Built to Last

Who ever said that building a championship caliber team is easy should be shot. Wait, I don't think anyone actually said that. Fans do tend to act like it is easy though. A trade here, a new coach there, throw in the patience with a struggling rookie and there you have it! The thing is, once the team has reached that status (albeit difficultly) they now have the responsibility to stay there. There is no break to this endless cycle.





Look at the Mets from the 1980s. The most common analysis of that team was that they should have won three or four World Series titles, not just one. The fact is, one move here or there and they just might have won more than one title. They were that talented. Then take a look at the Phoenix Suns of present day. They have not yet reached that pinnacle, but they have a team that is at a crossroads. Is the their team the way its presently constructed good enough to win it all, or do they need to do something drastic? These are the difficult decisions of a professional sports general manager.



One of the more controversial GMs of the past 10-15 years has been Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox. He was the architect of the 2004 championship team and had the task of figuring out what to do with the team after that historic run. The team was filled with mostly veterans, highly paid ones at that. In addition, due the the fact that Boston had waited decades for a title, the members of that team became legends in the city of Boston.



The two most debated decisions that Theo dealt with were the defections of both Pedro Martinez and Johnny Damon. Both left not because they were fed up with Boston, but because the Red Sox were unwilling to pay them what other teams were. Boston made no bones about the fact that they felt both players were past their prime and likely to break down physically within the next year or so. Both Pedro and Damon though were cult heroes in New England and their departures were very difficult for the fans to accept.



To make matters worse, the team suffered in the short run and both of their presence was missed. Boston seemed a pitcher short in 2005. In 2006, Boston did not make the playoffs and Damons replacement in center field (Cocoa Crisp) played horribly. At this point in time though, The Sox are one of the top teams in baseball and they have begun to use the money they saved in not signing these two incredibly popular players towards younger talent such as Dice-K, Josh Beckett and JD Drew.



Pedro and Damon meanwhile have been ravaged by injuries in 2007 just as the Red Sox projected. You have to take your hat off to Theo Epstein for making the unpopular calls at the time of not keeping both Damon and Pedro in order to potentially have a more consistent team in the years to come. Boston has more payroll flexibility, younger pitching and a better farm system than it did three years ago. Much of this would not likely be the case if Theo did not show his "cohones", yea I said .



In the same respect you have to understand that a player can have a different value to different teams. Pedro meant more to the Mets than he did to Boston. They needed his face, his attitude and his persona to jump start their franchise. Boston just needed the pitching. As a result no one can dispute that Pedro has been a great success for the Mets even if he never pitches again the way they hoped he would. He turned the franchise around, which is something that Boston did not need.



Deals are made and not made every day of the year. There are hundreds of deals that meant nothing at the time and turned out to be franchise changers. The impressive thing about the Damon and Pedro decisions is that they were both so highly publicized and Theo stuck to his guns on each. I have to give the guy credit, and it seems to be paying off so far in 2007.