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.
- Brewers (of course)
- A's
- Red Sox
- Braves
- Marlins
- Padres
- Indians