Apr 16, 2010 12:57 PM EST
Each MLB team is represented below, marked by a not-so-subtle nod to the general managers we focus so much of our site's attention towards and our namesake.
The Brian Cashman
? Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News: "The odds are against Phil Hughes, we all know that. The Yankees really haven't developed their own starting pitcher in 15 years, ever since Andy Pettitte somehow survived those first turbulent years and all the trade rumors. Everybody from Ted Lilly to Chien-Ming Wang has come and gone, sometimes to better things elsewhere. Sometimes, they just sort of disappear.. The Yankees dump them or trade them or burn them out. Mostly, the team just goes out and buys new ones, for a ton of money.. For what it's worth, the Yanks seem fairly serious about hanging on to Hughes, 23, at least for now. They let him go a career-high 108 pitches against the Angels, mainly because he hasn't thrown much and because he required that many pitches to get people out.. Both Girardi and Eiland believe that Hughes' success as a starter will depend on the development of a changeup, his third pitch, which he seems reluctant at times to throw. He only used it a handful of times Thursday night, twice to Hideki Matsui, relying again on fastball/curveball."
The Theo Epstein
? Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe: "For a team with pitching and defense at its core, (Thursday) was a good day for neither. Not only did the Sox commit three errors, plus a mental mistake by Victor Martinez, Tim Wakefield allowed six runs (five earned) over 5 1/3 innings, as his team was shut out by Francisco Liriano and two relievers."
The Alex Anthopoulos
? Sean Fitz-Gerald: "(Dana Eveland) threw four scoreless innings to open his second start with the Blue Jays, setting a team record while helping the team to a 7-3 win over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night. Eveland did not allow a run in his debut last week, and his run of 11 1/3 scoreless innings is the longest any starter has gone at the beginning of his career in Toronto."
The Mike Flanagan
? Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun: "With the Houston Astros getting their first win Thursday to move to 1-8, the Orioles, at 1-9, are the owners of the worst record in the major leagues."
The Andrew Friedman
? Marc Tompkin of the St. Petersburg Times: "Their offense has flashed glimpses of being dynamic. Their defense has been tremendous. Their starting pitching has, for the most part, been pretty good. And their bullpen has been a bigger headache than expected. Whether you want to go by the stats (a 7.01 ERA that is worse than all but one other team), by the results (two losses, three blown saves) or just what you've seen before throwing your socks at the TV, the reality is that for the Rays to make the kind of playoff run they expect, the bullpen is going to have to be better."
The Dave Dombrowski
? Kurt Mensching of Bless you Boys: "Austin Jackson has been a nice surprise. He's batting .306 with a .375 on-base percentage and five extra-base hits in 36 at-bats. He's been seeing a lot of pitches and playing more mature than I expected of him. At 4.10 he trails only Johnny Damon in pitches per plate appearance for batting-title eligible Tigers."
The Mark Shapiro
? Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer: "In speaking of Shin-Soo Choo, who hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to prevent the Indians from losing six straight, (Manny) Acta said: "I think this town needs to rally behind this kid. So much for whoever's not here. "This guy was the only player in the AL last year to hit .300, hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases. And I think we should appreciate this kid and enjoy him while he's here. I think he's one of the best players in the American League." "
The Bill Smith
? Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press: "Minnesota Twins all-star catcher Joe Mauer said Jon Rauch, who was replaced injured Joe Nathan as the team's closer and been successful in each of five save attempts, relies more on finesse than Nathan does. "You might look at the (radar) gun, and Rauch might be a couple of miles slower than Nathan, but he's got a little more deception than Nathan does," Mauer said. "Nathan's more of a power guy, and he's always got that slider. "Rauch relies on movement and location a little bit more. They're both effective, obviously.""
The Kenny Williams
? Jim Margalus of Sox Machine: "Ten games into the season, and Ozzie Guillen has yet to like one lineup enough to try it a second time."
