. So I'm going to try to characterize each of the AL general managers in this blog, and then in Part 2, I'll say which manager most resembles which GM. Below is a listing of each AL GM. Note that this is a characterization of their tenure. I try not to cast judgement on whether they are a good GM or not. I am merely trying to boil down their tenure as GM to a few salient points.

AL East:

Brian Cashman - I've alway thought he was underrated. People assume that with a big payroll, anyone could do the job. But I find Cash to be very clever. He is known to decisively fill holes when he sees them (see the Abreu trade), and always seems to have a stacked offense. He doesn't fare quite as well with the pitching staff, occasionally chasing the bad/old free agent, and seems to have a hard time building a decent bullpen (beyond Mo at least).

Theo Epstein - Another guy with a big budget. Theo is prone to falling in love with guys, and once that happens, he eventually gets them (Coco Crisp, JD Drew, Daisuke Matsuzaka), not sure if this is a plus or a minus. He's also a guy who seems willing to go the extra mile. Theo sees a high turnover in his offense, especially infield, but generally is able to field a strong offensive club. Likewise, his bullpens are seemingly always in a state of flux, and he can't seem to nail down a closer for long. The starting rotation could be good, but has its questions (Schilling & Wakefield's age, Daisuke's transition to the US, Papelbon's shoulder woes, Beckett's continued transtition from the NL.)

Andrew Friedman - He's been on the job a fairly short time, so it's harder to get a read on him. Friedman, like his predecessor, seems to have a hard time swinging a trade for an obvious need. He has a stacked, up and coming young offense, but can't seem to compile anything like a quality pitching staff, either in the rotation or bullpen. He's known to hoard young players, even when he has a surplus at a position.

Mike Flanagan - It's hard to know how much of the Os struggles are his fault. His tenure has been characterized by overpaying older players. Some (Tejada) have lived up to their pay, others (Sosa) have not. He is hamstrung by bad ownership so I don't like to dump on him. Also, their incoming young players have had an up and down time of it (Hayden Penn, Adam Loewen, Daniel Cabrera, Erik Bedard), but there's some hope here for improvement.

JP Ricciardi - JP has appeared to overpay for pitching on occasion, but still can't seem to put a good staff together. Signing Burnett and Ryan was looked at as a big expenditure, but those moves have worked out. However, he can't seem to build the back half of a rotation, or a quality pen. On the offensive side, he has some blue chippers, however, the Jays have shown a propensity for trotting out truly awful offensive players at several positions each year (I'm looking at you Russ Adams).

AL Central

Dave Dombrowski - Before last season a Detroit columnist (Rob Parker) made the asinine assessment that Dumbo was the worst GM in Detroit Rock City. Not even close, Matt Millen runs laps around him in the suck ass department. All this is to say he's a good GM. He's turned around a moribund franchise (for which I will forever love him). His tenure has been characterized by building a team around young power ams. His tenure has also seen big money signings of older/injured players (Pudge Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, Kenny Rogers, Troy Percival). His offenses are generally solid but unspectacular, with no true superstar. The man also knows how to build a bullpen.

Kenny Williams - Kenny has really improved since he got the job. He used to be a sub-par GM, but now he's one of the better ones. Kenny's a guy who always seems to have a few irons in the fire. You can pretty much trust in Kenny to make one big trade every year, normally one that takes everyone by surprise. He's not one to sit on his laurels and is aggressive about improving his team. The team he's built is built around a strong, deep pitching staff, complimented by a balanced offense.

Dayton Moore - He's the new guy on the block so it's a bit hard to get a read on him. I like what he's done so far. He's unwilling to accept the status quo and has thrown caution to the winds that the Royals are going to aggressively try to improve. Most of his early tenure has involved trading older guys for young power arms and offensive players who haven't been given a real shot to contribute (Shealy). With 3 premier prospects on the way, it'll be interesting to see how the Royals look in a few years.

Mark Shapiro - He took over the Indians at the end of their dominant late 90's run. He was given the unenviable task of tearing it all down and rebuilding right and boy does it seem like he did a good job of it. His team is characterized by a powerful young lineup (albeit one that sometimes underachieves), and a decent rotation. Rotation depth still is a problem for the Tribe, as is their bullpen, which was just awful last year.

Terry Ryan - One of the best in the business, and maybe the most underrated. Terry drafts very well, and his teams are built around young homegrown talent. Always has one of the best bullpens around. His offenses are generally decent, but don't really have any big boppers. The starting rotation is headed by the best pitcher in baseball (Santana), and for a time last year, a worthy adversary to that title (Liriano). Beyond that, the rotation is questionable.

AL West

Bill Bavasi - Let's get this out there right away. I think Bill is the worst GM in baseball. But I'm not looking to assassinate his character, but to sum up his regime. Bavasi isn't afraid to make a splash, or to pay out big money free agent contracts. His problem is that he seems to pursue the wrong guys, and his free agent signings so far have been mediocre at best (Beltre, Sexson, Washburn). He can't seem to figure out how to augment the beginnings of a decent offense (Ichiro, Jose Lopez, Beltre, Sexson, Johjima) and has made some truly awful moves (acquiring Jose Vidro, he of the .395 slugging percentage last year, to be your DH is cringe-worthy). Bavasi also can't seem to put together a good rotation, and falls on shaky guys instead (Jeff Weaver, Horacio Ramirez).

Billy Beane - Everybody knows he "wrote" Moneyball about how much of a genius he was, and how all hitters should try to take walks. Joe Morgan's antiquated misunderstandings aside, Beane is regarded, rightfully, as one of the best. Beane's teams have been characterized by always seeming to be in contention, despite fairly consistent roster turnover through the years. The A's always have a good bullpen, and their hallmark is young, talented, starting rotations. The "Big Three" (Hudson, Mulder, Zito) may all be gone now, but the A's still have young studs in their starting rotation (Harden, Haren, Joe Kennedy - kidding about Joe!). On the offensive side, the A's, at least recently, don't blow you away, but they always have enough there to get the job done. And they like to take walks. And hit home runs. And they hate stealing bases. And they hate drafting high school players. Sorry, just venting on some of the misconceptions of Moneyball.

Bill Stoneman - Bill Stoneman likes the players that he drafts. Stoneman's regime has been a big success, the Angels are consistent contenders. However, Bill Stoneman can be accused of hoarding his prospects too long. For that matter, he can be accused of hoarding his veterans too long, well after they should've pushed them out the door (thank god for their sake Darin Erstad is finally off the team). Stoneman's a guy who can put together a bullpen, probably better than anyone else. He seems to turn up a guy or two each year and get great success out of them (remember herky jerky Ben Weber?). Similarly, he always seems to have a good starting staff. Angels offense are generally good, with at least one or two millstones each year (this year's stiff is Garret Anderson).

Jon Daniels - Daniels hasn't been on the job all that long either, so an opinion is still being formed. Daniels has a nice young offensive nucleus to build around (Teixeira, Young, the ghost of Hank Blalock's potential) but man, that rotation always needs help. The Rangers just cannot seem to figure out how to trot a decent pitching staff out there. Good offense, bad pitching, is the story of this team.

Alright, that's a rundown of the GMs, soon I'll be drawing parallels between real world GMs, and fantasy GMs. This is guaranteed to draw the ire of at least one of my fellow managers, so that should be fun.