Steve 2003
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Draft Capsule:
I did not like much about Steve's draft. Not that I would have been right, but I might have even taken ARod second over Pedro, Steve's award winning pitcher. Gagne was good, Spivey also, Hunter solid, and Olerud real good. Otherwise, I could not fathom how Steve was going to make this work. And that not even considering him giving up 80 some positions to move up 4 positions to take Hinske before Ken could consider him. Some of Steve's moves were curious at best. Have I mentioned Nomar as the reincarnation of John Valentin?
Season Highlight:
Steve rolled over everyone in the 1st 40. And after a slow start to the free-for-all, he continued his dominance. After every ebb, the team would get rolling again and win series after series, ala the Cheeky Monkeys and the View Masters.
Season Lowlight:
The pre- and post-semifinals brouhahas with Dave, the Cedeno screw up, and/or the WS loss ... take your pick. If I was Steve, it would the ignominity of the Cedeno screw job, but he tells me he's at peace with it, so I really wouldn't know which other one he would pick. I went 5-15 against him, so I proved that I delve into his psyche as poorly as anyone else.
If I analyzed the scripts or boxes, I'd check how:
Erstad got a lot of early praise (some from me for clutch hits), but I wish I could find a way to measure the impact of Olerud not playing regularly until the 40 game mark. Would Steve have won 100 games instead of 96 if Olerud was in the lineup all season? He was Steve's best, or maybe 2nd best player, and he gave way to a guy with very limited skills. Also, I'd love to figure out how Steve got his pen to perform at such a level ... literally, the talent in his penthouse pen was doghouse.
2003 Surprises:
The sustained run production from a low secondary skills offense, the pen, the overall win total, how willing Steve was to make trades (especially surprising after his first 40 divisional dominance), his knack for getting big hits late in games that looked lost (Ken will attest to that) ... in other words, just about everything from Steve in 2003 was surprising.
Best Strategy:
Maybe Chipper in the #1 spot. The voodoo he did with his pen was genius. The way he turned an ok bench into the '27 Yankees at times was incredible. Eagerness to take out Moyer and Ortiz in favor of Graves and Timlin and the like, in spite of Moyer's success and Ortiz's fairly early draft position (ok, 16th round is not exactly early, but Ortiz faced the fewest batters in the league, which is something you'd expect from a final round pick).
Worst Strategy:
Talking trash all season, backing out of the 2004 Winter Meeting, and, obviously, his Cedeno screw up. Personally, I most disliked his strategy for defending the Cedeno screw up, as with each new message I read, I thought less and less like I wanted to believe Steve. I didn't like the LoDuca for Olerud decision that ended the WS, but I will concede that Steve knew how to handle his playes better than I knew how to handle them.
GM Summary:
Can he be a great GM if he has the most MOY votes in our history, yet maintains a career record below .500? Maybe so, and I'll tell you why. It's as if he has grown into drafting opposite as he did when he entered the league. In 2003, he did everything as a GM for the sake of his manager and his talents ... it was not a case of taking players because they warranted selection, it was a case of taking guys because they were the guys the manager needed. If the other 8 managers ran this team, they would have struggled to win 80 games ... Steve drafted (and traded for) a team that won the President's Cup.
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