Mark Armour and Dan Levitt have written a book: In Pursuit of Pennants, which examines how front offices have historically found innovative ways to build winning teams. In support of that, they are counting down the top-25 GMs of all time over at their blog. Since it’s slow season, I’m going to continue linking to the countdown as it’s great stuff we rarely read about in the normal course.
John Hart is driving me crazy. I have no idea what the Braves’ plan is this offseason. I get maybe re-jiggering to be competitive in a couple of years, but I don’t get how signing Nick Markakis fits into that or why, if the Braves are experimenting, they don’t keep Kris Medlen around to see if he can bounce back. I don’t know why anyone thinks it’s a good idea for Evan Gattis to play in the outfield.
But maybe John Hart is smarter about how to build a baseball team than I am! It’s possible! He’s done it before! And as Mark Armour and Dan Levitt argue today, only 22 guys have done it better than Hart has.