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Who else do you root for?

When Daisuke Matsuzaka finally signed the other day, I was seriously relieved. As you know if you've been following my non-BCB writings lately, I'm quite interested in Matsuzaka, and I find myself rooting for him. That's all well and good if he becomes a Red Sox, but if he had gone back to Japan, only to return in 2008 or 2009 as a Yankee? Or (heaven forbid) a Cardinal?

(Oddly enough, I had a dream the other night that somehow, the Red Sox rights to Matsuzaka were overturned, and the Brewers got him. Then we signed him to a contract for $41 million. I don't know how long that was for, or how my brain came up with that number in the first place. In my dream, though, I was really psyched.)

I would imagine nearly every Brewers fan (along with fans of other bad teams) has a 2nd or 3rd team to turn to in September. Not counting the Packers. Personally, I've always been a Braves fan of sorts, partly because I love good pitching and I grew up in the glory years of Atlanta aces, partly because I had WTBS at home. After that, I like some of the teams with analysis-oriented GMs, such as the Red Sox, A's, and Indians.

Most of all, I like teams that are well run on modest budgets. In other words, I root for GMs. Billy Beane, of course, requires no explanation. John Schuerholz (in recent years--not so much in the mid-90s, when Atlanta's payroll rivaled anyone's) and Mark Shapiro (in Cleveland) following closely behind. I think Doug Melvin may be worthy of joining that group, but we'll have to see what he does with a few more years of his system and a budget that isn't quite so low. By that reasoning, I ought to like the Twins, but...I just don't. Walt Jocketty is also worthy of note, but I simply can't root for the Cardinals. Blame it on Tony LaRussa.

Since everybody loves lists, here are my favorite teams. I sure many of you have drastically different opinions...feel free to share them in the comments below.

  1. Brewers (of course)
  2. A's
  3. Red Sox
  4. Braves
  5. Marlins
  6. Padres
  7. Indians