As closed and guarded as Jack Zduriencik was -- about -95 on the -100 to +100 scale -- Jerry DiPoto is correspondingly open and glib. The last word in this Lookout Landing take is important:
Jerry Dipoto has a plan and he’s sticking to it. Whether or not the plan leads to success, the fact that he’s been able to articulate it so clearly has been refreshing.
Just so! And, we might add, this kind of candor and forthrightness is the mark of a sincere and confident man. There was never anybody more candid or forthright than Bobby Fischer … he knew that he was #1 on the planet, that there was nobody hiding in Mongolia who could take him. Since he also had the delusion that Chess = Life, he was personally overconfident with everybody.
Whoop. That kinda derailed the feel-and-tone for a second. But you take the point. Jerry DiPoto looks you in the eye, smiling, holds your gaze, and you look away first. Would Dr. D be mean-spirited to say --- > this is pretty much the opposite of Jack Zduriencik?
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Another LL article quoted DiPoto off “a season ticket holder Q&Q session.”
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I’ve been fairly proactive in my executive life at going out and acquiring pitchers that are between 21 and 26 years old that are optional and flexible, and can send them up and down. Some of them turn into Patrick Corbin and Hector Santiago, who pitched in A star games, and others like Tyler Skaggs and Daniel Hudson, that you never heard of the day we got ‘em, and the next year they walk out there and throw 200 innings and win 16 games.
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In other words, DiPoto probably IS fine letting Iwakuma go, given one condition.
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That he is free to send Taijuan Walker to the minor leagues. Or maybe Roenis Elias. Or quite possibly James Paxton. Or anybody making less than $25M per, as the situation requires. He'll use the proverbial 8-to-make-4 lever in his rotation. Dr. D approves of this.
Because: (as an ex-pitcher himself) DiPoto is very confident in his ability to separate the Hector Santiagos grain, from the Hector Noesi chaff. And you've got to admit, the Angels did all right.
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K-PAX Dept.
Where do you think James Paxton, specifically, stands with DiPoto?
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The FANS talk about trades for Jackie Bradley Jr. or Kevin Pillar and they fall over laughing at the idea of Paxton-for-Pillar. (See the comments in this thread.) Instead, they say, if you got serious and talked Taijuan Walker, then we could do bidness.
You know and I know that Paxton is as valuable as Taijuan, but … we have to admit, Paxton probably more likely to get off-loaded in DiPoto’s search for a dazzling center fielder. But say he's not: We give up, Mr. Fan Man. Taijuan and window dressing spects for Kevin Pillar and we’ll suffer with James Paxton lefty in Safeco.
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PAIR-A-DIMES Dept.
Fascinating, to have a GM who would much rather make a trade than sign a free agent. (M’s are rumored IN on Bradley and Pillar.) How do you net out a positive when you are merely trading, as opposed to simply adding? Well, there’s more swagger for ya. Dr. D’s ex-roto opponents remember how he wanted to make at least 30 trades a year ;- )
That's pretty egotistical, considering the company you're in. I like that in a pilot.
Cheers,
jemanji