Each AL 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 ? Jscape of Pinstripe Alley: "Tony LaRussa helped pioneer the frequent change approach to bullpen management: the one reliever, one inning approach that makes closers the most over-hyped members of each team. Goose Gossage has been quite vocal in his criticism of relievers who aren't used for multiple innings, saying they don't compare to relievers from his day.? I'd add the criticism that every time you bring in a new reliever, you bring in a player who might be having a bad day.? That was my complaint about the 8th inning on Tuesday night- if David Robertson was on a single batter leash, why not just leave in Alfredo Aceves? Which brings me to Aceves and Chan Ho Park (who pitched 3 of the grittiest, guttiest innings you'll see in a Yankee uniform). Do you think we're witness to the Yankees re-pioneering bullpen management?? We have so many starting pitchers in the minors and on the roster, and there are only 162 starts to go around.? But if these guys can come in and deliver multiple innings, it makes the Yankee bullpen deeper and stronger (more innings, but less exposure)." The Theo Epstein ? Troy Patterson of Fire Brand of the AL: "Last night though he broke from the mold and became more unpredictable in his approach. He largely stuck to three pitches through the game using his four-seam fastball, curveball and cutter. When I say he stuck to those pitches he threw 100 pitches of which 30 were four-seamers, 29 were curveballs and 29 were cutters. To put those 29 cutters in perspective we can see in 2009 he threw 81 cutters all year long for a 2.6% of total pitches. Before we go to far though we should see if there is any possibility that these are just misclassified fastballs. First we can see that from his 2009 chart his cutters(FC) are similar to the four seamer with less horizontal movement but similar vertical break. Both move at 91mph meaning that only a slight change in spin rotation leads to the pitch changing movement by three inches.? This movement is right on with his 29 cutters tonight leading me to believe his change was actual, but what does that mean? The first thing is his cutter is not the same as a Mariano Rivera cutter, which is what everyone thinks of immediately.? His cutter has more ?rise? at 9 inches to Rivera?s 6.31 and he has negative horizontal movement while Rivera has a positive movement.? This means Lackey will go away from righties in break, but Rivera breaks in on righties.? The truth is Lackey?s pitch is a somewhat straighter fastball on the horizontal plane, but that gives an interesting switch after the ?moving? four-seamer." The Alex Anthopoulos ? Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter: "Games are much better when we win. We got 7 runs on just 5 hits tonight, but the 10 (!) walks helped. And Vernon Wells, crushed two home runs, 2 for 3, 4 runs, 3 RBI and a walk for good measure. That gives him 3 homers and 6 RBI after two games. Wait till he gets warmed up." The Mike Flanagan ? Dean Jones Jr. of the Baltimore Sun: "Over the past two seasons, a revolving door of pitching prospects has passed through Prince George's Stadium on the way to Camden Yards. Brad Bergesen, Jason Berken, David Hernandez, Brian Matusz and Chris Tillman all spent time in the Double-A Bowie Baysox rotation in the previous two years before heading to the Orioles. The trend looks to continue in 2010 with left-hander Zach Britton being joined by right-handers Steve Johnson and Chorye Spoone at the top of the rotation. "We'll see over time how it all develops, but we have some good young prospects and we've also got some guys who've been here before and had some success," Baysox pitching coach Kennie Steenstra said at the team's media day. "It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out." " The Andrew Friedman ? Marc Tompkin of the St. Petersburg Times: "The pitching part, Garza got off to a pretty good start Wednesday. He worked an impressive eight innings, overcoming an admittedly over-amped beginning and allowing only four hits and one earned run while striking out nine.. After a winter of intensified workouts and a huge raise to $3.35 million, Garza reported to spring training intense from the start. "He's definitely focused and motivated right now," Maddon said. "I'm a firm believer he should be among the elite pitchers in this league. He already is, but really set himself apart. He's capable of being an annual All-Star." " The Dave Dombrowski ? Al of Bless You Boys: "In order to get to that point, we have Max Scherzer to thank for keeping the Tigers in the game. The 2nd year starter had a marvelous performance in first AL appearance,? no-hitting the Royals for 4.1 innings. The youngster ended his night going 6 strong innings, giving up only 1 hit and 2 walks, while getting absolutely no run support. Some things never change." The Mark Shapiro ? Steve Buffum of the B-List Indians Blog: "One of the things that sometimes gets sloughed over when looking at last year's catastrophe was that (Fausto) Carmona gave up 151 hits in