The Dayton Moore
? Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star: "The first thing hitters need to remember when facing Royals pitcher Zack Greinke, according to an advance scout for another organization, is to ?spit on? his nasty slider, i.e., just take the pitch. ?That slider is almost never in the strike zone,? the scout said. ?It?s a great pitch because it looks like it?s going to be a strike. And then it isn?t. It darts out of the zone at the last minute. You swing at it, and you haven?t got a chance.? "
The Billy Beane
? Carl Steward of the Mercury News: "(Ben) Sheets, who missed the entire 2009 season after elbow surgery, has pitched very solidly since that March 15 debacle. Two solid spring appearances were followed by allowing two earned runs opening night and three in his second outing, both no-decisions. "I was just setting 'em up, man,'" Sheets said with a grin. "Hey, those things happen. Pitchers have bad outings. My whole spring was skewed by that outing. I could have dominated every other game, and my numbers still wouldn't have looked good, but I thought I threw the ball fine in spring." "
The Jack Zduriencik
? Dave Cameron of USS Mariner: "In his post-game conversation with Geoff Baker, Jason Vargas noted that he started throwing a cutter last night, after shelving it last year to work on his breaking ball. Over the last few years, we?ve heard a lot of stories about Mariner pitchers making changes to their mechanics (remember Miguel Batista?s eureka moment?) or adding a new pitch to their repertoire (hello, Dolphin), but it usually has amounted to a big ball of nothing. This might be different."
The Tony Reagins
? Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times: "Scott Kazmir had just finished warming up in the bullpen before Thursday night's game when catcher Mike Napoli caught the eye of pitching coach Mike Butcher, and the two exchanged knowing glances. "His slider looked really good, like I've never seen it before," Napoli said of Kazmir, the Angels left-hander. "Butch and I gave each other a look like, ?It's going to be a good night.' " A few innings into the game, those grins were gone, as were three of the balls that left New York bats. Kazmir got to the Yankee Stadium mound, and his slider went AWOL. Left to fend for himself with just a fastball and changeup, Kazmir was pummeled for six runs and eight hits, three of them home runs, in four innings of a 6-2 loss to the New York Yankees."
The Jon Daniels
? Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News: "The Rangers have the best starting rotation ERA in baseball. This weekend, they'll start to find out if they actually have an elite starting rotation. Despite a disheartening 3-2 defeat to Cleveland Thursday afternoon in which Matt Harrison took a shutout to the eighth inning, allowed only one earned run and still suffered the loss, the Rangers lowered their rotation ERA. The 1.93 figure is also the lowest nine-game rotation ERA in Texas history."
National League
The Brian Sabean
? Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle: "The Jays are very short on outfielders. They got a good first-hand look at a hot Lewis the last three nights as he played against their Triple-A team in Las Vegas. Et cetera. If anyone needs a change of scenery, it's Lewis. He has not been happy here for a long time, asked for a trade last year and does not believe he will get a fair shot anymore under manager Bruce Bochy, despite how he played last year. Lewis' speed would play well on the turf in Toronto and, who knows? Maybe he'll see the ball better in the outfield there?"
The Ned Colletti
? Phil Gurnee of True Blue LA: "With his two-run homer in the seventh inning, Matt Kemp has now homered in three or more consecutive games for the third time in his career, previously doing so in a three-game stretch from June 1-3, 2006 and slugging a homer in four-straight contests from August 29-September 1, 2009?Kemp has now hit safely in five straight games, batting .375 (9-for-24) since April 10, and leads the team with four homers and 13 RBI."
The Dan O'Dowd
? Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: "(Jim) Tracy said (Jorge) De La Rosa's lack of command was unlike anything he had seen from the earliest days of spring training. De La Rosa, who one-hit the San Diego Padres through seven innings in the home opener, finished with five walks and two wild pitches in six innings."
The Josh Byrnes
? Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic: "Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick for nearly three years has quietly kept under wraps the "Mona Lisa" of baseball memorabilia: a rare 1909 Honus Wagner card. Now that gem, which he purchased for $2.8 million, and two dozen other elite baseball cards in Kendrick's collection will be on display beginning Saturday in Cooperstown, N.Y., at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Kendrick, the Diamondbacks' managing general partner, said he decided to loan the 25 cards so thousands of fans could see them."
The Jed Hoyer
? Bill Center of the Union-Tribune: "Aside from Monday, when every bloop and situation fell nicely into place, the Padres are hitting .211 as a team and averaging 2.75 runs per game.
Thursday marked the fourth time in nine games that the Padres never held the lead."
The Doug Melvin
? Kyle Lobner of Brew Crew Ball: "If you expected better from Jeff Suppan today, you were probably deluding yourself: He allowed four runs on six hits in five innings, walking just one and striking out four. He allowed two home runs, but threw just 81 pitches and actually left with a 5-4 lead before Chris Narveson allowed a solo home run to Aramis Ramirez to lead off the sixth."
