From Kevin Kennedy's Mailbag:
"If you were the GM of a smaller market team that could not afford to go out and sign a bunch of free agents how would you build your team? Would you go with position players or pitchers in the draft and try to develop them? Also, do you think small market teams are doing all they can to win or trying to make a profit? — Colin Adams"I would definitely start with pitching. If you don't have pitching you won't be able to out slug anyone no matter how good your hitters are. Look at the Yankees for the first couple of months of the season. The pitchers dug a hole and the hitters couldn't get them out of it. The Dodgers in the 1960s and 1970s became a pitching-oriented organization and made drafting and signing pitchers a premium — and it won for them. In 1964, the Dodgers traded their top slugger, Frank Howard, and five other players to Washington for pitcher Claude Osteen and a utility infielder. They wanted Osteen to be their number three starter behind Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Pitching was so important to them that they traded six players for a number three starter! But Claude was a very good one."Why would anyone, answering a question about low-revenue teams, which is clearly a 1990's/00's issue, cite the 1964 Dodgers? Are you kidding me? That's like being asked about the future of indie rock and citing The Cyrkle.
Yeah. You heard me. The Cyrkle.
Labels: claude osteen, kevin kennedy