his 125 1/3 IP last season, including 52 for extra bases.? This would result in a 1.205 WHIP if he walked no one whatsoever.? Also, this translates into a .170 ISO (after going .104 and .114 in the previous two seasons), which means that not only was he being hit, he was being hit HARD.. But here's the thing about last night: Carmona started out about as poorly as you could have wanted in the first inning, walking the first two guys and giving up a run on a mid-deep sac fly.? All three outs in the first came on balls hit into the air.? Same old Fausto, right? Except ... look, I know he walked 4 more guys, but he didn't try to come back with an aimed, grooved pitch.? He came back with HIS pitch.? With one exception, he pounded the zone low, mixing in an effective slider (if the slider is back, Fausto is that much tougher), and ended up with a 10:4 GO:FO ratio in his last 5 innings.? Yes, the pitch to Konerko was execrable.? But it was the only one." The Bill Smith ? Joe Christensten of the Star Tribune: "Justin Morneau and J.J. Hardy did some more slugging Wednesday, and Carl Pavano delivered the kind of start the Twins hoped for when they re-signed him to a one-year, $7 million deal. Like Nick Blackburn one night earlier, Pavano kept the Angels hitters off balance, and the Twins won 4-2. New closer Jon Rauch allowed one run but held on for his second save." The Kenny Williams ? Mark Gonzalez of the Chicago Tribune: "Jake Peavy's problems, meanwhile, were easier to solve. "I didn't have great command by any means, but I still felt pretty good," Peavy said. "It was one inning (fourth) that got away from us. I'll go back and look at some video. They didn't hit the ball hard." As much as Peavy struggled with his control (walking two and hitting two batters), the errant pitch that irritated him the most barely missed the strike zone. That was a two-strike pitch that struck Mike Redmond to load the bases and set up hits by Michael Brantley and Grady Sizemore that tied the game. "It was a veteran move," Peavy said of Redmond's decision to barely move. "He's certainly not going to get out of the way. I wanted to face him. That's no disrespect to Mike Redmond. I liked the righty-righty matchup. I was looking for a ground ball (to set up an inning-ending double play)." " The Dayton Moore ? Clark Fosler of the Royals Authority: "An effective Luke Hochevar is one of the top three keys to the Royals doing anything more than just keeping their heads above water this year.??? Last night, we had a very effective Hochevar on the mound.??? Now, we have seen this act before:? the one where Luke pitches so well that we all just know that he has finally turned the corner, only to see Hochevar stumble back into ineffectiveness.??What was different last night was the velocity with which Luke threw." The Billy Beane ? : "Despite the mean Mariners stealing second base on the very first pitch (Tyson) Ross threw (in the bigs), he ended up recording his first strikeout of his first batter. And WOW does that kid use his upper body/arms when he pitches. I have no idea how he stays together, but I liked the result; 2.1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K. That's an awesome debut, and it kept the A's in the game. The Jack Zduriencik ? Dave Cameron of the USS Mariner: "(Ryan) Rowland-Smith was his usual self, just with poor location, especially on his change-up. He left too many of them up in the zone, and the A?s ripped a lot of line drives when he got too much of the plate. He?s a guy that needs to put the ball in the right spots to succeed, and he didn?t really do that tonight. It happens. I wouldn?t be overly concerned." The Tony Reagins ? Doug Padilla of the Los Angeles Daily News: "(Ervin) Santana started strong Wednesday with three no-hit innings, but got burned by the long ball in a 4-2 defeat to the Minnesota Twins at Angel Stadium. The first hit he allowed came in the fourth inning, when Justin Morneau followed a Joe Mauer walk by crushing a ball into the seats in right field. An inning later the Twins scored two more runs on a J.J. Hardy home run, a triple by No. 9 hitter Nick Punto and a sacrifice fly from Denard Span. "I think early on he had great life on his fastball and great arm speed on the slider," manager Mike Scioscia said. "Early on, when he was trying to put guys away, he got a little too fine and it cost him some counts and cost him a lot of pitches early on." Both home runs came on sliders and both were on the second time through the Twins lineup." The Jon Daniels ? Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News: "In two games, Toronto starters have averaged 13.6 pitches per inning while working into the seventh inning both times. Here's what should catch the Rangers attention: Both guys had good changeups and the Rangers chased those changes. Word travels fast around the league. They are going to face change after change after change until they show they can make the necessary adjustments." Click here to follow Chris Reina's Twitter feed. Click here to read Thursday's National League edition of Scoop