The Jim Hendry
? Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald: "Leave it to Cubs manager Lou Piniella to put his bullpen situation this way: "Look, we've got to solve our eighth-inning solution. That's it." The bullpen remains a major work in progress for the Cubs, and starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano's 5-inning performance tested that progress in Thursday's 8-6 loss to the Brewers. Carlos Marmol has been fine in the closer's role, going 3-for-3. But the bridge from the starter to Marmol has been a rickety one. Veteran lefties Sean Marshall and John Grabow worked extensively in the first week of the season. Piniella also has turned to his young relievers, with mixed results."
The John Mozeliak
? Dan of Viva El Birdos: "For Mark McGwire, to this point, middling returns, though dingers have indeed been hit at a prodigious rate?only Arizona has more. But our other coach-savant has hit all his marks so far: through nine games St. Louis pitchers have walked just 22 batters, tops in all of baseball. Everyone's pitching in (not a pun) in his own way: even Mitchell Boggs managed to have his relief meltdown without allowing a base on balls!?How good have they been so far? If the Cardinals staff, all of it, were one pitcher, the Cardinals wouldn't be able to afford him?with Lohse's walkless performance they're down to 2.47 walks per nine innings, or a little lower than Adam Wainwright's career average.?"
The Walt Jocketty
? Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "No one even whispers that there?s anything physically wrong with (Aaron) Harang. We like to go back to the 4 relief innings in San Diego ? and the regular turn he took 3 days later ? but that was almost 2 entire years ago. If there?s nothing wrong with him physically, and neither Dick Pole nor Bryan Price can find any flaw in how he throws, the Reds are really stuck. They?re an If team; Harang was among the biggest and most important Ifs. To contend for anything, they badly need him to be a When guy."
The Ed Wade
? Austin Swafford of Astros 290: "Credit goes first and foremost to starting pitcher Bud Norris, who allowed just one run (unearned) one four hits, three walks and nine strikeouts in five innings. He also helped himself at the plate, singling in the first run of the game in the third inning.? At the risk of raining on the Astros victory parade, but it?s funny to me that Norris had more hits with runners in scoring position in this game than the Astros 3-4-5 hitters have all year combined.? His one hit tops the three players a lineup counts on most for RBIs with runners in scoring position.? With Pedro Feliz and Carlos Lee both going o-for-1 with RISP today, the total for the season is 0-for-24 for the heart of the order."
The Neal Huntington
? Charlie of Bucs Dugout: "Why was Bobby Crosby starting at first base today? This is the third game the Pirates have sat Jeff Clement so far in this young season. I get that he should occasionally have a day off, especially against a tough lefty, but he doesn't need three days off so early in the year. The entire point of having him on the big-league roster right now is that there's hopefully a limited amount of time before Pedro Alvarez arrives and crowds the infield."
The Frank Wren
? Talking Chop: "The kid (Jason Heyward) is incredible. After going 3-for-3 with RISP during the series, Jay Hey now leads all of baseball with a .750BA w/ RISP and leads the Braves with 12RBI. In the series, Heyward went 3-for-8 with 2 doubles,?3BBs and 3Ks. I really don't think he'll be hitting 7th for too much longer.
The Omar Minaya
? Mets Today: "(Mike) Pelfrey allowed only 5 hits and walked none in 7 innings, striking out 6. He was the first Met in 2010 to pitch beyond the sixth frame. He pitched the way we expect him to pitch at least 20 times a year ? like a true #2 or strong #3 starter, hitting spots on either side of the plate and changing speeds just enough to keep batters off balance. In this game he kept his focus from pitch one through 106, which of course is key to his success."
The Ruben Amaro
? Bill Baer of Crashburn Alley: "Most of Charlie Manuel?s poor managerial decisions have been washed away either by the Phillies? monster offense or ? at least in 2008 ? covered up by the pitching staff."
The Larry Beinfest
? Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald: "(Keith Law) is not?in awe of (Jorge)?Cantu's major league record RBI mark. Far from it. It has nothing?to do with Cantu, whom Law dismisses as "below average" offensively and defensively for a corner infielder -- "a trade or non-tender waiting to happen" -- and everything to do with his utter abhorrence?of the RBI as a statistic."
The Mike Rizzo
? Harper of Nationals Baseball: "The key to the not horribly sucking has been an offense that has put up at least 4 runs in seven of their 9 games. On the surface that may not seem like much, their runs per game is below average in the NL. But more than half of the NL has scored 10 runs or more in a game already. The Padres scored 17, the Braves 16, the D-Backs 15. Either the whole NL has started to mash and the Nats are going to be killed, or the Nats are simply chugging along and will slowly pass the other teams as these extreme games get evened out."
Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Click here to follow his Twitter feed.
Via Christopher Reina/RealGM
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